Weekly Weigh In

[Move.It.Move.It]

I am weighing myself every Monday morning and I am going to log my results each weigh for accountability and support. Please feel free to join in.

Start weigh                   125.5 kg 14/12/2015

Now                              124.2 kg 11/01/2015

Loss this week             200g

Loss to date                 1.3kg

"Slow and steady wins the race"

[Dominique]

@Baltoscott: I guess so . Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to take advantage of the excess calories, as I wasn’t able to lift weights during that time. Maybe it was more like a diet break.

@tamado: I’m using my Fitbit Aria scale. I know some people are critical of the Aria in particular (just check the Aria help forum) and of BIA scales in general (with regards to the accuracy/reliability of BF% readings), but I would say it has worked pretty well for me (talking based on 4.5 years of nearly daily use). The readings I’m getting are in line with the visual indications found here: for instance, I’m somewhere between the 10-12% and the 15% guys at my current level of 14%, and I was somewhere between the 15% and the 20% guys at the beginning of the year, when I was at 18-19%. Even if the readings are not accurate in absolute terms, they certainly seem to be moving in the expected direction (whether up or down) in a consistent manner. For instance, the scale definitely picked up the impact of my temporary exposure to the SAD (Standard American Diet) . What I like about using the Aria is that: 1) I get a daily BF% reading with no effort, as a by-product of weighing myself (which I would do anyway), 2) the readings get automatically uploaded to my Fitbit account (again, no effort), 3) I can use TrendWeight to see where I’m going. I’ll also mention that I have two other smart scales (from Withings, now part of Nokia) that give very similar results for BF%. One sees me about 0.5% leaner and the other one 1.0-1.5% leaner. I still stick to the Aria as the main scale for my historical data (TrendWeight), since it’s the one I’ve been using the longest.

I haven’t been able to find a place where I could get a DEXA scan where I live. It seems over here they only use these scanners for measuring bone density (which is what they were designed for, according to my understanding). Maybe I’ll try to get one done during my next trip to the US, but that will be in one year.

[SQUEAKY]

I'm new to this topic and I'm thinking today is as good as any to get started.  Might even keep me in check during the Holiday season.

Friday will be my weigh-in day.

November 17, 2017 SW 152

[Baltoscott]

---

@Dominique wrote:

... For instance, the scale definitely picked up the impact of my temporary exposure to the SAD (Standard American Diet) . ....

---

@Dominique.  SAD is such a good description of what we often eat without thinking in the US.  It makes me smile.  Way too many sides of fries in my past life!  And plenty of poor choices at all you can eat buffets.  (Speaking of all you can eat, I wonder how much cumulative weight the 22,000 purchasers of this $100 "deal" gained over eight weeks.  SAD, indeed!  ).   

SADly, I'm not sure it is that much better in other "first world" countries, or any environment where a large portion of the population dines out, or eats meals prepared by someone else (take out, frozen, etc) instead of making their own meals from whole ingredients.  So what is the equivalent in your neck of the woods?  Maybe WEEE -- (Western European Eating Experience)?  

[WavyDavey]

---

@WavyDavey wrote:

"Starting" weight 199lbs.

Jan. 2017-Sept 2017---> 215lbs ( +16 pounds)

Since 10/2017---> 218lbs (+3 pounds)

---

11/17/2017 --> 213.5 (-4.5 pounds)

Missed a few meals last week, and weight loss was quicker than expected (and unwanted).  And current weight was after eating a pizza. Strength training and HIIT is like adding gasoline to fire.

I was considering getting a TrendWeight to track longer trends as suggested above. Or maybe take @Daves_Not_Here chart, and just turn it on its side? 😉

[Daves_Not_Here]

Getting into holiday eating season -- I'm curious if I can sustain consistent deficits throughout. 

[Baltoscott]

Jan. 6, 2017:       202.3 lbs (starting weight)

                                              Ave. daily calorie consumption for week preceding weigh-in.

• Sun, 9.17:   159.6 lbs    2499 
• Sun, 9.24:   159.4 lbs    2819
• Sun, 10.1:   159.1 lbs    2788
• Sun, 10.8:   159.4 lbs    2825
• Sun, 10.15: 159.3 lbs    2532
• Sun, 10.22: 159.3 lbs    2987
• Sun, 10.29: 159.1 lbs    2905
• Sun, 11.5:   159.7 lbs    2941
• Sun, 11.12: 160.1 lbs    3035
• Sun, 11.19: 160.0 lbs    2778

- .1 lbs since 11.12 

Goal Range: 160-170 lbs

Still trying to gain weight as part of body recomp plan, but this week I lost a little bit after gaining about 1/2 a pound each of the prior two weeks.  My average calorie consumption went down a few hundred calories as compared to the prior three weeks, so that is part of the answer.  The interesting thing is that I didn't cut 200 calories/day.  Instead, I just wound up eating around 2200 calories one day and 2400 calories another day instead of the 3000 - 3300 calories or so I need to hit to gain weight.  Turns out that's too low for 2 days for me to "make it up" on the other 5.  I think it is sort of the reverse of a pattern that contributed to my weight gain in 2016 (and surely other periods of my life).  Last year I was pretty good because of routine in eating well during the week, but unplanned and irregular meals plus drinking over weekends seemed to be a large part of adding 15 unwanted pounds in 2016.

[tamado]

@Baltoscott, I am also curious to hear from @Dominique of what a typical Fin diet looks like and what his typical diet looks like.

Here's an interesting this for you health nuts.  I haven't had a drink in two weeks (16 days).  I usually had a few ounces every evening (and it kept creeping up so I decided to take a break from drinking for a while just to reset things a bit).  Check out the graph of my resting heart rate since I quit drinking!  November 3rd was the last time I had one.

[Jotex]

Way to go, @tamado! That's remarkable!! 

I've been on vacation for @10 days, eating healthy food (no junk) but not keto. What a pleasant surprise that I am more or less the same! 😅 Hope to get those numbers heading south again now that I'm back.

[Dominique]

@Daves_Not_Here: 50 lbs in 5 months = 10 lbs / month = 2.5 lbs / week is a lot. I think you should take advantage of the holiday season to take a maintenance phase, or even regain a little bit, to let your body recover and adjust to its new, lower weight.

[Daves_Not_Here]

@tamado - enough of the crazy talk about reducing alcohol consumption.

Seriously, that's a great improvement and outcome!   I'm curious what the mechanism for lower heart rate is.  My guess is that alcohol dehydrates you.  When you stop drinking, your hydration increases leading to higher blood volume which means higher total dissolved oxygen volume?  If your oxygen requirements remain fixed, then you need a lower heart rate to deliver the necessary oxygen?  

[Daves_Not_Here]

---

@Dominique wrote:

@Daves_Not_Here: 50 lbs in 5 months = 10 lbs / month = 2.5 lbs / week is a lot. I think you should take advantage of the holiday season to take a maintenance phase, or even regain a little bit, to let your body recover and adjust to its new, lower weight.

---

@Dominique -- your encouraging words are hugely motivational to me.  I will therefore take your recommendation under consideration.  Starting January 2, 2019. 🙂

Actually, as a contrarian besserwisser, I've been looking at this whole weight change business differently than most.  A more self-aware person might spare the forum his self-indulgent half-baked personal musings, but I shall expound thusly:  hitting my target weight is an indirect benefit of my actual goal.  Which is to integrate life-enhancing behaviors into my lifestyle as habits.

My opinion is that doing so is most reliably done through repetition.  For example, when I first came to this forum, you convinced me of the value of getting more regular exercise.  Only problem is, I classify exercise for its own sake in the same category as testicular trauma.  But, I figured if I could repeat it long enough to turn it into a habit, it would be less excruciating.  So, looking at my Fitbit exercise log, the last day I missed a consecutive daily workout was Sep. 28, and sure enough, it's gotten less worse.  

So, my attitude towards my weight change is to continue to repeat my daily actions to further entrench desirable habits.  I'm viewing my behaviors not as a temporary regimen that I might take a break from, but rather a lifestyle I'm sustaining.  I would consider entering a maintenance phase, or regaining a little weight as a break in the repetition I'm trying to maintain, and which is getting easier every day.

Finally, and this is the obnoxious part, I'm testing for the existence of weight-loss plateaus.  I'm somewhat of a physics bigot, and my attitude towards weight-loss plateaus is the same as towards reports of functioning perpetual motion machines, which is I'll believe it when I see it.  By weight-loss plateaus, I'm talking about the phenomenon where someone maintains a calorie deficit but enters a peculiar region in the space-time continuum where the laws of nature are suspended and they are apparently able to access energy from an alternate dimension.  This, I gotta experience for myself!

[WavyDavey]

@Daves_Not_Here, I don't think that maintaining a calorie deficit was meant to be a perpetual weight loss scenario, just as there's no perpetual motion machine. There is a target goal we set or our metabolism sets, and after that it's a game of diminishing returns (to appeal to your science mind).

I'm surprised you're resistant to this idea, as everything in life is a diminishing return, and the internet is full of stories of plateaus in almost every endeavor. To ignore this is to invite disappointment when the road of weight loss gets steeper and steeper. No progress lasts forever, and I think it's good to have a target weight goal and switch to maintenance after that point.

Even in strength training, I run into plateaus all the time. There are various ways of shaking the box that will kick-start the getting stronger business. But there are only so many variables to manipulate, and at some point you reach what's called your "genetic potential". That's the point where any further progress is going to be minimal at best. I would suggest that genetic potential can apply to weight management also.

The body seeks to maintain homeostasis. We can tilt that in a weight loss favor, but the body will always adjust.  and at some point the further adjustment that would drive weight loss must becomes too costly from an effort and metabolic view.

Dave, maybe you see exercise as a (potentially) necessary evil? But I believe there is a form of exercise out there for everyone. It's just a matter of finding what engages your mind, heart and body. For one person, that might mean lifting with weights. For another, it might mean walking in place while watching walking tours on youtube. I love weights, but walking in place doesn't sound fun to me. There's something out there for everyone, we just have to keep looking.

[almost_where]

CW - 295 -0    10 WEEK AVERAGE + 2.3 LBS (+23)  USW - 363 3/9/16

PW - 295 -5

PW - 300 -1

PW - 301 +14

PW - 287 -4

PW - 291 +3

PW - 288 +3

PW - 285 +5

PW - 280 +4

PW - 276 +4

[almost_where]

CW - 295 -0    10 WEEK AVERAGE + 2.3 LBS (+23)  USW - 363 3/9/16

PW - 295 -5

PW - 300 -1

PW - 301 +14

PW - 287 -4

PW - 291 +3

PW - 288 +3

PW - 285 +5

PW - 280 +4

PW - 276 +4

[Daves_Not_Here]

@WavyDavey -- I think you and I agree almost entirely on the prevalence of plateaus, the reasons for them, and the tendency to achieve diminishing returns.   I am only skeptical about 2 elements of conventional wisdom surrounding plateaus - (1) their inevitability, and (2) the mystery as to why they occur.  My opinion is they are not inevitable and when they do occur, they are due entirely to lack of a caloric deficit, driven primarily by eating behavior.

I could be wrong and I don't want to try to convince anyone to my point of view.  I'm just curious to test my hypothesis and find out, if I continue doing what I'm doing, will I continue to proceed towards my target weight without hitting a plateau on the way.  I'm curious if my weight will continue to track with my calorie deficit as it has done so far.

[Dschneier]

---

@Daves_Not_Here wrote:

---

@Dominique wrote:

@Daves_Not_Here: 50 lbs in 5 months = 10 lbs / month = 2.5 lbs / week is a lot. I think you should take advantage of the holiday season to take a maintenance phase, or even regain a little bit, to let your body recover and adjust to its new, lower weight.

---

@Dominique -- your encouraging words are hugely motivational to me.  I will therefore take your recommendation under consideration.  Starting January 2, 2019. 🙂

Actually, as a contrarian besserwisser, I've been looking at this whole weight change business differently than most.  A more self-aware person might spare the forum his self-indulgent half-baked personal musings, but I shall expound thusly:  hitting my target weight is an indirect benefit of my actual goal.  Which is to integrate life-enhancing behaviors into my lifestyle as habits.

My opinion is that doing so is most reliably done through repetition.  For example, when I first came to this forum, you convinced me of the value of getting more regular exercise.  Only problem is, I classify exercise for its own sake in the same category as testicular trauma.  But, I figured if I could repeat it long enough to turn it into a habit, it would be less excruciating.  So, looking at my Fitbit exercise log, the last day I missed a consecutive daily workout was Sep. 28, and sure enough, it's gotten less worse.  

So, my attitude towards my weight change is to continue to repeat my daily actions to further entrench desirable habits.  I'm viewing my behaviors not as a temporary regimen that I might take a break from, but rather a lifestyle I'm sustaining.  I would consider entering a maintenance phase, or regaining a little weight as a break in the repetition I'm trying to maintain, and which is getting easier every day.

Finally, and this is the obnoxious part, I'm testing for the existence of weight-loss plateaus.  I'm somewhat of a physics bigot, and my attitude towards weight-loss plateaus is the same as towards reports of functioning perpetual motion machines, which is I'll believe it when I see it.  By weight-loss plateaus, I'm talking about the phenomenon where someone maintains a calorie deficit but enters a peculiar region in the space-time continuum where the laws of nature are suspended and they are apparently able to access energy from an alternate dimension.  This, I gotta experience for myself!

---

I'm with you regarding the myth of plateaus. Anytime I stopped losing weight it was because I was eating more than I was willing to admit or exercising less. If bodies were smart enough to stop burning stored fat when the supplies run low we'd also have to explain why it doesn't stop storing fat when there was too much (ever hear an overweight person comment how they've stopped gaining weight). 

We love excuses. 

[WavyDavey]

---

@Daves_Not_Here wrote:

@WavyDavey -- I think you and I agree almost entirely on the prevalence of plateaus, the reasons for them, and the tendency to achieve diminishing returns.   I am only skeptical about 2 elements of conventional wisdom surrounding plateaus - (1) their inevitability, and (2) the mystery as to why they occur.  My opinion is they are not inevitable and when they do occur, they are due entirely to lack of a caloric deficit, driven primarily by eating behavior.

I could be wrong and I don't want to try to convince anyone to my point of view.  I'm just curious to test my hypothesis and find out, if I continue doing what I'm doing, will I continue to proceed towards my target weight without hitting a plateau on the way.  I'm curious if my weight will continue to track with my calorie deficit as it has done so far.

---

@Daves_Not_Here, I say they are inevitable for all except for the extremely gifted or stubborn (I'm sure you're the former). Even if progress is linear, just reaching your goal weight represents a plateau of a sort. And from looking at the charts on this thread, it seems linear progress is a rare thing.

I'm curious--what is your plan once you reach your goal, as far as maintenance goes? It would seem at that point there would be no need to keep with calorie deficits at all? I'm thinking your weight is what you want, there's no need for further loss, therefore a deficit wouldn't be helping with maintenance.

I do really like and respect your willingness to use yourself as a testing ground for this.

[Daves_Not_Here]

---

@WavyDavey wrote:

I'm curious--what is your plan once you reach your goal, as far as maintenance goes? It would seem at that point there would be no need to keep with calorie deficits at all? I'm thinking your weight is what you want, there's no need for further loss, therefore a deficit wouldn't be helping with maintenance.

---

@WavyDavey - My plan and hope when I hit my target weight is to emulate folks like you and the others here who have adopted lifestyles that enable them to manage their fitness, weight, and general health over the long term.  It would be so great to be in your position and be consciously gaining muscle and losing fat.  What I don't want to do is repeat my previous mistake of hitting my goal and assuming that because I'm active and eating "healthy" food, I don't need to pay attention to my weight.

As to specific actions, I assume I will add calories back in as needed to maintain a given weight, and continue to adjust as necessary to lose, gain, or maintain.  So yes, there would be no need to continue having a deficit -- I'm guessing I'll need to eat about 2,300 calories (versus my current 1,600) to maintain at 160 pounds and the same activity level.

When I refer to being skeptical about "plateaus", I'm not talking about sustained periods where weight is not expected to change (such as yourself in a maintenance phase); rather, I'm talking about perplexing and frustrating weight-loss stalls (maybe stall is a better word than plateau) where a person feels they cannot lose weight in spite of having a large and sustained calorie deficit.  That's my experiment - to continue to meticulously record my calories in and out, maintain a deficit, and see if I experience a stall in spite of the deficit.  My hypothesis is that I will not stall and will continue to lose weight at approximately 1 pound per 3,500 calories of accumulated deficit.

(for those listening in on these musings, thanks for humoring me!)

[EmjayH]

USW (pre Fitbit) Nov 14 2016; 123kg
SW (Fitbit) March 2 2017; 97.7kg
PW August 07; 78.5kg
PW August 14; 77.9kg
PW August 21; 77.3kg
PW August 28; 76.9kg
PW Sept. 04; 77.7kg 😳🙈
PW Sept 11; 75.9kg
PW Sept 18; 75.1kg
PW Sept 25; 74.4kg
PW Oct 02; 74.3kg
PW Oct 09; 73.3kg
PW Oct 16; 72.5kg
PW Oct 23; 72.6kg
PW Oct 30; 73.4kg
PW Nov 06; 72.1kg
PW Nov 13; 72kg

CW Nov 20; 70.7kg

loss this week; 1.3kg
Mini goal; 70kg by Christmas

big drop this week but I suppose a large amount of the loss is water weight. I started practicing bikram yoga and 90 mins in a hot room doing yoga is sure to knock a few kg of water out of you lol. It's awful yet for some bizarre reason I love it.

its also just come to my attention that it's been a full year since I've started my weight loss journey. 52.3kg down in 12 months is quite an accomplishment. Sometimes I forget that and focus on the negative. I need to learn to step back sometimes and appreciate what I've done 

[EmjayH]

@Daves_Not_Here I believe weightloss plateaus exist personally. Honestly I'm waiting for mine to hit. It's gotta be ur body trying to fight the massive changes you are forcing upon it. But everyone is different and so the journey will be vastly different for everyone. But please keep posting ur musings I do so enjoy reading them. I often log into this forum just to see what you've posted lol 🙈

[Daves_Not_Here]

@EmjayH -- thanks for the encouraging words, but you obviously need to upgrade the content you are accessing off the internet!

52 kg in a year - wow!  That's a sustained 2+ pounds per week.  Talk about "we don't need no stinking plateaus!"  I have a soft spot in my heart for people who, in the face of naysayers claiming "you can't do that!" are busy doing exactly that!