Well, here we are at the end of March and I'm down four pounds, which is one pound per week.
But this month has really been a toughie.
I plateaud for two weeks, then dropped four pounds pretty quick-- maintained that for four or five days, then put back on four, then six pounds.
I could not find ANY reason for the gain. I had not changed my eating plan-- the only differences were that I was sick for a week and I had upped my exercise.
So, I waited. I just kept doing the same stuff. I maintained the gain for another ten days....
Then, all of a sudden, I retained a whole bunch of water... (sometimes my lower legs an ankles swell up and I can definitely see it-- plus, I my scale does water percentage and body fat percentage along with weight.)
The water gain did not cause I weight gain so I figured that I probably was actually going down, just couldn't see. I tried to figure out why the water weight, since I wasn't eating more sodium-- I think it was taking ibuprofen for several days-- apparently some people swell up ibuprofen and I think I'm one of them.
Long story short-- the water weight went away, the scale went back down, and as an added bonus, I'm maintaining a body fat percentage of 41%-- it was 44-45% at the beginning of the month. Maybe all that running and lifting is finally paying off.
So, all the time I was STRESSING about what I was eating and why it wasn't working, actually I remain right on target AND I've also lost body fat.
Just another reminder that weight loss is not linear and if we're losing at a rate of a pound a week or so, we really have to take the LONG VIEW.