I knew this weekend was going to be rough on me:

Friday: First date with a guy I've been talking to.
1.5 liters of beer (just me!)
Mango
Chili Cheese Fries
Chili Cheese Dog

Saturday: Concert with a friend. We went to Chilis
A basket of chips and salsa
Chicken Crispers with Fries

Sunday: Lounging around the apartment with my roommate
Chipotle Burrito with Barbacoa and Cheese
Frozen Yogurt with Strawberries and Chocolate Chips


So I get on the scale this morning TERRIFIED of what I had done all weekend -- I had avoided the scale since I clocked in at I'm sure 2,000 calories every day when I stick to 1,400-1,500 calories a day -- with an hour of exercise -- and struggle to lose weight.

I lost .3 pounds over the weekend.

I'm not complaining, I just think it's funny what our bodies do. Anyone else had anything like this happen to them?

Last week, I had this happen to me!

I'd felt vaguely hungry all week - could be because it's getting colder (more then likely) or could be because it was just before TOM. Either way I'd felt a bit more hungry then normal, so went over my calories with comfort food - red beans & rice, beer, Chinese food, that sort of stuff.

I kept weighing myself (I'm one of those geeks who like a full data set!) and obviously my body knew what it was doing because I've somehow lost 3 pounds since Wednesday!

I'm shocked because normally that sort of behaviour means that I'll be showing a big gain, especially with all the salt, but I'm not complaining!

I don't know your routines, but it may be because you are consistently exercising, your body's metabolism is sped up. You're probably losing where you would have gained before because you've been working at it for so long and your body's metabolism has increased. When you start being more active, you don't just lose more weight during your work out, your resting metabolism increases, allowing you to burn more fat than when you were not leading an active lifestyle. But again, I don't really know your journey that well, so it's hard to say ^_^"

But it's great that you were able to lose after eating out so much! I'm happy for you! Isn't it a nice surprise when those things happen? And good luck with the guy : )

Well, this is how I would interpret it, "Man, I probably would have seen a pound lost if I wouldn't have gone off plan so much this weekend". Eating crap didn't lead to the weight loss. What you did before this weekend was leading up to a drop on the scale and it got minimized by the bad food choices during the weekend.

^^^^^^
Im sorry to disagree, but no, thats not the case (IMHO)
The OP has lost a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight, which would, in fast, lower her metabolism... she needsd far less calories at this point to maintain her weight that she did at her original weight.
i agree with the above poster... our bodies dont lose and gain fat on 24 hour cycles... the .3 she lost is the result of the past week or 2 worth of work..... as mentioned, she may have showed a much LARGER loss had she not "binged"

HOWEVER, there is a chance if you get on the scale again in a few days, you might drop some weight quickly from the excess sodium you consumed over the weekend..... or if you wait till next week to weigh again, you *might* show a HUGE loss (again, a good chunk of that will have been the excess water weight coming off after the high sodium weekend

When it comes to weight loss it can be easy to attribute our most recent activities to what the scale says. But, that's not how weight loss works.

It's not "I ate great and on plan yesterday, so today will be down on the scale automatically." And the opposite "I ate horribly, so the scale will be up today" is also not necessarily true.

When the body loses weight it does not look at the immediate. It looks at the long term. What I see posted sometimes is someone wondering why the scale shows a gain after they've been doing so well, but how it can drop when they go off plan. What if the scale is just showing the difference in weight later than the person anticipates? What if that gain they see was from that enormous off plan day they ate the week before? But that loss was from the whole week of really dedicated work they did before they had that big day off plan?

I'm not saying the above is the truth for everyone. Just that it can be dangerous to attribute every weigh-in to a specific event or events. The scale is not the most accurate tool when it comes to measuring success. It just knows what is on top of it. Not WHY it is what it is.

The only thing we know for sure is that sticking to healthier habits will eventually help the scale go down. Not that one specific thing we did made it go up or go down, but that many events over many weeks and months are what show in the long-term.

So if that weekend were my weekend, I'd interpret it closer to how Berryblondeboys did.

I can't explain it either, but it happens to me A LOT! Especially if I've been stuck at the same weight for a few days- one bad night of eating usually produces a loss on the scale the next day. So weird! I don't know if it 'jolts' my body or what, but it happens. Of course once those bad meals get more frequent, the scale goes UP for me, but still it is nice to be able to be bad once in awhile without consequence

I've found that anything I do in either direction doesn't register for two days. But that's just me -- hope it isn't you! Maybe there was also some exercise Friday night? You know, walking home or something ;-)

i believe that sometimes when you are eating a few big things is better than a lot of tiny "healthy" things. maybe because you knew the food was not as good for you, you were limiting your other food and/or ate less of the not as good for you food, hence a loss?

I know what you mean. The body DOES do weird and unexpected things! I lose more weight when I'm not exercising hard than when I am slacking with exercise and just watching my diet. It would totally discourage me from exercising... except for the fact that <whispers> I secretly kind of enjoy exercising now. If anything when I'm working out really hard 2+ hrs intensely 5 days a week for months, I tend to gain or maintain rather than lose even if I eat 1400-1500 calories a day. But if I take a week off and throw in a couple of maintenance calorie days, it's whoosh-city. Very strange.

I often have the same results after a "bad" day or weekend... I truly believe in the theory that we need to keep our bodies guessing (whether it be with diet or exercise). Stay consistently at 1200 cal each day with essentially the same nutritional values - your body will become more efficient because it'll know what ot expect and less results will be seen. Same thing with repeating the same workout regimens day after day.

Congratulations on your loss so far and on keeping your body guessing (which means that beer and chili cheese can't become an every day event that your body expects, either - lol).

My body takes a little time to respond to changes in my diet an exercise, positive or negative. I may see a low number the day after a McDonald's outing and booze, but I'll see a high number two or three days later, even if I immediately "correct" the McD's mistake by exercising, eating clean and drinking lots of water.

Yeah, it has happened to me. I've been reasonably on plan (at least not over by 200-300 calories) for the entire month until last Sunday. I lost count, but I'm sure I ate at least 500 calories over maintenance. Monday I woke up to a 1.6lb loss.

I can't actually attribute anything I eat to a particular day's loss. I've actually never had an "off-plan" day, but there are plenty of days where my diet consisted of horrible food (usually the weekends) but as a calorie counter as long as it fits in the count, it's good to go!

During the week I eat very healthy though

Otherwise my body is very strange. I'm a daily weigher so I've seen this particular pattern when it comes to my losses. I'll stay the same weight for 7-10 days and the suddenly drop a few pounds. Sometimes I've gone down 2 in a day. Not sure why this happens, but it's as if my body says "oh right! we need to burn some of that fat, LET'S GO." I usually notice some inches lost right before a "whoosh" too.

People tend to go off-plan on food and exercise at the same time. If you skip exercise, you will also miss out on the water retention it causes. So, by going off-plan for a few days, (both exercise and eating) you are likely to see a temporary drop in the scale.

People going off-plan also tend to eat high-calorie, low-fiber, highly filling foods. You may be eating a ton more calories than usual, but the total weight of the food is often lower than usual. People can carry up to about 20(!) pounds of "toilet stuff". So, if you go off-plan and get rid of the remnants of healthy high fiber meals and replace that with some low-poop-volume high-fat processed foods, you can easily see a lower number on the scale.

Going off-plan doesn't always lead to a loss, of course. We tend to eat more sodium off-plan, so it can lead to bloating and make a gain look even larger than it is. And, of course there are many other reasons your weight might go up or down, and sometimes it happens to happen after a little vacation from plan (and sometimes right in the middle of a perfect stretch, but then we don't try to associate the cause).