Kevin is my 15-yo son.  I’ve mentioned already here that he’s joined me in the effort to get fit.  Well, things are moving very slowly for both of us, and though I haven’t yet lost my motivation, I’m worried that he will.

We just went away for the weekend.  We spent every waking moment together for almost three full days and we ate basically the same food - though not in the same quantities.  We were pretty good, calorie-wise.  Kevin had a few too many on Saturday but it was a busy day and he ate what was available when it was available.  Yesterday when we got home we went for a short bike ride (just under three miles) to burn off a few calories.

I weighed in this morning at almost exactly the same weight I was before we left (two-tenths of a pound heaver actually) but Kevin weighed in and discovered a pound gained.  A pound!  That seems impossible, given what he had eaten over the weekend.  A pound?!?  Yes, a full pound.

I just don’t want him to feel like the math is all bullshit.  It’s not.  Maybe it’s hard to determine just how much you individually burn every day — but the calories are known.  And if you burn 3500 more calories than you eat — you WILL lose a pound.  If he continues to watch his intake, he will lose.  He can’t NOT.

But he’s not seeing big results and it’s starting to wear thin, I think. 

He sees me going up and down and up and down and at first he also saw my frustration with that but now I’m starting to brush it off as just part of the process.  I know could avoid some angst by not weighing myself every DAY (and it would probably be good for me to model that for him), but I just can’t stand not knowing!  There’s no way I could wait a week between weigh-ins!

Though the math is solid, there are so many other factors that can affect how much shows up on the scale.  The time of day.  The type of food eaten.  The regularity (or not) of the person.  The amount of liquids consumed.  The speed of one’s digestive process.  For women, the time of the month.  Let’s see, what else.  Your relative health.  Whether or not you have edema because of an injury - or maybe just because you’ve been exercising muscles that have lain dormant for too long.  The cycle of the moon.  LOL there are too many factors!

Still, I hope he sees some substantial progress soon — before he gives up!

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