I've noticed several journal entries lately where people are reacting - usually with stress - to daily changes in the scale. At this point, I'm just about convinced that misinterpreting weight changes as changes in body mass is one of the biggest obstacles to successful long-term changes in body composition. Changes in total body fat just don't happen that quickly, except in extreme or unusual circumstances (think, The Biggest Loser). It's not quite as bad as turning an oil tanker around, but it's close. If you have a few slices of "indulgence" pizza, the 2 pounds you gain on the scale next day will not be body fat. Some of it might be, or none. You might even have
less body fat, despite the uptick. But you didn't add 2 pounds of fat overnight.
Anyway, here's my weight chart since the beginning of September:
It was Sep 2 that I decided to switch from bulking at 3200 cal/day, down to a cut. The first week I was averaging around 2500/day. The second I moved it down to 2400. This week, I'm around 2300 to 2350. At the rate I had been adding mass during the bulk, it seemed that I was burning between 2900 and 3000 calories per day. Unless I slowed down my non-exercise activity once I began restricting calories (and I think I may have), I would expect that my deficit since September 3 would have resulted in about 2.5 lbs of fat loss.
Back to the chart. The day after I cut back, I dropped down to 178.5. Amazing! But obviously just a big change in my glycogen and water levels. Two weeks later, on September 17, I was 180.4. If I just compared these two plot points, my cut was starting horrendously. After two weeks of restricted calories, I was 2 lbs heavier.
This is what the trendline is for. Smoothing that chart out, Excel thinks I've lost...just about 2 pounds. Right in the ballpark of where I should be.
And this is why the process takes a lot of patience. Even though the scale was 2 pounds higher on Sep 17 than Sep 3, I had actually lost about 2 lbs of fat. If there's one feature I wish FatSecret would add to help maintain its users' collective sanity, it would be tools for showing the actual trends in a weight chart that will always follow a sawtooth pattern.
In the meantime, there's always Excel.
