Ahhh it's a rollercoaster!

A

almostthere

New member
Well I'm making good progress but I just have some questions. I would sometimes lose .5 of a pound (I use a digital scale) a day and sometimes nothing a day. But what is most disheartening is that on my days off I gain at LEAST .5 back all in one day! I work out 3 days straight usually and sometimes I take the 4th day off simply because my calfs are so sore I can't workout that day even if I wanted to. On my day off, I'll admit that I don't follow my diet very strictly as I think I've earned myself a little reward. But I don't go crazy by any means with food and I still try to stay active. For example, this last day off throughout the whole day I ate 1 cup of brown rice and 1 cup of salmon, 1 yoplait yogurt light (100 calories), and a banana for breakfast. Since that "breakfast" was at 11 I kind of considered a brunch. At about 2 pm I had another yoplait yogurt and headed out to town to do some errands. I bought a vietnamese submarine sandwich (about 7 inch sub, italian bread with maybe 4 slices of ham and the rest is veggies and very light what seemed to be mayo) and had another yoplait yogurt for dinner. That was all the food I consumed all day and I gained a full pound the day after! This is very disheartening considering I work my butt off to lose that 1 pound and to gain it back while still, in my mind, eating relatively healthy and stayng active. I told myself it might be water weight but the next day when I resume my workouts, that 1 pound doesn't shed off, it becomes back to square one :( Does anyone have any answers for me please? Thanks in advance.
 
I understand your frustration! If you look at my journal you'll see a rather constant up and down going on.

What really helped me get a handle on tracking my progress was using the tools provided at The Hackers Diet (). The section under Signal and Noise talking about Dexters Diet really helped me. I hope it can help you too.
 
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"By relying solely on daily weights from his scale, Dexter endured two months of unnecessary suffering. His diet worked, as was inevitable from a simple calculation based on the rubber bag, but the day to day weight readings obscured his steady progress. An eat watch would have assured Dexter he was on the right course and making steady progress toward the goal. The scale seems, by comparison, a modern instrument of psychological torture, an engine of confusion and despair. Can it be made to tell the truth?"

Ah, exactly describes my situation lol. Me and Dexter are probably long lost twins in that story... thanks a lot for your help! Rep +! :) I'm gonna read a bit more about that rubber bag now haha
 
Dont give up...stick with this forum and youll eventually see this happens to everyone....youll also quickly catch on that youre probably not eating enough (yeah I said NOT eating enough) and that you shouldnt worry about the number on the scale but more about the way your clothes are fitting :)
Ask Steve for his advice...he's pretty good with this sort of stuff, but those are the tips I've learned from him...he can help you understand them better.

BUT like I said DONT GIVE UP!!!
 
Thanks for the support! No I won't give up, I know in the back of my mind that what the scale is mostly showing is probably water weight but it was just heartbreaking seeing a weeks worth of work go away in a day according to that scale. After reading the link llamabean gave me though I feel more assured now :)
 
I'm glad it helped. The Hackers Diet really set me off on a good footing - not really giving guidelines on what to eat, but just good weight loss guidelines. It pretty much just teaches good calories in vs. calories out, and teaches us how to better monitor our progress.

I think the part that surprised me is that our actual fat loss vs. the amount of food we eat in a day is so small. Helps explain why the scale changes so huge.
 
That was definitely an insightful read! So what the answer I'm getting at with my question is that the extra 1 pound I gained was actually water due to the extra saltier foods I ate during my day "off" correct? I've read the rubber bag theory and it definitely sounded like I followed that plan on my day "off" I've told myself its only water weight but its so disheartening to see that extra pound of water/waste/etcetc or simply isn't "fat", doesn't shed immediately off the next day after my workout day :(
 
Yah - short term weight gain is almost always water and the actual weight of the extra food you ate. If you consider that 1 pound of fat is 3500 calories above your maintenance, you'd have to have a heck of an "off" day to actually gain a pound - upwards of 4500-5500 calories.

Don't get me wrong, I've totally consumed 5500 calories in a day before, I've just never done it accidentally or unaware. :)

If you have access to a program like Excel, it may help to use moving averages to track your weight, which will smooth out the daily jumps and dives.
 
Haha yah, I watch my "off" days pretty strictly as well. During that off day I mentioned in my first post I'm pretty sure I actually consumed less calories than my actual diet days so I was just like what in the world is going on?! lol! But thanks for your help, the program I use is which I recommend to other people if you guys don't already know about it. :)
 
Almost - you're doing great! You should start a journal so we can share in your progress.

Fitday is really good - I use it myself...or...rather, I use it when I've been good. I have a terrible habit of not entering the bad days :-X

Dietfacts.com has an awesome feature where you can look up most prepackaged or restaurant foods and just import them directly to fitday. No more having to scout out and enter nutritional information!
 
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