Why weight loss in spurts?

EagleRiverDee

EagleRiverDee

New member
I'm wondering if someone more experienced in weight loss can tell me why I lose weight in spurts?

Quick background: I am 37, started gaining weight at 28. I was 135, my high was 225. Since April I've lost a little weight and am now 206. I found out earlier this year that I had a hypothyroid autoimmune disease called Hashimotos, and under my doctor's supervision simultaneously began treatment for my thyroid, an anti-inflammatory diet (foods known to cause immune reactions are out- otherwise very similar to the Mediterranean diet) and exercise. I work out at the gym 3-4 days a week for about 50 minutes to an hour of resistance training. I also walk several times a week with my dog or sometimes hiking. My dog walks last 45 minutes to an hour.

My question is- I will drop 1/2 lb a day for several days, then plateau and not lose any weight at all for a week, then start dropping again. Why? And even more oddly, the weight comes off fastest on my "rest days" where I'm not exercising. Why?

I'm pretty sure it's not diet- I don't eat more on workout days than on rest days. I thought it was possibly a fluid retention thing, but I don't know. Since I'm new to the forum and there are so many wise people here, I thought I'd pose the question to the forum and see if anyone knew. If this question has been asked before, I apologize.
 
Perfectly natural and one of the reasons I'm not a fan of daily, or even weekly weighing. Just sooooo many variables involved in fat loss. Our bodies are very adaptable and they dont wanna lose fat. Also people forget just how little a half a pound is. Its about a cup of water. Thats a good pee! Or an average BM, or a shirt, hell my wallet weights 3 ounces and my watch weights the same. .........You get where I'm going?

If ya wanna know for curiosities sake, thats cool but I dont think you are gonna get a good answer, at least not one you wont need a degree to understand.
 
There's an article that has a straight forward answer - although the easy answer is that human bodies are strange ;)



I'm not sure if this answers the 'why rest days' part, but when you workout it puts stress on your muscles and your body responds to this by giving your muscles more water to hang on to until you recover a little - so you're more likely to see a decrease on recovery days.
 
Jeanette401 said:
There's an article that has a straight forward answer - although the easy answer is that human bodies are strange ;)
Click to expand...

I definitely lose weight in "stalls and whooshes." It has always seemed like my body would spend a week or so turning fat into water, and then whoosh it away in a couple of days where I seemed to be peeing all the time. The idea of fat turning to water didn't make any sense to me - it was just the way I came to think of it.

So I like McDonald's theory, because it seems plausible and it matches my experience. After all, what is a fat cell but a little vessel full of fluid with fatty acids suspended in it? It makes sense that there might be 2 phases to shrinking a fat cell - first extracting the fatty acids and then emptying out the fluid.

I think it's even more complicated than that, actually. There is now pretty good evidence that so-called "visceral fat" is a different kind of fat with different properties than fat on other parts of the body. I wouldn't be surprised if we eventually learn that there are multiple types of fat cells which respond differently in various stages of weight loss.

For instance, I have noticed that after about 3 months of weight loss I hit a plateau where my weight stays steady but the fat seems to be redistributing itself - this is when I notice my face and neck looking thinner, and suddenly my shirts and tops get baggy. I have a theory that there is a reservoir of 8-15 pounds of "fast fat" that gets tapped during quick weight loss (for me, in the lower abdomen). Once that is exhausted the body tries to build it back up again, first by stimulating hunger, then if you don't give in and start regaining the lost weight by redistributing fat elsewhere in the body into the "fast fat" reservoir.

This is totally my own crackpot theory - I have absolutely no scientific evidence for this, just my own experience.
 
I like your theory sharoo- makes me think I have some hope left after initial weight loss "whoosh" and maybe I will continue to lose weight even after having to pick myself back up off the "gotta eat now!!" floor (had a blip all last week, my 1500kcal diet became 1850kcals again but still down from the initial 2000kcals).

With regards to the weight coming off more on rest days, are you sure your not confusing weight loss with water loss?

See, when you exercise, your body uses the muscles. When it uses muscles, the muscles create something called lactic acid. Once the lactic acid is created, the body works to get this taken away from the muscles and out through the blood stream, to the liver/kidneys (not sure which!) and then excreted. It doesn't want the lactic acid to stay in the muscles as it is able to cause harm. But in order to get this lactic acid out, it has to flood the muscles with fluid. This is what gives guys their "pumped up" look and is why their "pumped up" look generally only lasts a few hours at best.
So you take a rest day, your not using your muscles as intensly and there is no need for the body to flood the muscles with any fluid. (Blood). So your body holds less fluid, you lose more fluid and you weigh less.

I doubt its fat loss on these days, I'd have thought fat loss happens a little more gradually, very slowly being that your body cannot metabolise more then about 2lbs a week max, anything else is water and glycogen.
 
Sharoo-

I like your theory too! Maybe it explains why one night a week or so I'll be up all night going to the bathroom- I'm peeing out the fat! LOL.

I do think you're likely right that there are different types of fats that respond differently. I mean, there is with just about every other cell we have, why should fat be different? Our bodies are complex.
 
summer123 said:
With regards to the weight coming off more on rest days, are you sure your not confusing weight loss with water loss? .. <good info snipped - see original post>
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Makes sense, but I'm not the one who noticed more weight loss on rest days. I seem to lose weight in little whooshes every 7-10 days. If I get stalled and stop seeing weight loss completely I will do 1-3 days on a low carb, low salt, low calorie diet and about 3 pounds will come off. Assuming I continue on eating at maintenance level or below, that weight stays gone. So, although this is obviously water weight, it seems to be delayed fat loss as well. That's the observation that led me to my "fat turns to water" crackpot theory. It makes more sense than believing that it is possible to lose 3 pounds of actual fat in 3 days. ;)
 
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I was actually thinking about your theory today when on the treadmill today sharoo- came up with this to support your theory:

When you eat enough to support your weight, your body saves some of that energy in the form of glycogen and holds it on a space around your middle (that bits fact not theory) its one of the reason people swear by low carb diets: it gets rid of the glycogen but the second they eat so much as a slice of bread its back again, its not fat on the stomach, its glycogen, its in a space which is easily obtainable for the body to utilise for energy.

Now (my addition to your theory) what if the body had no more glycogen? well we all know what happens then; it takes its energy part from broken down fat cells, part from broken down muscle cells. But where does it hold onto this energy? well maybe it breaks down this energy and stores it where the glycogen used to be, maybe it breaks down this energy and it becomes glycogen so it can be used- maybe thats why the space on our bellies change- because sometimes its filled with broken down fat/muscle cells and other times those have been used up for fuel and its busy breaking down more cells.

Have done no research on this to say either way (its 2.30am here and I'm too tierd!) but makes sense in my head anyway!
 
I experience a similar sort of thing. I might be stable for a few days, or even gain, then suddenly lose 3 pounds in a day, then lose a little bit every day and so on.

I think a lot of it has to do with what you eat (like eating salty foods or carbs will cause you to retain water), how frequent your bowel movements are, simply the amount you eat (the more you eat the more water retention, the more stomach contents weight). Also as a woman you may have hormonal fluctuations causing you to retain/lose water.
 
Great observation. I've noticed that as well about the sudden weight loss. I like to think of it as like an automatic car that changes to a higher gear, only when you ease up on the accelerator. Makes me think the body has gears too and the higher gear you reach, the more your body can do; a positive analogy. But I have also heard that the more 'glycogen' you have stored around your middle, the more at risk you are of developing diabetes and heart disease. There is research that also suggests that in insulin-resistant people any unused glucose doesn't get stored in fat cells but is converted to blood fat, like triglycerides, and just flows around the body. This increases the likelihood of blocked arteries and high blood pressure. Apparently, cutting out sugar and other refined carbs is the key to reducing this visceral fat and blood fats.
 
So is there an answer to this? Becuase I can work out 5-7 days a week & lose maybe 2 lbs in a week... but when I stop working out for a few days I can lose 2-3lbs in just a few days while not exercising. I also wondered why that is...:toetap05:
 
Bdubedub said:
So is there an answer to this? Becuase I can work out 5-7 days a week & lose maybe 2 lbs in a week... but when I stop working out for a few days I can lose 2-3lbs in just a few days while not exercising. I also wondered why that is...:toetap05:
Click to expand...

diet / water weight
 
So Im dropping water weight? But it doesnt come back usually once I lose it, shouldnt water weight come back?
 
Not always cause while you might lose some of it as water, you are still losing fat as well during all this. I'm actually thinking more your diet than water weight.
 
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