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I don't have an answer for why the scale went the complete wrong way your first week, but keep at it, and hopefully if you stick with the 1600 calories and the walking, in one month, you should see a drop. If not, next stop - doctor!
99% guarantee that it's mostly water retention from your monthly cycle. At your weight you could easily be retaining an extra 3 to 5 pounds of water weight for one week every month. A couple of other things that make a big difference for me (1) is the amount of sleep the night before; my weight is always lower by a couple of pounds on the weekend when I get a full eight hours of sleep the night before as opposed to weighing myself mid-week and (2) what I ate the day before. If I ate a meal heavy in salt the day before it can make the scale go up a couple of pounds. Wait a week and weigh yourself again; you should see the scale go down.
Also, have you done an online calculator to see what your BMR is? 1,600 calories might be under your BMR considering your current weight plus the walking. If you were eating 2200 calories a day and not exercising and suddenly you dropped down to 1,600 and started exercising your body might be fighting you on the sudden drastic changes; with weight loss gradual changes are always better. So if your body was used to 2,200 calories it would be better to drop to 2,100 calories for a week or two, then 2,000 for a week or two, etc so it's less stressful on your body and easier to stick to long-term.
Last edited by patches403; 08-11-2015 at 11:05 AM..
I weighed myself again today and while the scale has not moved, shorts that were uncomfortably tight before actually fit well today. I'm thinking I might start tracking my measurements as well as my weight.
I weighed myself again today and while the scale has not moved, shorts that were uncomfortably tight before actually fit well today. I'm thinking I might start tracking my measurements as well as my weight.
I weighed myself again today and while the scale has not moved, shorts that were uncomfortably tight before actually fit well today. I'm thinking I might start tracking my measurements as well as my weight.
That's a great idea. And I know it's not easy, but try not to make your new lifestyle about the scale. If you pay attention to how well you feel, how your clothes fit better, things like that, those positives will carry you along at those times when the scale lets you down.
I've been on a diet for about 2 weeks now but the last time I weighed myself was last Monday. I was 192 and today I am 197. I haven't eaten more than 1600 calories any day since I've started dieting. I haven't had any cheat days and I'm more active than I was before I started trying to lose weight. I know I cant expect results too fast but I was hoping to at least lose a pound. If I'm gaining so much weight while on a 1600 calorie diet, how low do I have to drop my calories? It's so discouraging.
I had posted this on another thread. The same damn thing happened to me every time I'd start a weight-loss program. I got very discouraged. I'm walking my feet off, exercising, going hungry, eating boring crap I don't want to eat, and after a week or two--I've GAINED. It feels as if I should've lost ten friggin' pounds, and I've gained three.
I don't know why it happens. Maybe stuff gets backed up in digestive system or something. But I know that if I just keep plugging along, suddenly the number on the scale does drop.
As I've been losing weight, it has happened again intermittently. I'm chugging along, monitoring my calorie intake, getting exercise, and the stupid weight stays the same for two weeks. No sense to it. Then suddenly, one day, it drops again.
I had posted this on another thread. The same damn thing happened to me every time I'd start a weight-loss program. I got very discouraged. I'm walking my feet off, exercising, going hungry, eating boring crap I don't want to eat, and after a week or two--I've GAINED. It feels as if I should've lost ten friggin' pounds, and I've gained three.
I don't know why it happens. Maybe stuff gets backed up in digestive system or something. But I know that if I just keep plugging along, suddenly the number on the scale does drop.
As I've been losing weight, it has happened again intermittently. I'm chugging along, monitoring my calorie intake, getting exercise, and the stupid weight stays the same for two weeks. No sense to it. Then suddenly, one day, it drops again.
The point is, just keep going.
Yep, and there is probably a physiological reason for this.
Quote:
Many people have noted that fat loss is often discontinuous, that is it often happens in stops and starts. So you’ll be dieting and dieting and doing everything correctly with nothing to show for it. Then, boom, almost overnight, you drop 4 pounds and look leaner.
What’s going on? Back during my college days, one of my professors threw out the idea that after fat cells had been emptied of stored triglyceride, they would temporarily refill with water (glycerol attracts water, which might be part of the mechanism). So there would be no immediate change in size, body weight or appearance. Then, after some time frame, the water would get dropped, the fat cells would shrink. A weird way of looking at it might be that the fat loss suddenly becomes ‘apparent’. That is, the fat was emptied and burned off days or weeks ago but until the water is dropped, nothing appears to have happened.
For nearly 20 years I looked for research to support this, I was never sure if it was based on something from the 50’s or he just pulled it out of thin air as an explanation. Recently, one paper did suggest that visceral fat can fill up with water after massive weight loss but that’s about it.
Somewhat circumstantially, people using Bioimpedance body fat scales (which use hydration to estimate body fat levels) have noted that body fat appears to go up right before a big drop. This implicates water balance as the issue here.
Fat cells are pretty unique. They have very little cytoplasm and a small nucleous, so the fat droplet inside is something like 85%of the volume. The size of the fat cell varies greatly. A thinner person will have smaller fat cells, an overweight person will have bigger fat cells, and a really obese person will actually fill the fat cell to capacity and even create new fat cells.
Fat cells can absorb fat, glucose, and fatty acids. The size of that fat cell can vary, and when it mostly empties you will lose fat. The fat is broken down and released in the blood stream to be used for energy. The fat cell will shrink, but never be lost unless you remove it through surgery.
I have heard that sometimes the fat cells empty and fill with other things than fat temporarily. Not sure if that is 100% true or not, but it makes sense to me.
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