This is not the experiment that I am likely to take on, but I have done it by accident a few times.

I normally don't eat bread, baked goods, or sugar. This weekend I had half of a waffle cone, and a small cinnamon bun on both weekend days. I lost weight from Friday. I normally eat 1300 but had 1510 Friday (no exercise), 1584 Saturday (ran 3.5 miles), and 1414 on Sunday (no exercise). I normally exercise every day, so this was also unusual.

I apparently lost weight from Friday. It makes no sense. I was lazy/busier than normal (grades were due today), ate more, ate more junk, and lost weight.

What have been your experiences with this?

(Oh, and the one day I had half of a slice of pizza last week, I gained weight)

Yes, it's just water coming off.

Weight loss does not always show up on the scale the next day. And if you stop exercising you can get a drop in water weight. I often eat icecream and see the same thing. But it is a just a water weight mirage.

Keep with those bad habits and the weight will be back though.

You can, of course, eat more to lose weight. But in my experience this involves eating more of stuff that is good for you.

I'm not sure what happened with you, but am mightily impressed with how well you keep track of calories!

Yes I think this does work. I have been steady on 135 despite eating... let's say 'party food' over the last week (been a very social week!) Despite going well over even my usual calorie intake, there has been no weight gain.

It could just be that you didn’t really eat that much? Half a waffle cone and a cinnamon bun is nothing. Also, I think 1600 would still equal weight loss for most people.

I always eat a lot on the weekends and haven’t had much trouble maintaining.

I think a lot of this is a matter of coincidence creating superstitions.

It would be like having a job for which you are being paid on an irregular basis and deciding that you should good off more because you happened to frequently get a bigger check after days spent goofing off.

The error is in linking today's weight to yesterday's behavior when it might have had more to do with last month's behavior, especially for "featherweight."

The less you have to lose, the less consistency you're going to see in those "paychecks."

I am basing my daily calories on Loseit, but I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm not, even if it goes over the calorie amount, so I use it as a guideline. Well, I'm not afraid of ice cream as much at least (maybe once in a while).

I don't know how this would work, but maybe it was letting up on the exercise a little bit? Sometimes I feel like when I take it easy for some amount of time, like a day or two (in addition to two days off of working out per week), the pounds come off. That seems counterintuitive, but whatever works!

I just stumbled across this article, while I was researching the effectiveness of diet vs. exercise for losing weight. These researchers, in 2009, found something surprising happens to those who exercise in a 24-hour period compared to those who don't:

snip “Many people believe that you rev up” your metabolism after an exercise session “so that you burn additional body fat throughout the day,” said Edward Melanson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the division of endocrinology at the School of Medicine and the lead author of the study. If afterburn were found to exist, it would suggest that even if you replaced the calories you used during an exercise session, you should lose weight, without gaining weight — the proverbial free lunch.

Each of Melanson’s subjects spent 24 quiet hours in the calorimeter, followed later by another 24 hours that included an hourlong bout of stationary bicycling. The cycling was deliberately performed at a relatively easy intensity (about 55 percent of each person’s predetermined aerobic capacity). It is well known physiologically that, while high-intensity exercise demands mostly carbohydrate calories (since carbohydrates can quickly reach the bloodstream and, from there, laboring muscles), low-intensity exercise prompts the body to burn at least some stored fat. All of the subjects ate three meals a day.

To their surprise, the researchers found that none of the groups, including the athletes, experienced “afterburn.” They did not use additional body fat on the day when they exercised. In fact, most of the subjects burned slightly less fat over the 24-hour study period when they exercised than when they did not [emphasis mine].

“The message of our work is really simple,” although not agreeable to hear, Melanson said. “It all comes down to energy balance,” or, as you might have guessed, calories in and calories out." snip

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/1...t-page-9/?_r=0

Still and all, when I want to lose those last couple of food/water pounds at the end of the week, I feel like jogging/walking or DDR is a good go-to, and will push the numbers down so I can get to my goal for the week!

Kaplods, that's a cool fainting couch, if that's what it is, in your avatar.

Thanks. I made it for displaying with my Monster High Doll collection.

So cute! And I just noticed the little skulls for legs.

I don't know why my body does what it does. I'm going to continue the "eat and exercise to be healthy" and not make ice cream or candy/cake more than a once or possibly twice a month activity. I really don't know why I lose or gain anyway. I'm keeping track as much as possible with Loseit and the Fitbit Charge HR. The two together give you a highly detailed look into your calories in vs out and activity.

I don't exercise or eat the way I do to lose weight, Iook at it as trying to be as healthy as possible and want to have more energy and feel good.

(The couch is very cute!)