Why is it that...

Weight loss isn't linear and your body fluctuates constantly, could be that you've been less hydrated, you had less food in your system at the time of weighing, etc.

It's the trend over time that's important not from one weigh in to the next. I weigh daily and record it in a trend app, my weight varies by as much as 5lbs up/down day-to-day depending on what exercise I've done, what I've eaten, bathroom visits, where I am in my cycle etc.

I wouldn't overthink it too much unless you find that you're trending 2lb loss per week over time, then just increase your cals.

Scale weight encompasses more than just muscle and fat and is subject to variations in hydration, meal timing, food, waste, and women's menstrual cycles. It also sounds as though you only weigh yourself weekly, this can often mask progress over time due to the aforementioned fluctuations. For your height/weight, whether you're eating 1500 or 1650 you should still be under maintenance so I wouldn't worry about this past week being slightly higher than you intended. Purely speculative, but if the two pound loss was real, it's plausible the lower deficit lowered your cortisol levels since your body felt less stressed and presented you with what's referred to by the community as a "whoosh".

With the relatively small amount of weight you have to lose, a less-aggressive deficit is often recommended. The average of the established "ideal weight" formulas would have a woman of your size target ~135lbs where the common recommendation for those seeking to lose <15lbs is a deficit of only 0.5 lb/week (aka 250 calories/day)

LeiLaura wrote: »

steveko89 wrote: »

Scale weight encompasses more than just muscle and fat and is subject to variations in hydration, meal timing, food, waste, and women's menstrual cycles. It also sounds as though you only weigh yourself weekly, this can often mask progress over time due to the aforementioned fluctuations. For your height/weight, whether you're eating 1500 or 1650 you should still be under maintenance so I wouldn't worry about this past week being slightly higher than you intended. Purely speculative, but if the two pound loss was real, it's plausible the lower deficit lowered your cortisol levels since your body felt less stressed and presented you with what's referred to by the community as a "whoosh".

With the relatively small amount of weight you have to lose, a less-aggressive deficit is often recommended. The average of the established "ideal weight" formulas would have a woman of your size target ~135lbs where the common recommendation for those seeking to lose <15lbs is a deficit of only 0.5 lb/week (aka 250 calories/day)

Thank you for your reply! That's interesting, I hadn't connected whooshes to the cortisol, thanks for the insight. Yes, I'm weighing weekly, at the gym. I don't have scales at home because I'm likely to become obsessive if I do. I'm aiming for 136lb, so 11 to go. The only reason I haven't upped my calories internationally to a 0.5lb loss per week is that when I tried it for a week or two, I didn't lose anything at all. I thought I must have over-estimated my maintenance calories, which I'd believed to be about 1900. I wasn't losing at 1750, though perhaps I need to aim for 0.75 lb per week as 1650 cals seems to be the sweet spot! My body fat is still high for my weight and I'm swimming and strength training, so I should be OK. I think I'll start there and monitor for a week or two, slowly increasing my calories by 100 a week until I reach goal weight and maintenance. Does that sound sensible? Shame you can't enter the calories you want to consume each week, as well as the lb loss per week option! Thanks again for your input, much appreciated.

Please don't take my speculation on cortisol as gospel, I'm just some schmuck on the internet connecting dots but it would make some sense.

That sounds like a sensible approach to get things dialed in. With your level of activity ~1900 should be about right, if not conservative (based on the TDEE calculator I trust, linked below). I am curious how accurately you're tracking your calories, are you using a food scale? That said, your own data (provided it's precise) will be the best feedback.

I'll also say you might be surprised at how effective changes in body composition can be while eating at maintenance/not losing weight (aka a "recomp"). We can get caught up over-emphasizing the number on the scale when it may or may not correlate to what we want to see in the mirror. That finally clicked for me in 2015 and I've been able to gain roughly 15 lbs of muscle while basically staying in the 170s the whole time (30M 6'1"). Don't be afraid to get strong and lift heavy

TDEE calculator link: https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&age=25&g=female&lbs=147&in=67&act=1.2&bf=&f=1
*I find that "light exercise" matches up with my 3-4 days of lifting within ~50 calories when compared to my observed TDEE. YMMV

LeiLaura wrote: »

steveko89 wrote: »

Scale weight encompasses more than just muscle and fat and is subject to variations in hydration, meal timing, food, waste, and women's menstrual cycles. It also sounds as though you only weigh yourself weekly, this can often mask progress over time due to the aforementioned fluctuations. For your height/weight, whether you're eating 1500 or 1650 you should still be under maintenance so I wouldn't worry about this past week being slightly higher than you intended. Purely speculative, but if the two pound loss was real, it's plausible the lower deficit lowered your cortisol levels since your body felt less stressed and presented you with what's referred to by the community as a "whoosh".

With the relatively small amount of weight you have to lose, a less-aggressive deficit is often recommended. The average of the established "ideal weight" formulas would have a woman of your size target ~135lbs where the common recommendation for those seeking to lose <15lbs is a deficit of only 0.5 lb/week (aka 250 calories/day)

Thank you for your reply! That's interesting, I hadn't connected whooshes to the cortisol, thanks for the insight. Yes, I'm weighing weekly, at the gym. I don't have scales at home because I'm likely to become obsessive if I do. I'm aiming for 136lb, so 11 to go. The only reason I haven't upped my calories internationally to a 0.5lb loss per week is that when I tried it for a week or two, I didn't lose anything at all. I thought I must have over-estimated my maintenance calories, which I'd believed to be about 1900. I wasn't losing at 1750, though perhaps I need to aim for 0.75 lb per week as 1650 cals seems to be the sweet spot! My body fat is still high for my weight and I'm swimming and strength training, so I should be OK. I think I'll start there and monitor for a week or two, slowly increasing my calories by 100 a week until I reach goal weight and maintenance. Does that sound sensible? Shame you can't enter the calories you want to consume each week, as well as the lb loss per week option! Thanks again for your input, much appreciated.

It is not foolish but you may still be falling into the same trap on connecting calories to scale results. In ideal situations the scale can effectively measure results over 3 weeks but 6 weeks or longer is a safer bet that you are heading in the direction you want.

I think it is better to up your calories to or near the level you need to be and then wait 3 weeks and check the results. If it does not seem to add up to your expectations wait another 3 weeks and check again.

There is going to come a time that you are going to be at goal and maintaining your weight (I have faith in you). When that happens you will see dips and upticks on the scale and you will need to wait and establish a trend before acting. You don't want to be increasing and decreasing your calories every week.