A question for 100+ losers
 

For those who have lost 100+ pounds, did your weight loss slow after the first 100 pounds, and did you gain easier when you cheated? I could have a cheat day 50 pounds ago and maybe gain 1 or 2 pounds and now I gain 5 pounds on a cheat day. It seems to me these last 50 pounds I have to lose are coming off much slower. Did anyone experience this?

I was expecting the last pounds to be a lot harder than they actually were. My rate of loss slowed down, but I actually kept losing past where I was originally aiming for. I think the fact that I added a bike commute to my schedule about the same time may have been what kept me losing so well.

Are you doing a lot of cardio exercise now?

Cardio exercises will deplete your muscle glycogen stores. When your muscle glycogen is depleted and then you 'carbo-load', your glycogen stores can store up to 1.5 times their normal glycogen level.

I have 5 pound weight gains after a cheat day too, but for me its the effect of glycogen depletion and carbo loading.

Seven pounds of muscle glycogen will store the same number of calories as one pound of fat.

Now you gave me information I hadn't heard before. Bless the physiological explanation. I do quite a bit of cardio (aerobics, jump rope, inclined treadmill). Thank you for the explanation; I do hope it's caused by the glycogen depletion and not actual pounds of fat. It does make sense though because a pound of fat is 3500 calories and my cheat days are not 17,500 calories!!! Maybe 4000 or so calories, and that's a bit more than a pound of fat.

Tani, I hope the last few pounds will be easy too. I need to get back on my bike; it's a super exercise and I do adore it. I can't wait until warmer weather rolls around so I can get outside some more.

I am in a somewhat similar situation. I’ve lost approx 90 pounds over the last 2 years. I still need to loose around 30-40 to get to my 210-220 target.

I train like crazy (Cross-country ski + laps at the pool + walks ) and limit my calory intake, except for one cheat day a week. By cheat day I mean one or two fast-food meal.

When I first started to lose weight, pounds were dropping like crazy. Now it seems that every pound is like an epic battle…..

This physical / scientific explanation makes it easier to deal with the issue…

Do you know if cutting on the cheat day may help ? What other solution is available to get rid of those last pounds…..?

I did not find mine slowing down to much. I pretty much averaged 2 lbs a week. However I do notice that I can gain a lot more than 2 lbs a week if I don't watch it. It seems like the fat is more than willing to come back on a lot quicker than it came off. Just keep doing what you know is right and you will get there.

Here is my take on the whole rapid weight gain. It is impossible to gain 5 pounds of fat in a week unless you are eating 2500 calories a day above your maintenance calories. Now you ask - well why does it happen? What I think is this - when you are running a calorie deficit - even a slight one that most people would be in during maintenance - I think that the process of using fat stores is naturally dehydrating. When you have a "cheat" day and I never use that term - who are you cheating? I mean, it always comes down to a choice... but I digress :) I think what you see when you bounce 5 pounds and you know for a fact that you were only over maintenance by say 3500 calories in a week is water weight fluctuation.

I base that on research into the mechanics of losing weight as well as my own personal observation. If I bounce up 3 or 4 pounds 1 week - I almost always have an off setting large loss the next week. I no more really lost 5 pounds in a week where I was running a 1000 calorie a day calorie deficit than I gained 5 pounds by eating 500 a day over maintenance.

The only real thing you can track is average weight over time. Then the fluctuations of day to day water retention are washed out. If your average is moving down, you are running a deficit. If it is moving up, you are eating too much - if it is staying the same - you are hitting maintenance.

As Dennis Miller used to say - Of course, that is just my opinion, I could be wrong. :)

I wish you all the best. Howie - great to see you are doing OK after your surgery. Good to see you back posting.

Here is my weight loss graph with a 4 week moving avgerage line.

http://www.meginjarder.com/ogii/CFSWeightLoss.gif

Good post Charles. I agree 100%. However if I go off plan for any length of time I can gain more than I lose in a week. I'm not just talking a treat day but if I went off for a whole week.

You make a good point Charles, thanks. Although I didn't lose as much weight in January as in other months, I STILL lost (7 pounds), just not as fast as I'm used to. I do believe we lose much faster when we are much bigger, and we're just not that big anymore.

Thanks everyone! :)