Does Anyone Else Experience This?

I've been noticing a pattern with my weight loss. It seems my weight plummets for a few days, anywhere from 2-5 days. It then seems like it hits some sort of wall, because it then bounces back up a few pounds, or else raises steadily for about 3 days or so. It then either plummets again right through that "wall," or glides slowly past it then plummets again. I know I'm using descriptive explanations, but it helps me see what's going on.

Just to show what's going on, here are my weight losses to this point. Notice especially how it encounters a "wall" every 5 pounds or so, like 245, 240, 235, etc, except also at 242.

• 10/21/2007: 253.2
• 10/22/2007: 251.4
• 10/23/2007: 250.2
• 10/24/2007: 250
• 10/25/2007: 248
• 10/26/2007: 248.6
• 10/27/2007: 247.7
• 10/28/2007: 247.6
• 10/29/2007: 247.8
• 10/30/2007: 245
• 10/31/2007: 247.6
• 11/1/2007: 246.4
• 11/2/2007: 242
• 11/3/2007: 244.2
• 11/4/2007: 244.2
• 11/5/2007: 244.6
• 11/6/2007: 244.8
• 11/7/2007: 246.2
• 11/8/2007: 246.2
• 11/9/2007: 245.8
• 11/10/2007: 244.8
• 11/11/2007: 243.8
• 11/12/2007: 242.4
• 11/13/2007: 240
• 11/14/2007: 242
• 11/15/2007: 240.6
• 11/16/2007: 240
• 11/17/2007: 240.4
• 11/18/2007: 238.8
• 11/19/2007: 238
• 11/20/2007: 236.4
• 11/21/2007: 235
• 11/22/2007: 234.6
• 11/23/2007: 235.4
• 11/24/2007: 236.6
• 11/25/2007: 237.2
• 11/26/2007: 236.2

Just a pattern I'm noticing that drives me nuts.  I think I'm doing so great for a few days, then it goes back upwards erasing my progress for the previous 3-4 days.

Does anyone notice the patterns they go through if any, or see a similarity to this?

It may be less frustrating to weigh less often. I only weigh once a week, so I don't worry about fluctuations throughout the day. You went from 253 to 236 in a little over a month, that's great!

I am glad to see someone else is experiencing this pattern!  It's so frustrating!!!!!   So I started ignoring it when it jumps up that one pound and only focus on the positive that I hit the pound below it.  It's kinda like putting your head in the sand but it works for me.

That's because you are a biological organism, not a machine.  Changes like growth, weight loss, etc. are governed by complex physiological systems that go at their own pace, and that progress cannot be accurately measured by a scale, which is the roughest possible measure of what's going on with your body.

 

If your weight went down on a perfectly straight diagonal downward line toward your goal weight, now THAT would be abnormal.  The fact that the line dips, then flatlines, then occasionally blips up again is totally, 100% NORMAL, and should be expected.  If this normal fluctuation is disturbing to you, then maybe you should weigh less often.

I gained 2 lbs after Thanksgiving, and it didn't bother me a bit - I expected it, and of course it's come off now, with another pound off to boot.  As I get closer to my goal weight, I fully expect my progress to slow and sometimes plateau - also normal.

Another thing you can expect  -  when you get to your goal weight and start to try and maintain, you may even find that the pounds keep coming off for a little while - and that can be disconcerting, but it does take a while to figure out exactly what your maintenance intake should be.

Anyway, it seems you're doing fine.  It's a long downhill ride with an occasional bump up.  Enjoy the ride and don't sweat it, because your momentum is still downward, even though you may occasionally slow.

Wow, that is some fantastic progress! Yes, I hit "walls" too, but mine last much longer.

Yep, my weight fluctuates like crazy. I started at 319lbs, I'm down to 268lbs. Some weeks I GAIN 3 or 4lbs and then I'm 6lbs lighter the week after. I don't look at my daily or weekly averages anymore, I look at the month as a whole and every month since I started in June I have been less than the month before and that's all that matters!

Yes! I'm experiencing exactly the same!  Last Wednesday I was 126.6, today I am back at 130. :(  I went over my calorie limit a bit at the weekend,  but nowhere near enough to gain 4lbs...it's weird.

Yes, and I've heard other's say the same.  One friend can show, on her weight chart, twin peaks each month, coinciding with ovulation and menstration. that blue line on your chart is going to be jagged, but if you look at the green line, it smooth all that out with a running total. Your weight is going to fluctuate day to day, so don't worry about it.

What's important is that downward trend over time.  Watch the green line on your weight chart!

edited to add:  You've had a 17 pound loss over only 2 months!  That's fantastic!

Yeah, I've been thinking of weighing once or twice per week, but then I'm afraid that if the difference wouldn't be that great, I'd be obsessed with doing it daily again. It does seem to average out to about 3.5 pounds per week so far. 235.2 this morning, so I'm losing those few I put on last week.

I know there are fluctuations, I was just a little amused at the pattern...like it hits a certain weight, can't get through that wall right away, so goes up a few pounds and tries again. Right now I'm trying to get through that 235 wall. But hey, i've not been below 235 since...well, the beginning of last year, so it's all right.

dianejblank, well I don't care about the fluctuations throughout the day. i always weigh myself first thing in the morning after going to the bathroom. Well ok I admit I occasionally do it at night to see if I'm on track for the next day...I notice I lose about 2-3 pounds from the night's weight to the next morning's weight. That's only when the scale's not being nice to me though that I do that, lol.

chattynoel, good idea. It's a bit depressing though to see it obliterate the last several days of progress in one weigh-in.

udokier, yeah I know; again the pattern was mostly amusing to observe once I looked at all the data. Sure it's frustrating when it goes up but I've seen this pattern 3-4 times now. I just didn't know if was normal to gain upwards of 2-3 pounds for several days, so it couldn't really be blamed for sodium or anything like that...so it's always been weird to me.

denise07, lol thanks. Good luck with your own progress. It's too bad that last weigh-in caught a lot of us on an up day.

j3nn_dot_net, God I think that occasional gain though of that much would drive me insane.

clairelaine, I wish I could see the trend line as that sort of graphical representation of progress would probably comfort me. I'm blind though so can't see images, but at least I can read the trend numbers in that table with my screen reader. One day maybe I'll make a tactile representation of both lines, lol.

By the way, thanks a lot. It's been, wel, 38 days now. :D I tried dieting at the end of last year, lost 15 pounds in 2-3 months and slacked off for some reason. I then gained it all back and 30 pounds more by September. I want to take a whole lot more off this time and keep it off. I think I'm already doing better than I did last time.

YOU ARE DOING GREAT! But stop weighing yourself daily!!!! The scale is evil....the tape measure is your friend!!!!!

Original Post by carie87:

YOU ARE DOING GREAT! But stop weighing yourself daily!!!! The scale is evil....the tape measure is your friend!!!!!

Don't have a braille tape measure. :( I'll have to find one and buy it. Thanks though.

wow. is cc ok with the screen reader?  i cant imagine trying to manuver on the internet without being able to see. 

great job on your lifestyle change!

(hmm maybe we can figure out how to print a version of the graph that is raised enough so you can have a tactile version.....)

Yeah it is ok. The only problem was the image buttons, but I figured out how to get around that. You figure out how to adapt to just about any situation when you're blind.

I tend to weigh once a day out of curiosity.  I just make it a point to understand that weight flucuates and not to worry if I'm a pound or 2 heavier than the day before.  When losing weight I've noticed that my weight stays about he same all week until the day I am suspossed to weight less for example I'm losing 2 lbs per week.  Monday I will weigh 178  and I'll be about that until next Monday and suddenly it will drop to 176.  It's funny it's like my body is like "oh I'd better make that schedule on time"

it has a lot to do with water weight. It kinda depends on how much salt you've consumed in the day. Salt causing your body to retain water. Also, hormones play another role on wieght. Someone else said to weigh yourself less often, and thats a great idea. Weight is suppose to flautuate a couple a pounds all the time.

I don't have the lack of sight problem, but I do have the lack of tape measure problem and I think my solution might help. I got a flat, thin belt and just put tape on where the end met the other side and called that my "starting point." All I did was for chest, waist, and hips because I can easily tell which is which since my hips will always be the biggest and my waist will always be the smallest. I'm sure scotch tape vs. boxing tape vs painter's tape would give a nice tactile difference, though, if necessary.

Doing this, I can tell I've lost somewhere near an inch off my chest and about half an inch on the other two. I can't really get more precise than that anyway since I can never tell if I'm pulling the belt as much as I was the first time I measured.

Hope that helps!

And yes, my weight has done that too so far, but I think part of it is my personal eating habits since I tend to be more motivated at random times during the month.

Cheers,

Tracy