Scale finally moved

After upping my cals to a healthier level and not looking at the scale for about a week I finally gave in and weighed myself. Down to 175!! Yes! I had been stuck at 178 for nearly two weeks, but now, after upping my cals it not only broke the slump, but also has made me feel great. Thanks to all for support during the 'down time'!

Isn't that amazing?  I hope to have a similar report next week.  Thanks for posting because it gives me new hope.

Claire

Good for you! I am upping my cals this week, started yesterday, in the hopes of getting the scale to budge... you give me hope!

Don't you just love it when that scale moves in the right direction. I was stuck at 202 for 21 days then it move to 200. I am hoping to get under the 200 this month or sooner!!!! 

Congrats! That's amazing!

My scale must be broken, because it was going down, and then it went up by two pounds this morning...I'm going to have to have a talk with it and tell it the right way to move! LOL

Way to go!!!!

I was eyeing the scale myself and trying to figure out what was going on.  Luckily I remained hopeful because of this tool I made you can download it at http://support.computerologyconsulting.com/my downloads if you like.  What it does is measure how many litres of fat you should have lost based on calorie deficit.  I have a new improved version (sorry not on the site yet but if you bug me I'll update it) that also graphs litres of fat gained or lost based on weight from the scale.

What I noticed is that not only does the calorie counting work to a tee (the overall average of litres lost by weight / litres lost based on calorie deficit calculation are practically the same) but I also noticed an odd correlation in the weight data.

What I found is that my weight will be stable, within a pound for up to five days.  Then I'll get a weight GAIN (talk about frustrating, you describe this same phenomena above) of up to 2 lbs.

Shortly thereafter, I'll have a day or three of significant weight loss.  First back to my plateau, then it will nose dive a few pounds.

I did a lot of research in what is happening and as best I can determine it is this:

1) Your body starts burning fat based on your calorie deficit (provided you stayed on target, tee hee).  Energy is normal.

2) When your body has burned an amount of fat, it tries to keep those fat cells from shrinking by adding water to them.  You see plateau.  At this point, you start feeling really hungry, almost desparately so.  Energy peaks.

3) Your body starts to fight losing the fat.  It crams those fat cells with lots of water, your hunger starts to subside (probably because you just gave in and ate a little extra).  You notice your weight actually go up.  Its actually extra water.  Energy is normal.

4) Your body relaxes it's threshold, burns off and utilizes the water to release more fats into the bloodstream for energy.  Hunger completely subsides, you may notice you are below targets and not hungry.  Weight starts dropping in this phase.  This is accompanied by a decrease in energy.

I've checked these feelings vs. my graphs and data.  The cycle has repeated twice for me over 20 lbs of loss, and I'm about to enter it again, my weight just came back from a spike.  I guess I'll see if it repeats tomorrow.

Mary,

Thanks for your post i have been stuck now for 10 days i drove my self nuts and looked back at my food diary and i didnt go over calories... however i am working out now seven days a week and using weights twice a week, i feel more muscular and i measured my waist and yup i lost that inch!! its a really mystery why it stays stuck still not quit understanding the whole muscle weighs heavier and water sticking to our fat cells but glad i have some understanding and hopeful for the days again the scale goes down... I too have increased my calories now from 1000 to 1300 a day feel better :) who knew... thank you to everyone and keep posting... i will let you guys know when my scale goes down. :)