So i have been following a pretty strict diet for exactly a month now.. 1000-1200 calories a day (with maybe 3 days that I went over that by 200-300 calories), very healthy food (veggies, lean turkey, nonfat milk etc) and exercize 6 days a week (first way biking/elliptical, now running and doing some weights I started last week). The last 3 weeks I didn't lose any weight, even though I noticed my clothes fitting better.

This weekend we had a huge halloween party, and while I dont "binge" I didnt really pay attention to the calorie count and had tiramisu, mushroom pastries, feta cheese, salty stuff, etc. I came to terms with the fact that at some point everyone goes off plan, and vowed to get back on track today no matter what the scale said. However, I actually lost weight! For the first time I went below where I was 3 weeks ago.

So weird! I dont get it. Especially with all the salty stuff I would expect to have retained some water. Does anyone have any idea of what can cause this? I've heard of the whole 'resetting your metabolism' thing but I dont know how much scientific proof there is behind that...?

I'm doing a lot of reading about calorie cycling... do you think your body was in a form of 'starvation' mode and now it said 'ok! let go!'?

Well, I don't believe in 'starvation mode,' but I am with you OP on the confusion!

And recently, I ate too much this weekend (didn't binge, just didn't count anything and ate whatever), and while I am up on the scale, my belt is a whole link looser. That's like 2/3 an inch! I'm very confused... no IDEA why that happened.

It's been my experience that there is little to no direct correlation between what I ate yesterday and what I see on the scale today.

The time scale of all processes involved is simply longer than that. Correlations averaged over weeks or longer make sense: I stay mostly on plan for a month or two, I lose 5-8 pounds or so. If I don't stay mostly on plan for a month or two, I lose less than that or nothing at all.

How much I weigh on a particular day, in contrast, depends on so many factors - weather, hormones, how long it's been since I pooped, how hard I exercised over the past few days, and sodium intake being only a few of those. So, there is little, if any, meaningful correlation between what I did yesterday and what number I see today.

I have also seen in my own body over the last two years periods of no loss on the scale during which my body seems to be doing some rearrangement. It often happens after an extended period of weight loss - no numeric changes for a few weeks, I just feel different. It doesn't mean I'm stalled or that my plan needs a shakeup or that I've done something to my metabolism; it just means that my body does not lose a few ounces every day like a mechanical clockwork weightloss robot. The process is highly non-linear.

So, I don't think you need to delve into controversial areas like starvation mode or resetting your metabolism to explain what happened here. I think the loss is a coincidence, and just a regular part of this process - this long, nonlinear process that is much more logical and easier to understand on a month-to-month basis than day-to-day basis.

Did you exercise this weekend? If not, you probably dropped some water weight that has been part of the muscle repair process.

Even if there is an explanation, paying attention to short term correlations between behavior and weight will lead to frustration. Please don't think about time in units of less than a month. Frankly, with featherweights, fluctuations can swamp months of solid (but slow) true weight loss.

There is no such thing as starvation mode - that has been proved to be a myth. It can take up to 2 weeks for indiscretions to show up on the scale so you might not be out of the woods yet.

Carter's post is absolutely spot-on! The time periods involved have to scaled up to a long-term overall trend, not a day-to-day variation, to show what's working for you and what isn't.

Most importantly, we have to live our lives while we're doing it! One party won't kill you or set you back much when the overall net energy consumption is in a deficit. Plus - the first law of thermodynamics is nice and all, but calories are not a zero-sum game; our body is not a closed system. We can't create additional calories magically, but not every calorie that you eat will be stored or burned by your body - many simply will not be absorbed or utilized in any fashion at all. So, if you consume an extra 2000 calories, there's no guarantee that 2000 calories will be absorbed and utilized - but since we don't have a great understanding of how and why our bodies decide what to store when (and because it's all highly individual and variable), the best we can do is treat it like a closed system and assume all 2000 calories will be utilized.

That's it...I'm diving into the Halloween candy!

Seriously, though, you see this happen on The Biggest Loser all the time. The contestant that indulges in the food challenge will (9 times out of 10) lose the most weight that week. I do believe that calorie cycling works, but it can be a slippery slope if you do not have the self control to get back on plan the day after upping your calories.

What a nice surprise for you to come home to, though!

Nice! I've had that happen a couple of times. I thought I just completely blew my diet, and that's when I had some of my best losses! Weird, but use it as extra motivation to get right back on track. Lucky you!

You may end up seeing it on the scale next week or the week after.
Just a thought.

Also.. Dieting isn't all about calories. It's also about carbs, fats, proteins, etc. So even though YOU'RE paying attention to calories, your body is paying attention to much more than that.

It may take our bodies 2-4 days to process one meal as it decides what to use as energy, expel as waste, or store as fat. If I indulge a bit once or twice a week I try to make up for it for several days afterwards by increasing my exercise. Alternately I think of all exercise as an insurance policy against future indulgences.

Just think of how much the scale might have been down if you had stayed "on-plan".

This seems to happen to many people on 3FC, myself included. During the weight-loss stage of my diet, I would go 2-3 weeks with very little loss, despite being perfectly on-plan day after day. Then it would happen, the day I'd been "weighting" for....WHOOOOSH! A huge drop overnight. It was the thrill of a lifetime.

Unfortunately I think many people go off plan because they become discouraged by little (or no) weightloss over the course of a few weeks, and then mistake going off plan with a natural weightloss phenomenon that would have happen regardless of going off plan. Sadly the effect probably would have been greater if a person would not have let the carbo-monster sneak in. But hey, a loss is a loss. Right?

Thanks everyone!! Every single point is a great one to consider I appreciate it.
I know it's a long term journey, but I want to make sure I check myself at set intervals.. its too easy for me to have 1000 healthy calories morph into 1100.. then 1200.. so on, over time, if I were to not keep myself accountable. And no matter what the scale says.. no quitting (I have a very important deadline to make, about 6 months from now, and it keeps me extremely motivated).

I didn't eat on monday on purpose (as a "reset" after the weekend) and am back on plan feeling better than ever!

Thanks again
L.

Agree with everyone else about not assuming there's a direct correlation between what you eat one day and your weight the next.

Also, not eating on Monday to make up for the weekend is the kind of behavior that sets off red flags for me. Binging and then starving yourself is vicious cycle.

I specifically said I didn't binge I don't binge and i don't understand binging. I had normal sized amounts, just of food that does not make up my lean protein, no white grains, no fattening/processed-crap diet.
Not eating for one day is not the same as starving yourself. Plenty of cultures and religions have fasting as part of their rituals, including mine (although I am not practicing). There is nothing wrong with not eating for a day, if done rarely. I plan to make a no-food day a monthly or bi-weekly occurrence (without using it as an excuse to go off-plan again - just as a general re-focus).

Thanks for your input though!