Knowing your patterns
 

Sometimes folks who are new to serious weight loss get frustrated when they don't see the pounds melting off at a steady rate week after week. But for most of us, the process is anything but linear and predictable.

Since everybody (and every body) is different, I thought it might be interesting to compare the long-term patterns of weight loss that we see emerging when we stick to our plans despite the ups and downs.

For me, I lose in "whooshes" - a sudden drop of 3-5 pounds over a period of a couple of days, followed by a slight rebound gain and then a period of fluctuating by +/- 2 pounds or so for a week or two or longer.

I also have enormous water swings - up to 4 pounds or so. I hold water after I lift, before and during my period, and if I eat a lot of salty foods or get dehydrated and then rehydrate. All of these obscure the overall whoosh-rebound-hold pattern.

All of that put together make it very difficult for me to see progress on a weekly basis. Even though I weigh every day (I had to in order to learn these patterns!) I have to be very patient and chart my weight over many weeks to really feel like all my hard work is being effective.

What about you - what's your loss pattern? What have you noticed about your numbers?

I won't see loss for several days. Then, I'll get voraciously hungry and go on a mad veggie-eating spree. The next morning, the scale will drop (a little or a lot -seems to be linked to how hungry I get, lol).

carter - Ditto - EVERYTHING you wrote. Sanity is only found on a month-to-month basis. I wish somebody had told me at the beginning to make a spreadsheet or graph, and to log daily weight, date of first PMS symptoms, date of period start, monthly measurements, and to note consumption of any unusual food, or heavy exercise. Would have made life a lot less confusing ...

My pattern is definitely very connected to my cycle. I usually get a pretty big whoosh of a few pounds over a couple of days right before PMS starts, which causes a water-retention bounceback of a pound or two. That comes off a day or two into my period, and usually takes a couple more pounds with it. Then I stall out for a week or two, lose a little more -- maybe a pound or two? -- before stalling again, and then the whole thing starts over again.

I've been tracking and journalling all this stuff at FitDay from the very start, and it has been INCREDIBLY helpful to have all that data. I don't record my bouncebacks, just my losses, so I can see the flat lines on the chart, which inevitably align with the weight loss pattern I detailed above. The deal I have with myself about this is that I don't have to record the bouncebacks, as long as I have been stringently on plan, and know this is just weirdo body chemistry/cycle stuff. Instead, I just make a note in my journal of my daily weight, and leave the graph alone.

My pattern is pretty much the same as yours, Carter...highly sensitive to water retention, hormones, and exercise, and prone to losing in whooshes (mine are usually days 3-6 after my period ends...it's typically the only time in a month my scale will go down). Once a whoosh happens, I stay in that range, plus or minus a few pounds, for about a month, then another whoosh.

What's funny to me is that although my weight patterns are definitely tied to my cycle, the pattern depends on how fast I'm losing.

When I'm losing faster, I lose the most right before TOM. For 4 or 5 day, I'll lose a half to one pound a day right up until the first day of TOM.

But when I'm maintaining or losing very slowly, I gain during that same time.

Either way, I have a weight cycle shaped by two peaks and two valleys. Up before and/or during TOM, then a low just after, then a peak for ovulation, then a low before TOM.

When I have losses, 90% of the time it's during a few days covering each of those low times. When I chart my daily weights, those low points are where there isn't much variability. If I'm maintaining, the lines all converge at those points. But the rest of the cycle is more variable.

I have a up down cycle in every week that I have been tracking. About midway through the week my weight goes up a pound and then quickly drops a pound and a half or 2 pounds. It all averages to 1.5-2 lbs a week but is a roller coaster on a graph.
I don't know how well this is connected to my cycle as I no longer menstrate on the IUD Mirena.
Some days when I think it might be the slight increase day I don't weigh myself and save it for the quick drop weigh days. I really should weigh myself once a week but I am just to curious and impatient for that.

If I'm really eating and exercising consistently, I lose in weird little cycles that last 5-8 days. I'll have a big loss (over 1 or 2 days), then slight losses or maintain (2-4 days), then a jump back up almost to where I was before (1 or 2 days), then sometimes a day of maintaining or sometimes I go right back into the drop.

I don't know what causes it.. I've never stuck with it long enough to reliably map it to my cycle (just one or two days of overeating throw it all off) but maybe it's related.

I don't gain much weight when I have a high sodium day (I've never felt "bloated"). Whether or not I exercise has relatively little short-term effect. But I lose A LOT of weight the day after I drink alcohol, no matter how well hydrated I think I am.

I weigh weekly, so my data is usually......1 week per month where I lose about 2-3 pounds (YIPPEE). One week where I gain about 1/2 pound to a pound and honestly it's because I've eaten a few too many calories or didn't exercise enough. And 2-3 more weeks of losing 1/2 pound to a pound. That is my pattern. Also, the week where I lose the most usually follows the week that I gain 1/2 pound, whatever that means!

All I've noticed is that my numbers keep getting smaller. At the beginning without much effort I was seeing great big chunky drops in weight and now I'm working much harder for what feels like tiny weeney baby steps.

Having said that, I've lost something every single week for the last six months, so I don't have too much to complain about.

i take my weight every day, and get a weekly avg. I graph the weekly avg. Then I can see whether or not I am losing. I lost really fast until 175. Now my body is being difficult. I am already eating 1200 cs / day. Walking 30 min 6-7 x week.

I tend to lose in two whooshes. Usually about two weeks before my period I'll lose 3-5 pounds, then I'll go up a bit, then I will retain water leading up to my period and sometimes I will gain 7lbs! The day of my period my weight will stabilize then a few days afterwards I will lose another 3-5lbs, Losing a total of 6-10 lbs a month. Knowing these trends really helps keep my frustration levels down.

Not enough data yet from this weight loss experience but I seem to lose in wooshes as well from past experiences. Except my wooshes and stalls go on for weeks. So I'll lose 2-3 lbs a week for about 3 weeks...Stall for about 2-3 weeks and so on.

Oh and I have never lost more than a lb on a period week. Luckily (or unluckily...) I have PCOS so I don't have period weeks that often.

it seems to me like my weight loss is completely dependant on what I eat. TOM doesn't affect it at all...

If I eat TERRIBLY for a while and then eat well for one or two days, I'll see a big drop...but if I'm eating healthy constantly it's generally 2 lbs a week. If I eat well for a while, have a single bad day, and then get right back on track the next day...to doesn't seem to affect me TOO much. Its almost like instead of gaining, I just don't lose...well...depending on how bad of a day it was.

I've exercised and I've not exercised...and the average loss per week is the same.

I wish there was rhyme or reason to my weight loss. The only thing that seems consistent right now is that the less I have to lose, the more I have to work for it. Also, a bad food day seems to have more of an effect on the scale than it did in the past.

I guess another thing is that the week before my period, I feel like I could eat everything in the house and still not feel satisfied. Once it starts, I no longer have those cravings.

I'll drop 1-2 pounds one day, fluctuate between that new weight and a pound up for the next 6 days, then another 1-2 pound drop. I try to be logical about it and not get discouraged during those 6 or so days with no movement or movement in the wrong direction, but sometimes it can be hard to see nothing or a gain for days on end. But, oh, the joy I feel on those days when the scale drops! Even when I feel like my weight loss is moving at a snails pace, I can look back and see that for any random 30 day period, I lose about 10 pounds give or take a pound.

carter, thank you for posting this! My pattern is exactly the same. In all my attempts over the years, this is the first time I'm weighing myself (almost) daily to have noticed a pattern and understand how my body is reacting to my efforts.

It used to be that I'd weigh in weekly and if I'd stuck to my plan carefully and didn't see expected loss it would be very upsetting and I would easily fall off the wagon. For some reason I figured weighing in daily wouldn't give me the "yes!" feeling of accomplishment every time I stepped on the scale. I have found understanding the pattern more valuable and very helpful in helping me stick to it without getting impatient.

Interestingly though, other than the numbers in my sig, I haven't logged any info formally nor do I have committed timelines for milestones or goals. For some reason, when I do that, it kicks in some sort of OCD trigger in my brain which instead of helping me, completely derails me when I don't succeed exactly as planned...go figure!

Mine is very skittish. Lately, I've been focusing on the trends and patterns, so this post couldn't have happened at a better time! ;)

Lessee...

I lose 1-1.5 lbs every week. The day after I see my new low weight, my weight bounces back to a high. For instance, yesterday was my new low of 152.3. Today, I am 153.8, a weight I haven't seen in 2 weeks. Next week, it will go to maybe 152, but then bounce up again. This also depends on the quality of my food. I find that if I have a carb-y day even if I'm within my calories, I will gain weight due to to water retention. I love carbs and I have them in moderation but once in a while I do overdo it. I've come to accept this about myself - it keeps me sane and that's what matters. :)

I'm really loving this thread - it's great to see everybody's responses!

Thanks for all the responses. It's very interesting to read all the different patterns - some whoosh-gain-hold like mine, some steady small losses, some a combination. I really hope that folks who are newer to the whole weight loss experience will take heart when they read all your comments and start to understand that the standard advice of averaging 1-2lbs of loss a week doesn't necessarily mean marching along with 1.5lbs loss week after week like clockwork. :)