Is it normal for weight to go in unpredictable "chunks"

W

WinterBreeze

New member
Since ramping my calories up to 1900 I have noticed an increase in my overall losses. I had been in something of a plateau before and was really struggling to shift more than 2-3lb a month. Since I increased my calories five weeks ago I have lost 8lb - which I am very happy with. However, I can not help but notcie that my weight doesn't fall off in a linear way and instead seems to be coming off in junks. I am at a deficit of 900 - 700 of which is from exercise. I find I lose weight best this way and it allows me to eat 1900 calories a day, which is the perfect amount to fuel my body. So far the pattern has gone like this:

Week 1- 4.8lb lost
Week 2:- 0.6lb lost
Week 3 - STS
Week 4 - 3 lost
Week 5 - 0.6 lost

Yet, as far as I can tell from my recordings, I'm doing similar things every week. For example, on week four I ate around 1930 a day and did almost eight hours of exercise in the entire week. I lost 3lb. I ate mainly healthy foods - but not totally clean (I had popcorn and pizza that week!) I weigh and measure everything I eat on digital scales, I also record my water intake, sodium intake, protein intake and log all my exercise. The only difference I can see this week is that I ate about 500 calories more (not every day, in the whole week) but burnt an extra 800 or so calories through exercise, too.

I don't mind it falling off in chunks - I'm getting a good monthly loss so far and it's in line with what I'm aiming for (1.9 lb a week!) But I was just wondering why this happens. Do you think it may be that I have REALLY lost more on the low weeks than the scales show, but it just doesn't show up on the scale till the week after (hence why I lost 4.8lb and 3lb in two of the weeks - much more than my deficit!)
 
Most weight loss isn't going to be instantaneous. Your body takes some time to show the fat loss. Water retention can also mask some weight loss.

There is a really good article about it .
 
Very interesting article. It makes a lot of sense - thanks!

This has ALWAYS been the case with my weightloss throughout the entire journey. Such as the week I stayed the same I'd been showing a 2lb loss the day before weigh-day. Then it wooshed back up and I STS. Yet the next week, I was down by 3lb (so in my mind I actually had lost 2lb the previous week, but it didn't show on the scale till the week after!)

Hope that makes sense.
 
Yeah, I've found that my weight comes off in chunks too, despite keeping up with relatively the same amount of calorie intake and exercise. One week I'll lose 5 pounds the next week I'll lose a pound. lol
 
Kayshiz said:
Most weight loss isn't going to be instantaneous. Your body takes some time to show the fat loss. Water retention can also mask some weight loss.

There is a really good article about it .
Click to expand...

Excellent article, Kayshiz! Thanks for posting, I think it explains a lot!
 
Stacy said:
Yeah, I've found that my weight comes off in chunks too, despite keeping up with relatively the same amount of calorie intake and exercise. One week I'll lose 5 pounds the next week I'll lose a pound. lol
Click to expand...

Yes. I'm precisely the same. I record every calorie- measure and log everything as accurately as I possibly can. Log all my exercise. The weeks where I lose 3 or 4lb I have ONLY been at a 900-1000 deficit. The weeks where I lose 1/2 lb I have been at MORE than a 250 deficit. There is no rhyme or reason behind my weightloss. It doesn't conform to the science. I guess I'll just have to accept it - at least I'm losing overall!

The article makes a LOT of sense.
 
WinterBreeze said:
The weeks where I lose 3 or 4lb I have ONLY been at a 900-1000 deficit. The weeks where I lose 1/2 lb I have been at MORE than a 250 deficit.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean that when you lose 3-4 pounds you are eating 900-1000 calories below your daily recommended calories and the weeks you lose 1/2 a pound you are eating 250 calories below your daily recommended calories?
 
Stacy said:
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean that when you lose 3-4 pounds you are eating 900-1000 calories below your daily recommended calories and the weeks you lose 1/2 a pound you are eating 250 calories below your daily recommended calories?
Click to expand...

Not exactly. I've noted that on the weeks where I lose 4lb and the weeks where I lose 1/2 there is no real difference in my calorie intake. So I always eat 900-1000 below my daily recommended calories. This should result in a 1.9-2lb weightloss EVERY week. But some weeks I lose a lot more than that and some weeks I lose less, despite eating practically the same number of calories.

Hope that makes sense.
 
WinterBreeze said:
Not exactly. I've noted that on the weeks where I lose 4lb and the weeks where I lose 1/2 there is no real difference in my calorie intake. So I always eat 900-1000 below my daily recommended calories. This should result in a 1.9-2lb weightloss EVERY week. But some weeks I lose a lot more than that and some weeks I lose less, despite eating practically the same number of calories.

Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...

Ok, now I understand. Yeah, I've had the same issue. But I think I may have discovered the culprit - at least for me. I think the days where I tend to "hold onto" the weight are the days when I don't drink as much water. At least I think that might be the case. I need to really go through my food diary and try and figure it out, as it's extremely annoying to be doing so well and not see any actual weight loss on the scales. lol
 
Stacy said:
it's extremely annoying to be doing so well and not see any actual weight loss on the scales. lol
Click to expand...

It is, but it is so nice when you get on the scale to go "I lost how much? When did that happen?"

Last week I would have said for sure I wasn't hitting my goal for the month, woke up today, and I'm under my goal. I love "whooshes".
 
If you are exercising, you are likely building muscle as well as losing fat. This can also be a reason why some weeks you appear to lose more than others! :)
 
shygemini said:
If you are exercising, you are likely building muscle as well as losing fat. This can also be a reason why some weeks you appear to lose more than others! :)
Click to expand...

This is only true to a point. Most people in a calorie deficit can not gain muscle, and even if you gain some initially, it will not continue long term.
 
Kayshiz said:
It is, but it is so nice when you get on the scale to go "I lost how much? When did that happen?"

Last week I would have said for sure I wasn't hitting my goal for the month, woke up today, and I'm under my goal. I love "whooshes".
Click to expand...

Whooshes are fun aren't they? lol And you're right, they 99% of the time follow my "stalled" periods. heh
 
shygemini said:
I respectfully disagree :)
Click to expand...

From Lyle McDonald:

"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second."


"So consider an individual who is carrying quite a bit of fat and not very much muscle. Your typical overfat beginner trainee. Let’s look a bit at what’s going on physiologically for this person.

One consequence of the excess body fat is a systemic insulin resistance and this is especially true for fat cells. Basically, when fat cells start to get full, they become more resistant to further caloric storage. That is to say: insulin resistance actually develops as an adaptation to obesity and this is one reason that obesity is often associated with things like hyperglycemia, hypertriglyercidemia and hypercholesterolemia; the fat cells get so full that they stop accepting more calories. So instead of being stored, glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol sit in the bloodstream. In that vein, and quite contrary to popular belief, insulin resistance actually predicts weight loss and insulin sensitivity weight gain but that’s another topic for another day.

So we have a situation in overfat folks where fat cells are sort of trying to ‘push calories away’ from the fat cells. That’s point #1.

The second thing to consider is the untrained state and the fact that when people start training, they always make gains in both strength and muscle mass faster. That is, beginners have the potential to gain muscle at a much faster rate (and more easily in terms of the stimulus needed) than someone trained. As well, keep in mind that regular training (both resistance training and cardio) improve muscular insulin sensitivity and nutrient uptake in that one specific tissue (training is probably the most powerful tool in our arsenal to improve nutrient uptake in that specific a fashion). That’s point #2.

So consider the combination: we have a situation with overfat beginners where fat cells are very insulin resistant and essentially trying to push calories away. Now we throw training on that, not only sending a muscle building stimulus via training but increasing nutrient uptake into skeletal muscle through effects on skeletal muscle nutrient uptake/insulin sensitivity.

And what happens under those circumstances is exactly what you’d expect: the body appears to take calories out of fat cells and use them to build muscle. And this is effectively what is happening due to the combination of the above two factors. But the combination of the two is required. A lean beginner won’t see the above because they don’t have the fat to lose/fat energy to shunt to the muscle. And as they get more advanced, the rate of muscle gain slows way down. Again, it’s the combination of overfat and beginner status that comes together here to let some magic occur.

And even there you’re not going to see the body replacing one pound of fat with one pound of muscle for very long. The rates of the different processes are simply too different. What you might see is an initial shift where muscle ‘replaces’ fat due to the calorie shunting effect but invariably it slows down and either muscle gain or (more frequently) fat loss becomes dominant."​


 
Kayshiz said:
From Lyle McDonald:

"There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second."


"So consider an individual who is carrying quite a bit of fat and not very much muscle. Your typical overfat beginner trainee. Let’s look a bit at what’s going on physiologically for this person.

One consequence of the excess body fat is a systemic insulin resistance and this is especially true for fat cells. Basically, when fat cells start to get full, they become more resistant to further caloric storage. That is to say: insulin resistance actually develops as an adaptation to obesity and this is one reason that obesity is often associated with things like hyperglycemia, hypertriglyercidemia and hypercholesterolemia; the fat cells get so full that they stop accepting more calories. So instead of being stored, glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol sit in the bloodstream. In that vein, and quite contrary to popular belief, insulin resistance actually predicts weight loss and insulin sensitivity weight gain but that’s another topic for another day.

So we have a situation in overfat folks where fat cells are sort of trying to ‘push calories away’ from the fat cells. That’s point #1.

The second thing to consider is the untrained state and the fact that when people start training, they always make gains in both strength and muscle mass faster. That is, beginners have the potential to gain muscle at a much faster rate (and more easily in terms of the stimulus needed) than someone trained. As well, keep in mind that regular training (both resistance training and cardio) improve muscular insulin sensitivity and nutrient uptake in that one specific tissue (training is probably the most powerful tool in our arsenal to improve nutrient uptake in that specific a fashion). That’s point #2.

So consider the combination: we have a situation with overfat beginners where fat cells are very insulin resistant and essentially trying to push calories away. Now we throw training on that, not only sending a muscle building stimulus via training but increasing nutrient uptake into skeletal muscle through effects on skeletal muscle nutrient uptake/insulin sensitivity.

And what happens under those circumstances is exactly what you’d expect: the body appears to take calories out of fat cells and use them to build muscle. And this is effectively what is happening due to the combination of the above two factors. But the combination of the two is required. A lean beginner won’t see the above because they don’t have the fat to lose/fat energy to shunt to the muscle. And as they get more advanced, the rate of muscle gain slows way down. Again, it’s the combination of overfat and beginner status that comes together here to let some magic occur.

And even there you’re not going to see the body replacing one pound of fat with one pound of muscle for very long. The rates of the different processes are simply too different. What you might see is an initial shift where muscle ‘replaces’ fat due to the calorie shunting effect but invariably it slows down and either muscle gain or (more frequently) fat loss becomes dominant."​
Click to expand...


Who is Lyle McDonald? I won't bother reading that unless I know it is from a reliable source (i.e., scientific research, not online propaganda).

EDIT: Did a quick search online. If I found the right person, he has absolutely no credentials, so I would not put any stock into what he said.
 
It's perfectly normal to have varying amounts of weight loss from week to week. I see this in my clients all the time. Plus don't just rely on what the scales tell you, they only tell you your gravitational attraction to the earth in terms of kg (pounds). what's more important is body composition and circumference measurements. You body composition can change (i.e you lose fat and put on a little muscle) but the scales don't change.

To best chart your progress weigh yourself once a week on the same pair of scales, on the smae day at the same time (Monday morning 7am), first thing in the morning after emptying bowels and bladder. This will give you a reliable weight, then also measure your body fat with a BEI device or fat callipers and take your waist to hip measurement. This will help you chart your progress much better.

Good luck...
 
shygemini said:
Who is Lyle McDonald? I won't bother reading that unless I know it is from a reliable source (i.e., scientific research, not online propaganda).

EDIT: Did a quick search online. If I found the right person, he has absolutely no credentials, so I would not put any stock into what he said.
Click to expand...

With all due respect shygemini, I consider Lyle to be far more reputable than you at this point. No offense intended but if you can't back up your defensive claim with anything more factual than your mere disagreement, I am in agreement with Kayshiz (and Lyle).

In my simple understanding, noob muscle gains on a calorie deficit diet are short lived. Thats why bodybuilders go thru cycles of bulking and cutting.
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Who is Lyle McDonald? I won't bother reading that unless I know it is from a reliable source (i.e., scientific research, not online propaganda).

EDIT: Did a quick search online. If I found the right person, he has absolutely no credentials, so I would not put any stock into what he said.
Click to expand...

Sure you found the right guy?

Oh, and where are your credentials? Just some username on a forum?
 
Shygemini, If you have a reputable article explaining how one can put on muscle long term while in a calorie deficit I think it would be a fantastic read, but I have yet to find one as most experts and doctors will tell you it is nearly impossible.
And unless one were doing some fairly serious weight training, not just exercising, I fail to see how you could have any muscle gain in that situation.
 
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