Weekly Weight Loss

It's not consistent. I feel like if I'm taking care of the calories and exercise, I may lose a tiny .3 lb one week, followed by a bigger drop the next week. The trend going downward is all that is important to me.

frksfrau wrote: »

Hi all,

I am curious about setting my goal to lose a certain amount of pounds each week. Do you all find that you lose at the set rate? Or, do you lose that set amount as an average over a certain amount of weeks? I know everyone is different, but I am just curious.

Thanks,
E

One week I might lose only .4pounds, the next 1.8, or like this week 5lbs. It all varies over time based on how closely to my calorie goal I ate, hormones, water retention because sodium/exercise/gd only knows/etc. For MFPs calulations of calorie goals you'll need to set a certain amount of pounds to lose each week, but you'll probably see fluxuations week to week.

MFP is giving you a statistical estimate based on sound scientific research. It will be close for most people, a bit off (high or low) for some, and perhaps rather far off for a very, very few. That's the nature of statistical estimates.

A good plan is to set up your MFP profile with honest values, and a sensibly moderate weight loss rate target, and stick with the calorie goal it gives you for 4-6 weeks (a full menstrual cycle at minimum for premenopausal women). At that point, you can look at your average weight loss rate, and adjust intake as needed. (If the first couple of weeks look very atypical, ignore those and use the later weeks; sometimes whacky water weight fluctuations happen in the first couple of weeks).

Other people's experiences aren't necessarily indicative of what will happen for you, because of the way the statistics inherently work. I lose faster than MFP expects, by a fair bit. Others lose slower. A lot of people are pretty darned close. Until you run the experiment, you don't know which of those might apply to you.

Keep in mind that MFP's estimate expects you to log intentional exercise when you do some, and eat back those calories, too. People who are nervous that the exercise calories may be overestimated sometime start by eating back some fraction, like 50%, until they get through that first 4-6 week experimental phase. I estimated mine carefully, ate pretty much all of them back, and lost fine.

Best wishes!

frksfrau wrote: »

Hi! Thank you for your reply. That is kind of what I am hoping to do. I do get way too optimistic when I see the message after closing out my daily diary and I stayed within my caloric intake. I need to figure out if there is a way to silence that little guy.

E

You're welcome, and I would recommend a weight tracking app like Libra or Happy Scale if you'd like an idea of knowing where you're going with your weight. I don't know how well it works if you only weigh weekly, I know it's really nice for those of us who weigh daily.