I’ve been in a deficit the whole time. Counting every single calorie. Drinking all the water. Trying to meet my macros. I’m burning around 2600-2900 a day based on my activity level and eating between 1300-1700 depending on said activity level (never going above 1700).
Someone say something encouraging please 😭
by Bruineraccount24
31 Comments
You have likely lost weight and this is a lot of water retention. Keep going, trust the process.
This is completely normal. Rest assured if you’re hitting your goals in terms of calories you are losing fat and there is progress. The scale does not reflect muscle/water/fat balance.
1500 is quite a drastic cut if you are a male that started at 230 lbs 20ish days ago. You should be seeing results almost daily.
Are you accounting for oil and cooking method?
If you are tracking your calories correctly, the only thing I can think of is you are weighing inconsistently. Other than that, you could be part of the <1% that has some health condition which makes it more difficult to lose weight.
Best weigh in is every morning after using the toilet with clothes off.
This happens to me sometimes. Usually, around the 8th or 9th day, I’ll drop 2 or 3 pounds all at once.
I’ve stayed **9 weeks** at the same weight while in a consistent calorie deficit the whole time. I was retaining water. Then it went away.
9 weeks is an unusually long time for the scale to stay the same, 4 days is not. It is very, very normal for the scale to stay the same for days if not a few weeks and then drop off a lot over a few days.
Weighing yourself every day is not a good idea if it’s going to cause you to get stressed out. Weighing yourself every couple of weeks or once a month can be better, especially in the beginning when you need to focus on establishing new habits rather than obsessing about results.
Make sure to weigh at the same time every day, preferably asap in the morning. Otherwise you’ll see four lb variations and be excited or sad depending on which side catches you first.
As many have mentioned, week to week plateaus are fairly common. When I did 1500 to lose 30lbs I would stay the same weight for a week or two at a time but still managed to lose weight the subsequent weeks. My advice for CICO peeps, is to avoid weighing yourself daily. Weekly or even bi-weekly made a lot more sense to me and overall helped me on my journey. Good luck! You can do it!
Super normal!!! My body usually does this for a week or two and then there the whoooosh where you go down like 3 lbs “overnight”. Just last month my body did it for like 3 or 4 weeks, it was aggravating but then one day I woke up to the scale going down 4lbs. Bodies are weird in the way the hold on to and let go of weight. As long as you’re counting calories/tracking accurately, you’re doing everything you can and the weight will come off!! 🤍
The whoosh
Your initial losses weren’t fat but mostly water and bloating from junk food. I think you can’t expect to lose the same amount forever.
At your deficit, you should be losing about 2lbs per week.
I think it’s best not to watch the paint dry because you’ll get demotivated by results like this. Instead, what worked best for me is to agree that this is my life now for the foreseeable future.
Essentially: Live everyday as if it were your last. That doesn’t mean eat like a pig, it means live today as if this is how you want to live the rest of your life. That is healthy eating, and exercising regularly. And I imagine you don’t want to track your weight everyday for the next 20 years? In that case, chill with your new normal.
I usually have 3-4 days of pause/increase in weight, followed by a bigger loss. Except when my hormones take over (I’m female), then it’s a week without ‘progress’.
If you’re tracking and you followed your plan, take it easy and trust the process, maybe use a weight tracker that follows your trend as well, it’s easier on the eyes.
Unless this is also 7 days since you started I’m more shocked you’ve seen a loss daily to this point
By your goal, you’ve lost more than expected since you started. You’re averaging about 2.3 pounds per week loss, which seems right in line with your stated deficit. I think you have to step back and look at the bigger picture better. You know you didn’t have an 11,000 calorie deficit over 3 days (10/15 to 10/18), so obviously that drop in weight doesn’t correlate with the expected drop. That’s going to happen, you’ll lose fat and water weight, then you might stabilize and lose again. Being a female, I assume you have hormonal fluctuations as well. If you’re about to start your period, your weight staying almost the same or even going slightly up for about a week is normal. You’ll likely see a large drop after your period ends. If you started your diet right after that time of the month passed, then that can also explain your initial quick loss.
Just keep being accurate with your intake logging and tracking your activities. If, over a long period of time, you notice that the loss isn’t matching what you’re expecting, then either your intake or output numbers are wrong or both.
This is normal. My advice would be to not weigh daily. Shift to once a week, maximum. It’s so much harder to see the overall trend day-by-day. You start lose the forest for the trees when dwelling on daily numbers. Also, keep in mind that as a woman, your monthly hormone changes will impact water retention.
“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.“ (James Clear) … I’m on a reread of his book Atomic Habits and it’s been a godsend for keeping myself motivated
Go from Daily to Weekly and don’t think about the days in between.
The Trend is Important.
Each week same day in the morning.
A plateau from time to time is normal.
Don’t forget, your body don’t like rapid changes in your weight.
It is designed „to survive“
This is why I only count and compare the weekly average. It helps me to see the slighest decreases.
You’re fine, this is expected. It’d exceptional NOT to have a period of “hey, I’m in a deficit, what gives?”
As for WHY, it’s almost certainly water retention. That crap is heavy. I think the recommended 3 liters of water (or whatever it was) a day translates to around 7 pounds…? It’s good though, means your hydrated. Better you plateau than dry out like a saltine.
Just keep swimming friend. I really think these meticulous daily logs only hurt your mind in the long run bc this is normal, not every day is gonna be Christmas morning if you know what I mean. You
know you’re doing everything right so hang in there
Not sure how long you’ve been doing this, but in general the first 10lbs are water weight. So if you’re new, just know that it takes a lot longer than 3 weeks to lose weight and it’s not linear. If you’re not new, it’s not linear.
As a side note – this spreadsheet looks amazing! Did you find it online or did you make it yourself? I want to use it myself 😅
KEEP IT UP!
I was stuck hovering over 200 lbs for a couple weeks even though I was doing everything correctly and then out of nowhere, dropped down into onederland and every week since has been a success.
Sitting at 190 lbs now.
You can’t make a plant grow by watching it, but it won’t grow if you stop watering it because it’s not growing fast enough
Check weekly not daily bud
Same thing been happening me and then I’ll drop 4lb in like 2 days
Yo, you are checking your weight WAYYY too often. Once a week is enough. Sometimes your weight will stay the same for even a week, then the next week it’ll drop double.
Relax. It’s not that deep. If you’re doing it right, it’ll happen, don’t force it or stress about it.
I’m in the same boat friend. But then I went to my dads house and he said I looked thinner still after two weeks. I think part of it is recomposition. I’m doing a quick fast today to recalibrate my eating and noticed I was I taking in more sodium these past two weeks so maybe I’m holding more water or something too. Either way keep going! This is just the 3rd plateau I’ve hit and eventually they pass from my experience.
Please remember that body weight == fat weight
Your body is most likely holding onto water right now. Hence why we shouldn’t really measure ourselves every day. Drinking some more water and staying away from sodium/artificial sugars should help. Be sure to make note with how often your bathroom visits are, too. Constipation is very likely if you don’t have enough fiber in you.
If your weight does not go down within a month, take off 100-ish cal of your daily budget and see what happens. This is what I’m currently doing and my body was able to re-set itself.
Make sure to also look at actual measuring tape measurements, too. They will more accurately tell you how your body is doing, but it may also take longer to see huge change.
Be sure to take maintenance breaks when needed!
This might make you feel better.
I started doing 1500/cal at the end of July. I went from 305 to 275 by beginning of October.
I fell off the wagon early October for various reasons, and started eating poorly again. Pizza, fast food, no calorie counting. Was certain I gained back like 10lbs.
I got back on the wagon today, starting weight 272!
So despite the near month of shitty eating, I still somehow managed to shed 3lbs.
Don’t sweat the short term stuff and mini plateaus! A week long stall isn’t anything to get flustered over. Just keep it up and you’ll get results.
I tend to plateau for a week or two, then lose 2-3lb all at once. Don’t worry, just keep going!
It happens. Water or waste. Trust the process