Does timing matter with "Calories in Calories out"
GhostFaen
Posts: 3 Member
I'm going out on Saturday. I don't plan on going overboard but I'll most likely go over my 1500 cals (TDEE is 2300) as it's lunch and then drinks out later in the evening. I plan on lowering my calories on Sunday (1250) and doing a 2/2.5 hour brisk dog walk.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a really stupid question, but does it matter that I'm "damage controlling" afterwards, rather than on the day. Sensible me doesn't think it will as if I look at the week I'll still be in deficit, but I tend to doubt myself.
I've done insanely well this month and want to keep it up. That being said as a mum of four I rarely go out, and it's a friend's BIG birthday. I've already chosen what I'm having from the menu, but will also indulge in a couple of gin and slims.
Thank you
I'm sorry if this sounds like a really stupid question, but does it matter that I'm "damage controlling" afterwards, rather than on the day. Sensible me doesn't think it will as if I look at the week I'll still be in deficit, but I tend to doubt myself.
I've done insanely well this month and want to keep it up. That being said as a mum of four I rarely go out, and it's a friend's BIG birthday. I've already chosen what I'm having from the menu, but will also indulge in a couple of gin and slims.
Thank you
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Replies
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Yes, you can "damage control" after. It's the same concept as banking in advance. I find it easier the next day since I can still feel full from the day before. However, don't go so low that it compromises nutrition or risks hunger leading to more binging.
You can probably expect a temporary weight spike from water retention.
It's a good idea to go back to maintenance for a diet break every so often anyway. If I'd been as good for a month as you say you've been, I'd be enjoying the celebration day and taking the opportunity to return to around maintenance for 2-3 days, before resuming.5 -
I'm not a doctor, so what I say is anecdotal, meaning an observation of what I've seen or lived through, not actually backed by science.
That said, no, I do not believe the timing is critical for that short of a time difference. Eating in July affects your weight in July, not January. But is it bad to eat more on Saturday and less on Sunday? Absolutely not. I have often cut back on calories consumed either in the days leading up to an event (think the week before Thanksgiving) or the week after (surprise party) and been just fine. I reckon it's possible this will cause some variations on daily weigh-ins, but since I weigh myself only once a week I've never noticed.
Taking a step back, how much over are you likely to be anyway? Maybe a couple hundred calories? As much as a thousand if you really go hog wild? Your weight is not going to magically, instantly increase, at least in terms of body fat. The food in your digestive tract will make you go up for a bit, but over the next day or two of normal bathroom use you'll be fine. A single meal, a single day, is not going to undo an entire month of discipline. So enjoy the BIG birthday, make sure you have a plan in place for getting you home after drinking (since a single drinking and driving episode CAN derail you completely), and life goes on.3 -
Your weekly calorie amount is what counts. Add 7 days of calories and divide by 7 and this is the number to look at as far as what your actual daily amount is.
So if your daily target is say 1,800 calories and you've had different amounts every day but your average is 1,800 then you're good to go.2 -
I go by an average for the week. Banking extra calories for a splurge day with extra exercise or by eating less is just fine. Just expect some weirdness on the scale from day to day and after your splurge.4
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Thank you all. It's good to hear it from other people.
I'll be walking home (Live 5 mins from our town centre) so no problem there (but I do expect to stick to only a couple of drinks so I don't feel awful the next day).
Thanks again
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What they said. Your body doesn't reset at midnight, even though MFP does.
In one sense, my losing 50+ pounds back in 2015-16 was just a making up for eating over maintenance the previous 30 years (approximately). Now, that's a dumb and unhealthful way to average one's calorie intake (obviously) . . . but over a few days, not a big deal.
I'd also underscore the idea that one day is a drop in the ocean, NBD as long as the high consumption is rare. After the temporary blip on the scale from higher digestive contents and a bit more water retention to digest/metabolize that food, you'll be back on track on the scale within a week or so.** (We may not even gain as much fat as the unusual calorie intake would predict, for a variety of science-based reasons that I won't belabor.)
If it were me, I'd personally go with that little bit of calorie banking ahead of the day, enjoy the big day, then go back to my normal healthy routine (eating a little less the next day only if less hungry, or being a little more active if feeling more energetic). For me, intentionally "making up for it" afterward can lead to compensatory cravings, set up a mini restrict/binge cycle (YMMV).
Also, if you consider the likely overage, how many days delay does it create in reaching goal weight, in theory (at 3500 calories per pound)? Often, the things we're inclined to catastrophize over when new to this turn out to be a difference of mere hours, maybe a day or two . . . and sometimes that delay is totally worth it. (If it isn't worth it in retrospect - unlikely with a birthday, IMO - that's when I reassess my plans going forward to avoid repeats. It's just food, not sin that requires expiation. Weight management can be emotional, but IMO it goes better when treated as a series of problem-solving situations, like a fun science fair project for grown-ups.)
Or, as elsewhere suggested, you could even do a few days of maintenance practice.****
** A personal case study: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope/p1
**** More details here about possible benefits, very informative: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p12 -
What they said. Your body doesn't reset at midnight, even though MFP does.
In one sense, my losing 50+ pounds back in 2015-16 was just a making up for eating over maintenance the previous 30 years (approximately). Now, that's a dumb and unhealthful way to average one's calorie intake (obviously) . . . but over a few days, not a big deal.
I'd also underscore the idea that one day is a drop in the ocean, NBD as long as the high consumption is rare. After the temporary blip on the scale from higher digestive contents and a bit more water retention to digest/metabolize that food, you'll be back on track on the scale within a week or so.** (We may not even gain as much fat as the unusual calorie intake would predict, for a variety of science-based reasons that I won't belabor.)
If it were me, I'd personally go with that little bit of calorie banking ahead of the day, enjoy the big day, then go back to my normal healthy routine (eating a little less the next day only if less hungry, or being a little more active if feeling more energetic). For me, intentionally "making up for it" afterward can lead to compensatory cravings, set up a mini restrict/binge cycle (YMMV).
Also, if you consider the likely overage, how many days delay does it create in reaching goal weight, in theory (at 3500 calories per pound)? Often, the things we're inclined to catastrophize over when new to this turn out to be a difference of mere hours, maybe a day or two . . . and sometimes that delay is totally worth it. (If it isn't worth it in retrospect - unlikely with a birthday, IMO - that's when I reassess my plans going forward to avoid repeats. It's just food, not sin that requires expiation. Weight management can be emotional, but IMO it goes better when treated as a series of problem-solving situations, like a fun science fair project for grown-ups.)
Or, as elsewhere suggested, you could even do a few days of maintenance practice.****
** A personal case study: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope/p1
**** More details here about possible benefits, very informative: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
Thank you. I'm actually interesting in those science-based reasons if you have any links?0 -
This is arguably the best resource anywhere to start:Thank you. I'm actually interesting in those science-based reasons if you have any links?
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/
They are sometimes a bit general(ised) but that is unavoidable for a site that has been created for "the public at large". Nevertheless, (almost) all you need is essentially there.
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In a simple terms it all comes down to
Weightloss is a product of a consistent calorie deficit over time.
It seems that overall most writings over complicate this2 -
No, calories are just a measurement of heat and has nothing to do with health, the body or nutrition but to answer your question, no it doesn't matter unless it manifests into a surplus of calories over time.1
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What they said. Your body doesn't reset at midnight, even though MFP does.
In one sense, my losing 50+ pounds back in 2015-16 was just a making up for eating over maintenance the previous 30 years (approximately). Now, that's a dumb and unhealthful way to average one's calorie intake (obviously) . . . but over a few days, not a big deal.
I'd also underscore the idea that one day is a drop in the ocean, NBD as long as the high consumption is rare. After the temporary blip on the scale from higher digestive contents and a bit more water retention to digest/metabolize that food, you'll be back on track on the scale within a week or so.** (We may not even gain as much fat as the unusual calorie intake would predict, for a variety of science-based reasons that I won't belabor.)
If it were me, I'd personally go with that little bit of calorie banking ahead of the day, enjoy the big day, then go back to my normal healthy routine (eating a little less the next day only if less hungry, or being a little more active if feeling more energetic). For me, intentionally "making up for it" afterward can lead to compensatory cravings, set up a mini restrict/binge cycle (YMMV).
Also, if you consider the likely overage, how many days delay does it create in reaching goal weight, in theory (at 3500 calories per pound)? Often, the things we're inclined to catastrophize over when new to this turn out to be a difference of mere hours, maybe a day or two . . . and sometimes that delay is totally worth it. (If it isn't worth it in retrospect - unlikely with a birthday, IMO - that's when I reassess my plans going forward to avoid repeats. It's just food, not sin that requires expiation. Weight management can be emotional, but IMO it goes better when treated as a series of problem-solving situations, like a fun science fair project for grown-ups.)
Or, as elsewhere suggested, you could even do a few days of maintenance practice.****
** A personal case study: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope/p1
**** More details here about possible benefits, very informative: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1
Thank you. I'm actually interesting in those science-based reasons if you have any links?
I hate in-line videos in posts, so I won't give links, but there's food for thought in quite accessible form in some of Stephanie Buttermore's videos on YouTube. Search there for these specific ones - her videos, not other people's commentaries on them.
This one runs through the issues and illustrates the math:
What Happens After a Cheat Day? (Weight Gain, Bloating, Bodyfat, Blood Sugar)
The 2nd of these next 2 includes lab tests, and could be watched as a standalone, but I'm referencing the first one because it has the setup for the 2nd one's details:
10,000 CALORIE CHALLENGE DESTROYED! | GIRL SCIENTIST VS FOOD | EPIC CHEAT DAY
10,000 Calorie Challenge Aftermath | Scientific Study Results | What Happened?
I'm not endorsing every aspect of her channel, or even endorsing every word in those videos. But there are some interesting, relevant pieces of information in those, and they're moderately entertaining.
Oversimplifying, some of the main points of the short form explanation are common sense: It's fairly standard after unusually high calorie intake to experience a "metabolic" and NEAT jump - more energy, possibly subtly expressed in things we don't notice, like slightly elevated body temperature, slightly higher resting heart rate, increased exercise performance, etc. It's also possible that there are practical limits on how much our body can metabolize/store in a given time period from a rare episode of overeating (availability of adipocytes, blah blah blah). Overload that capacity in a rare way, and perhaps more nutrients are likely to be excreted.
It seems like gradual and more moderate overeating is the more common route to weight gain. I'm not saying that's the only way, but I think it's also reasonable to believe that bodies improve at things we train them to expect. Once we train them that we're going to give them a couple of hundred excess calories most days, they'll probably tend to develop better capabilities for storing those up in preparation for future famine. That last is speculation on my part, though, mostly.
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Very interesting videos. I prefer links for convenience, so here they are for others. I'd never heard of her, but I now learn she and Jeff Nippard, who I do follow on YT, have been together for a long time.I hate in-line videos in posts, so I won't give links, but there's food for thought in quite accessible form in some of Stephanie Buttermore's videos on YouTube. Search there for these specific ones - her videos, not other people's commentaries on them.
This one runs through the issues and illustrates the math:
What Happens After a Cheat Day? (Weight Gain, Bloating, Bodyfat, Blood Sugar)
The 2nd of these next 2 includes lab tests, and could be watched as a standalone, but I'm referencing the first one because it has the setup for the 2nd one's details:
10,000 CALORIE CHALLENGE DESTROYED! | GIRL SCIENTIST VS FOOD | EPIC CHEAT DAY
10,000 Calorie Challenge Aftermath | Scientific Study Results | What Happened?
Basically, binging 6400 calories above TDEE in a day resulted in approx 0.6 pounds weight gain from fat, and binging about 8400 above resulted in 1 pound fat gain. This was explained as a temporary boost to RMR for more digestive processes, a likely boost to calories burned through higher body temperature and more subconscious NEAT, with the fat gain coming mostly from the surplus (i.e. after the increase to RMR and NEAT etc.) of input calories from fat and some carbs in the binge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6cIbIvEGJM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeDvYExqhOI 2 -
Fat gain or loss isn’t immediate so I’m wondering the timeframe they allowed to gauge how much fat was gained with these super high calorie days. It seems that what you eat or don’t eat today has an effect a week or so later.2
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »Fat gain or loss isn’t immediate so I’m wondering the timeframe they allowed to gauge how much fat was gained with these super high calorie days. It seems that what you eat or don’t eat today has an effect a week or so later.
At least one of those has a 10-day update, IIRC.0 -
Nope should not matter. What could happen is that your weight the next morning is higher due to water weight gain should you eat more salt or carbs. And if you eat later than usual then your morning weight might just be a wee bit higher because still more food to digest in your body. But no worries: those are all temporarily1
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Indeed. And a reliable result will only really be seen, after at least two weeks, preferably more, in order to be a sure as reasonably achievably that there is no random fluctuation occurring.tomcustombuilder wrote: »It seems that what you eat or don’t eat today has an effect a week or so later.1 -
EeeBartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Indeed. And a reliable result will only really be seen, after at least two weeks, preferably more, in order to be a sure as reasonably achievably that there is no random fluctuation occurring.tomcustombuilder wrote: »It seems that what you eat or don’t eat today has an effect a week or so later.
Yep. You have people go low cal for a week or 2 and the scale doesn't move then they have a few days of higher calories then the scale stars going down then it's the " I was eating too few calories to lose fat" posts. Your body is fairly slow to respond to many things so don't expect instant results.1 -
That is precisely why I usually weigh myself several times a day, and weigh everything I eat. Do I have to do that? Of course not. I just want to do it. In my opinion, and yes, that is an opinion ^_^, knowledge is better than ignorance. The scale does me no favours, it also doesn't lie to me. It just tells me what it measures, as the American AG likes to say: "without fear or favour".tomcustombuilder wrote: »EeeBartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Indeed. And a reliable result will only really be seen, after at least two weeks, preferably more, in order to be a sure as reasonably achievably that there is no random fluctuation occurring.tomcustombuilder wrote: »It seems that what you eat or don’t eat today has an effect a week or so later.
Yep. You have people go low cal for a week or 2 and the scale doesn't move then they have a few days of higher calories then the scale stars going down then it's the " I was eating too few calories to lose fat" posts. Your body is fairly slow to respond to many things so don't expect instant results.
I have recently started to make a chart that only records the difference between the highest weight and the lowest weight in the same 24 hour period. If people, especially beginning dieters would do that, they would possibly be better able to defend themselves against some of the popular myths, including the one you mentioned:
In this case, the smallest difference was 0.0 kg and the highest was 3.5 kg. I have tried to find a method to keep such fluctuations to a minimum, but so far, I have not found any, since the only method that would be relatively reliable and predictable is not eating and not drinking, and that would be just about the most stupid thing a dieter could do. As far as I know, this is as random as it gets. People should learn to deal with that from the onset.0 -
It is exactly because your mass will fluctuate a lot during any given day that it is best to weigh under as close to the same conditions you can each time you way. Some of the same things that can affect day-to-day weight can also affect intra-day weight. These include food in transit, hydration, muscle repair from exercise, glycogen levels, etc.
If you want to keep those fluctuations to a minimum, there is one time of day when conditions are as close as they'll ever be from day-to-day, and that's the second thing after you first arise. A trip to the toilet should be first for the most consistency. Even better if you get up at the same time every day. If you weigh less frequently than daily, same deal; second thing in the morning.
Weighing multiple times per day just adds more noise to the signal. It is interesting to observe how much you change during the day. If I weigh as soon as I get up and again after I drink a pint of water which I usually do after I get dressed, I would... weigh one pound more. Get a good night's sleep and weigh in the morning for the most consistent numbers. Ignore the daily numbers and look at a multiple day average.
For a more detailed explanation, see The Hacker's Diet, and specifically the section on signal and noise.
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More data is good….
To a point.1 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »More data is good….
To a point.
I always figure 3.1459265 is as close as I need to get to the true value of.... Mmmmm.... Pie.
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It is exactly because your mass will fluctuate a lot during any given day that it is best to weigh under as close to the same conditions you can each time you way. Some of the same things that can affect day-to-day weight can also affect intra-day weight. These include food in transit, hydration, muscle repair from exercise, glycogen levels, etc.
If you want to keep those fluctuations to a minimum, there is one time of day when conditions are as close as they'll ever be from day-to-day, and that's the second thing after you first arise. A trip to the toilet should be first for the most consistency. Even better if you get up at the same time every day. If you weigh less frequently than daily, same deal; second thing in the morning.
Weighing multiple times per day just adds more noise to the signal. It is interesting to observe how much you change during the day. If I weigh as soon as I get up and again after I drink a pint of water which I usually do after I get dressed, I would... weigh one pound more. Get a good night's sleep and weigh in the morning for the most consistent numbers. Ignore the daily numbers and look at a multiple day average.
For a more detailed explanation, see The Hacker's Diet, and specifically the section on signal and noise.
And then use trendweight.com (inspired by above) or weightgrapher.com or libra for android or happy scale for iphone, or your preferred alternative!2 -
It is exactly because your mass will fluctuate a lot during any given day that it is best to weigh under as close to the same conditions you can each time you way. Some of the same things that can affect day-to-day weight can also affect intra-day weight. These include food in transit, hydration, muscle repair from exercise, glycogen levels, etc.
If you want to keep those fluctuations to a minimum, there is one time of day when conditions are as close as they'll ever be from day-to-day, and that's the second thing after you first arise. A trip to the toilet should be first for the most consistency. Even better if you get up at the same time every day. If you weigh less frequently than daily, same deal; second thing in the morning.
Weighing multiple times per day just adds more noise to the signal. It is interesting to observe how much you change during the day. If I weigh as soon as I get up and again after I drink a pint of water which I usually do after I get dressed, I would... weigh one pound more. Get a good night's sleep and weigh in the morning for the most consistent numbers. Ignore the daily numbers and look at a multiple day average.
For a more detailed explanation, see The Hacker's Diet, and specifically the section on signal and noise.
And then use trendweight.com (inspired by above) or weightgrapher.com or libra for android or happy scale for iphone, or your preferred alternative!
Yep.
Crazy swings day-to-day, sometimes six pounds in a day. But over time, it smooths out:
The only thing I don't like about Trendweight is that you have to either have a link to Fitbit or go enter daily weights on a Fitbit website. There's no way to input data directly. It's just an extra step that doesn't really take that long. One nice thing about WeightGrapher is it also shows you what your weight was 28 days ago. This can provide just a little more information for women who menstruate and have regular monthly weight fluctuations. If you are trying to lose, and if the scale is up but it was up the same magnitude last month, that can be informative.
There's a group here on MFP I belong to that tracks some things on a Google sheet. One of them is what we call "True Weight." It does the same thing, and there's a graphing feature built in to see how you're doing per quarter and YTD. I keep an Excel version at home so I can look at any discreet time periods.
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The only thing I don't like about Trendweight is that you have to either have a link to Fitbit or go enter daily weights on a Fitbit website. There's no way to input data directly. It's just an extra step that doesn't really take that long. One nice thing about WeightGrapher is it also shows you what your weight was 28 days ago. This can provide just a little more information for women who menstruate and have regular monthly weight fluctuations. If you are trying to lose, and if the scale is up but it was up the same magnitude last month, that can be informative.
There's a group here on MFP I belong to that tracks some things on a Google sheet. One of them is what we call "True Weight." It does the same thing, and there's a graphing feature built in to see how you're doing per quarter and YTD. I keep an Excel version at home so I can look at any discreet time periods.
But still free for a basic fitbit account, no tracker required. Weightgrapher when I was checking it out had better input options and the 28 days were user adjustable. But I don't believe it has the historical look-back ability that trendweight provides on the web site. Libra allows changes to the number of days taken into account.
Feel free to share spreadsheets!
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The advantage of having a lot is that it makes it possible to extract information with higher reliability and finer granularity. The graph I posted does not contain such an event, and as such, it is totally unremarkable, but it does give an idea of what "weight fluctuation" truly means. It reduces the probability that fluctuation will be misinterpreted as actual body mass variation. It also increases the probability that the "lowest weight" will be found, which will make it possible to create a more reliable weight-evolution graph. While this point is not for everyone, it can also be quite helpful for people with very irregular lives. For example, it is often claimed that night work leads to obesity. Obviously, it does not. The laws of physics do not change because a person has an irregular life. What it *can* do, is lead to increased stress that then leads to detrimental changes in behaviour that can lead to increased weight. Many people think that is boring pedantic nitpicking, but the people who are in that situation do have to deal with it, and in the absence of demonstrated psychological treatments, having a graph that represents reality, may be helpful, even if it is more of a conjecture than a proven strategy: I am not aware of trials that show that is helpful, but I am also not aware of trials that show better strategies. They may exist, I have just never seen them but that said, ignorance is rarely a good provider of good information.tomcustombuilder wrote: »More data is good….
To a point.
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The only thing I don't like about Trendweight is that you have to either have a link to Fitbit or go enter daily weights on a Fitbit website. There's no way to input data directly. It's just an extra step that doesn't really take that long. One nice thing about WeightGrapher is it also shows you what your weight was 28 days ago. This can provide just a little more information for women who menstruate and have regular monthly weight fluctuations. If you are trying to lose, and if the scale is up but it was up the same magnitude last month, that can be informative.
There's a group here on MFP I belong to that tracks some things on a Google sheet. One of them is what we call "True Weight." It does the same thing, and there's a graphing feature built in to see how you're doing per quarter and YTD. I keep an Excel version at home so I can look at any discreet time periods.
But still free for a basic fitbit account, no tracker required. Weightgrapher when I was checking it out had better input options and the 28 days were user adjustable. But I don't believe it has the historical look-back ability that trendweight provides on the web site. Libra allows changes to the number of days taken into account.
Feel free to share spreadsheets!
Trendweight has been sort of "broken" for a while. There is a setting for how many days to look back for "a month," but it doesn't do anything. Likewise, if you change your profile for a new goal weight, it shows up on the profile, but not on the graph. I have tried to contact the author, but I haven't heard back. I think it just runs on auto-pilot. Still, even with the flaws, I really like the graphical output. Nice tool.
I can probably pull off all of my data and share the spreadsheet; not sure how to do that on MFP. What I can maybe do is tell you the syntax. It's also wonky because you have to enter data left to right rather than right to left. This is opposite how most time-series operate. Yesterday is farther to the right of the spreadsheet as today.
You enter your current weight in a cell. In this example today's weight is in the cell QS5. The cell below that (QS6) has the following syntax:
=IF(ISBLANK(QS5),"",IF(QT6="",QS5,ROUND(QT6+((QS5-QT6)/$B$1),1)))
It looks to the cell QT6 and QT5 to see if there was an entry yesterday. If not, the cell displays today's weight. If not, it rounds a previously rounded number; it takes about six days to get a good trend number.
The cell B1 is an absolute reference rather than a relative reference. That cell contains the "Scale Factor" I have the scale factor set to 7.1.
You have to populate all the dates in a backward manner, but I just do it once per year. Then you can copy and paste the calculation across all the cells below it. My spreadsheet has data going back to January 2018. When I am away from the scale, like on a multi-day or multi-week river trip, I just take my weight before I leave and after I get back and add a linear interpolation to populate those cells. It makes the line look smoother than it actually is, but it is at least data to maintain the trend.
Does that make sense?
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Sure, a not-so-insignificant part of the population does not have that luxury: the work in shifts or have even more irregular lives, and they are extremely vulnerable to the popular claim that lack of sleep or an irregular schedule leads to weight gain. In a way, one can claim it does, but it does so indirectly, by causing behavioural problems the person is not necessarily aware of.If you want to keep those fluctuations to a minimum, there is one time of day when conditions are as close as they'll ever be from day-to-day, and that's the second thing after you first arise. A trip to the toilet should be first for the most consistency. Even better if you get up at the same time every day. If you weigh less frequently than daily, same deal; second thing in the morning.
As for noise, no, it helps to eliminate noise and it helps to protect against noise create by sampling error. That is the very reason we have, for example, ambulatory blood pressure measuring devices. It is why the medical association has elaborate guidelines for measuring blood pressure in the office. They are often not followed due to practical limitations, but they are extremely helpful and clinical trials taken them very seriously, for that reason.
That strategy will limit your available data, limit the granularity of your curve, and it will not protect you against scale problems. Many people have scales of very poor quality: if you stand on a scale and you weigh a certain amount, go to the washroom for some waste expulsion, come back only to see your scale shows a higher weight, you have a problem. Not many people try that, but it is a common-enough problem. That is not much of a problem if we are talking about 100 g, but it we are talking about 1 kg or more and a person who only weighs herself/himself occasionally, it can lead to problems.Weighing multiple times per day just adds more noise to the signal. It is interesting to observe how much you change during the day. If I weigh as soon as I get up and again after I drink a pint of water which I usually do after I get dressed, I would... weigh one pound more. Get a good night's sleep and weigh in the morning for the most consistent numbers. Ignore the daily numbers and look at a multiple day average.
If you prefer ignorance, that is fine, it is your choice, but ignorance has never shown to be a very good way to increase or improve knowledge. I see it as an illustration of Richard Dawkins' example of the patient who wants her/his doctor to lie to her/him. It is a choice. I prefer reality, but that is just me.
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@BartBVanBockstaele
If your scale is broken, you'll have bad data. I am a recovering scientist. I understand data believe it or not. We have a term: GIGO. It stands for garbage in - garbage out. If you have bad data, you cannot make meaningful inference.
Assuming your scale works, weighing at different times of the day can give you insight into how much your weight changes during the day, but it does not provide any additional information about your weight trend over time. It just adds noise to already noisy data. If you can eliminate as many variables as possible, your data will be higher quality.
Irrespective of what time you work, you do get out of bed at some point when you're done sleeping. That's the time to get on the scale and collect your data.
But you do you. Just don't try to push off your huckserism on others.7 -
I'm going out on Saturday. I don't plan on going overboard but I'll most likely go over my 1500 cals (TDEE is 2300) as it's lunch and then drinks out later in the evening. I plan on lowering my calories on Sunday (1250) and doing a 2/2.5 hour brisk dog walk.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a really stupid question, but does it matter that I'm "damage controlling" afterwards, rather than on the day. Sensible me doesn't think it will as if I look at the week I'll still be in deficit, but I tend to doubt myself.
I've done insanely well this month and want to keep it up. That being said as a mum of four I rarely go out, and it's a friend's BIG birthday. I've already chosen what I'm having from the menu, but will also indulge in a couple of gin and slims.
Thank you
@GhostFaen
Mea culpa.
Once again there has been a thread hijack here. My sincere apologies for taking part in it. I will stick to your topic from here on out. All this talk about when to weigh or how often doesn't help you. I humbly request that other MFP members do likewise.
Your question was already answered; yes, you can relax and not worry about one day going a little or even a LOT over your goal. You can let it average out over a week or so and still maintain your deficit and be successful in your goals.
Once again, I'm sorry I was part of hijacking your thread. It's not appropriate.
4 -
Naw, 3.141592653589793238 but who’s counting.tomcustombuilder wrote: »More data is good….
To a point.
I always figure 3.1459265 is as close as I need to get to the true value of.... Mmmmm.... Pie.
1
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