One of the things that I have struggled with over the last 19 months of trying to lose weight and get fit has been the unpredictability of my weight loss. I am a computer programmer and so I guess I have this mind set that if I eat x number of calories, and do so much exercise I should lose exactly 2.2 lbs this week. While I have had some success in weight loss, it has always seemed weird to me that I could do the same exercise, eat the same amount and one week lose no weight, then have a week where I lost say a single pound then lose 8 lbs in one week. Drives me crazy. I read something in a book by Arnold Schwarzenegger - "Arnold's Bodybuilding for Men" that made a lot of sense and helped me come to grips with the erratic nature of weight loss.

"As you cut back from this equilibrium level, and increase your exercise, your body will dip into its fat reserves to obtain the needed energy. The trick is to not cut back so far that you deprive yourself of your daily nutritional needs. At this point, all you need is patience. The body will go about its business at its own rate, and no use hurrying it.

But keep in mind that the body is a living organism, not a machine, and it processes do not always proceed at uniform rates. For example, you might go two weeks hardly losing any weight, then lose a whole lot in just a few days. One reason for this is that for every gram of fat your body metabolizes, more than a gram of water is produced as a by-product. This water stays in your system for some time before being cycled out, so the loss of fat is not immediately noticeable."

I added the bold for the points that helped me the most. So to end this long winded post, if you get frustrated like I do - just keep doing the right things, one meal at a time, one day at a time and keep up your activity. Fitness will come as sure as the sunrise.

Hope you all have a super day tomorrow.

Pretty much all my fluctuations come from the amount of water I am holding. When I am on a highly restrictive diet, like now, my weight loss is very predictable (~0.75#/ day) because I don't really retain any extra water. If I then take a day off my weight jumps up 7-10# and takes a few days to settle back down again.

Howie's a computer programmer, too. He sounds just like you...Has an Excel spreadsheet and for a time drove himself nuts figuring out what his losses *should* be at 2lbs a week, 1lb a week, etc. LOL You programmer geek guys!!

I totally understand that!

It drives me crazy when it varies of how much I lose week to week. I know that nothing will ever go perfectly because there are soo many variables, but I like to see the numbers too. I am dweeby and chart everything and try to estimate- it's overwhelming sometimes keeping track of all the calories, pounds/ounces, dates, minutes of exercise-- but whatever works, right?

I measured my arms this morning after "carbing up" yesterday: 0.5" bigger than the day before(17.5" to 18"). A lot of that "extra" water ends up right in my muscles. Weight was up 6# this AM; will probably be down 4-5# tomorrow as I unload.