The Weird and Highly Annoying World of Scale Fluctuations

Dealing with perimenopausal symptoms for quite a long time now, I have peaks and valleys when it comes to my weight, regardless of how accurate I log my food and underestimate my exercise calories to give myself a buffer zone. I was weighing myself frequently and for 1.5 months, I was 10 pounds higher than what my logging "should" indicate. Then, literally overnight, almost 12 pounds were gone! I got to enjoy that "lighter" feeling for about a week and then bam! literally overnight, here comes 11 pounds back again and I keep it and keep it and keep it and then about 2 months later, I lose it again, literally overnight!

So, I have stopped weighing myself ... I just don't want to know right now. I still track my food and exercise but nope - can't weigh in. I don't need to deal with that mental game. For now, I just go by how my clothes fit and so far, I have not had to buy new clothes. In the veeeeerrrrryyyyy long run, I am likely losing a little weight and maybe fat but it is so hard to really tell thanks to those pesky hormones. I figure if I can keep wearing my clothes without busting buttons and seams, I am doing ok.

What I did when I was losing a large amount of weight years ago was that I only logged my lowest weight for the month, so I would log a number at the first of the month, and then if a lower number came along, I would log that and delete the previous one, and so on and so on for every month.

Weight can fluctuate up a lot, but it can only fluctuate down so far, so this floor weight was most accurate of my fat loss rate.

I watched the graph of those lowest weights, and the graph was a very clear, very consistent slope downward over time with plateaus around Christmas and my summer vacation when I would eat and drink more.

For 4 years, as long as I was consistent, the slope of the graph was a smooth curve down.

I now log every day, but I only pay attention to the slope of the lowest points on the graph, that tells me over time my actual loss rate.

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I don't know why you got multiple disagrees. I admit, it could be slow to reveal non-loss in some scenarios, but if loss is happening it's a reasonably viable approach, IMO. I personally wouldn't do it (I'm a data geek, log every AM weight in my weight trending app, but when I used to update weight on MFP during loss I'd just put in new lows here, not every blip that was in Libra.)

*Shrug*

No one can actually disagree with facts of what I did. It's a fact, it's what I did. I'm not saying anyone else has to do it, I just shared what *I* did.

The benefit of it, for me, was that it really clarified weight loss for me. I was very consistent with my routine, and the scale was all over the place, but the graph of the lowest weights was always predictable.

Every month, like clockwork, the lowest weight was always 2lbs less than the lowest weight of the previous month. For 36 months straight, except for any month with a vacation in it where there was no loss. After 36 months, it steadily slowed, but was still consistent.

This really helped demystify my plateaus as well. Because I might see my lowest weight for the month in the first few days from a whoosh, and then not see my lowest weight the next month until near the end.

Before I would be frustrated with a 6 week plateau, but with this tracking, it became clear that regardless of the timing, unless I ate more than normal, that at some point in the month, there would be a low weight 2lbs lower than the previous month.

The dates of the low weights were highly irregular, but consistently there, and consistently almost exactly 2lbs lower.

This allowed me to see that what I had always seen as plateaus was actually still the exact same steady rate of loss, just not showing up clearly in shorter timelines.

The longer timeline graph proved to me without a shadow of a doubt that when I'm consistent, so is my weight loss.

This is my story, this is my personal experience.
If anyone finds it helpful, cool, if not, feel free to ignore it.

I personally didn't have a weight loss goal at the time. I was obese and didn't want to focus on weight loss, I wanted to focus on a sustainable, long-term lifestyle, and I told myself that whatever weight I ended up at while living that healthy lifestyle is what I would accept.

So I never set up this system to try and hit a goal, I set it up to try and observe the long-term results of the lifestyle I had chosen.

That's why I was so patient. What I was doing was forever. But again, that's just what worked for me.