Week 2 Curse?!
 

Hello all-

I've been calorie counting and working out pretty strong for almost two weeks now. In my first week, I dropped 5 lbs! So exciting! But this second week has proven to be a stand off between me and the scale.

I know I probably should only weigh myself at the end of every week. But right now, I'm trying to experiment with how many calories I should eat and how much exercise to do, so I'm weighing myself pretty regularly and trying to figure out a pattern with the weight loss and the calorie intake. I don't want to starve my body so much that it goes into survival mode, and I don't want to overfeed it. I'm trying to find the balance.

So, I've been weighing myself this week and I've not lost a pound! This was really frustrating for me at first, but then I remembered on that on the Biggest Loser, week two was always the worst. I think I have myself a case of the week 2 curse.

Has anyone else experienced this?? I'm hoping you have so I can confirm my suspicions and be more optimistic about next week's results!

It's quite common.n people often lose a lot in week 1. It is typically water weight. You tend to not hydrate as well when you first go on a diet, which results in weight loss. In week two, you start drinking more, and there's really not more water weight to shed.

I wouldn't start experimenting with changing calories for at least a month when things have stabilized a bit.

Week 2 is when you've lost a lot of the easy water weight and your body has stabilized more. It does seem to be a slow weight loss time. I think your body freaks out and thinks, "what the h*** are you trying to do to me?"

haha yes, I've heard that week one is more about shedding toxins and its a lot of water weight. A loss is a loss is a loss though, and I'll take it!

I'll take that recommendation and try to maintain a steady calorie intake and start looking to change in about a month. :) Thanks!

I think you have nothing to worry about. I agree with not experimenting yet, just stick to your diet for now and see what happens.

Good luck!

I think it is very important people educate themselves.

The fundamentals of fat loss are what matter most. It is a very simple topic. Don't get caught up in rediculous details that for all practical purposes make no difference. For example - toxins.

An important thing you should educate yourself on is the difference between weight loss and fat loss. I'm too tired to type it up right now but the bottom line is they are not the same thing. Fat loss is an equation of energy. No matter what you read, no matter how intelligent the person seems to be, no matter how amazing the before and after pictures ... calories dictate fat loss or gain.

Just keep at it. I know there are some weeks I only drop 1 lb and some weeks I drop more than that. As for weighing yourself...weighing yourself more than once a week can really be frustrating in the long run. Your weight can fluctuate from day to day for a number of reasons.

This thread is where JohnP talks about the difference between fat loss and weight loss.

I've had the same experience... that amazing first week weight loss excitement is deflated by the stall in week 2. It'll come off. Just don't give up!

Thanks for posting that thread! I never even thought about the many fluctuations of weight and that my weight loss may not be any amount of fat loss.

A question though, is there any way to still lose fat, but have it not be reflected in the scale due to water retention? Reading this thread makes me want to chuck the scale and stick to measurements to try to measure fat loss.

There isn't a day to day correlation between what you eat and the amount of fat on your body. Stick to weekly weigh ins, track your food so you can look back and see what works and what doesn't and remember this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Use the scale, but track measurements monthly too.

Short term, yes definitely. Especially being a woman and dealing with the monthly hormonal fluctuations. At the end of my tom a few weeks ago, I suddenly lost 3-4lbs after a slight stall. Obviously, I didn't lose 3-4lbs of fat overnight, it was water weight that I lost.

But, longer term, you're not going to lose 10-20lbs of fat and have it totally hidden by water retention unless your ankles have obviously become balloons.

Some people find it helpful to weigh less often. I find it helpful to weigh every single day, because I know I haven't eaten enough to gain 2lbs of fat in 24hours, so it's just fluctuation in water weight. Seeing the scale stall for days or go up sometimes doesn't bother me too much when I can link it to hormones or a high sodium meal or something like that. Overall, the trend has been downward, which is what matters to me.

A friend of mine used to complain that eating even a small meal at KFC would have her weighing 5lbs more the next day. She obviously wasn't eating 5lbs worth of calories, her body was just really sensitive to the sodium.

Read this; http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...uishy-fat.html

Just my two cents about weighing in… I used to weigh every morning, but small weight gains got me so distracted and frustrated that it was hard to continue on some days. I discovered that for me, it takes about 36 hours for the day's eating habits to be reflected on the scale - so if I totally binge one day, I won't see it on the scale the next morning, I'll see it the morning after that.

For that reason I've decided to switch to weighing once or twice a week, in the hopes that it will smooth out the fluctuations that I would see if I were to weigh daily, and hopefully prevent me from getting discouraged!

I used to have 10 lbs a month loss when I first started now its DRIPPINGLY show, very Chinese water torture. But then I remind myself that 1 lb is 3500 cals, so to lose 10 lbs is 35000 cal deficit, and no matter how hard I diet, it takes a lot to reach that deficit! That calms me down a little when I see smaller results, if any.