No, seriously, what is it? I understand the concept, but when (and how) do you recognize when you stop losing water weight and start losing actual weight? When you lose water weight does it just stay away if you keep to your diet? Like, if I lose 5 pounds of water weight in the first two weeks, and 1 pound of actual weight in the third week, will I still be down 6 pounds in the long run or will that water weight creep back on?

I don't know if this makes any sense, I'm just kind of confused about the whole concept and looking for some answers!

This may help a bit:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...er-weight.html

Because I think that pure speculation untethered by actual data is always helpful, I have a theory to share. Since about 60 percent of the body is composed of water, the actual amount of water your body needs to have to function well decreases as your body weight decreases. For example, assuming the 60 percent number is true for you - At 200 pounds, your body will have 120 pounds of water. At 100 pounds, it would only have 60 pounds of water. So water loss is going to decrease your weight, and some of that water loss will be permanent, as you no longer need it to function. But - I am a big proponent of staying hydrated. (Radical, I know.) So, I will not wear a sweat suit to work out or take diaretics for weight loss, for example. I just drink lots of water and focus on what I can do to achieve fat loss and trust the water will take care of itself. And drive me crazy along the way.

This makes a lot of sense to me!

Here are 2 good articles as well:
Talks about water weight in relation to fat loss.
Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat

Nice article on the squishy fat and wooshes. Thanks for posting!

Arctic Mama- That article WAS very helpful! Thank you!

LaurieDawn- That theory definitely makes sense to me. I've never thought about it that way before, although it seems totally logical

When we lose weight we want to lose fat, but we always lose water and muscle mass as well. So there is never a time when we "lose actual weight". It's part of what makes figuring out how weight loss is going difficult.

It's also part of what makes me want to hurl the scale across the room sometimes. Stay on plan for days only to watch the scale go up! Probably "water weight" but the scale doesn't distinguish!

Thanks Taryl for the article!