Official 2015 Fitness Challenge

Down 13lbs from my high weight

Lost an inch off my hips! I might actually reach my goal weight this month (although I'll probably mess it up on my birthday, but oh well). Pretty excited.

I plan to do SOMETHING, but I dont know yet. I dont have access to a very good gym, but since my work involves slinging 60 lb bags of mulch and dirt all summer, I need to get in better shape. I hate being little AND weak!

My scale lied.. I think.

I think my scale lied to me.

So I haven't weighed myself in several years. Four days ago I got my scale and weighed myself. It said I weighed 139.2 pounds (I think toward the end of the day, with clothes).

4 days later (today) is the next time I weighed myself in the morning with no clothes. It said I weighed 132.2 pounds.

Where did that 7 pounds go? I think my clothes would have been a maximum of 1 pound (jeans, shirt, etc).

I really do not feel like I have lost 7 pounds. Especially from four days ago, I have been more active before the four days ago, but then this last week wasn't that active.

Is it that I am eating/drinking 5+ pounds a day?

I'm sure you lost some weight, but people def. Underestimate how much clothes weigh. I bet your clothes were closer to 3-4 lbs and then there was the difference in time of day (If it was before you had breakfast). you probably did lose a few lbs though!

Well did you pee a lot? It's common to lose a lot of water weight when you start eating at a deficit.

Consider that a good poop might weigh a pound.

You weighed toward the end of the day so you had been eating and drinking all day. The next time you weighed yourself was in the morning, presumably before you ate or drank anything. I actually just had this conversation with my sister yesterday about glycogen stores and depleting them and then how quickly you "gain weight" by replenishing your glycogen stores (and thus water bonded to the glycogen.)

If you're going to weigh yourself a lot, it doesn't matter if you do it at the beginning of the day or the end of the day so long as you generally weigh yourself at the same time every time you do. Don't hop on the scale one morning then two days later the evening then two days later mid-day then evening again and then the next morning and expect that somehow you're going to gain useful data from that.

You are right, just out of curiosity sake, I got up on the scale saw how much it said I weighed with the clothes im wearing now, and then got on the scale holding clothes I normally wear on a given day and it added 3 pounds.

So, with clothing taken away, that leaves it at a 4 pound deficit. And when I weighed myself the first time with clothes on today it said 137 and that is after eating and drinking all day including dinner. So take away 3 pounds for clothes, 134lbs. So I gained about 2 pounds today eating/drinking.

From now on I plan to weight myself after waking up, before getting dressed so I will have more accurate measurements.

I have been peeing a lot more lately now that I am drinking more water.. not sure if that is what you mean?

Yes, I will be more consistent about the scale thing, 4 days ago I just got my scale so I just wanted to see where I was at for curiosity, but plan on only weighing in mornings.

Can you explain this glycogen stores/depleting them/gaining weight by replenishing them?

Thanks!

overly simplified (I am on my phone) glycogen is carbs stored in your muscles to produce energy. glycogen has been found to hold 3 to 4 g of water per g of glycogen. when you are in a deficit either caloric or carb (ketosis) your stores of glycogen start to deplete as your body uses it's stored energy. exercise also depletes them, scientific explanation behind "hitting a wall" when you do long endurance exercise. this means you lose weight but not fat, and when you eat at or above maintenance your muscles grab back on to the glycogen which means massive water retention again - or weight gain but not specifically fat gain.

there's lots of info online about how to try and use glycogen depletion to your advantage for fat loss, and some far better explanations than this smartphone overly simplified one haha. bodybuilding.com should have some good info.

i'm of the opinion, I don't care how much glycogen I burn, I don't care how much my body puts back and water retention isn't always a bad thing. Weight is a number, that's it. There's 150lbs of good stuff, and 150lbs of not so good stuff and ratios of of the "good" and "bad" that make us healthy, or not so healthy.

Health should be about health. Weight should be about healthy. Lifting weights, running, walking, box jumps, handstand pushups, etc, should be about health.

there is no need to weigh yourself that often, or figure for clothes, or don't drink so you weigh less or think because you weighed one thing at night and another in the morning that it means anything. It's a number, and weighing in the morning isn't more "accurate", it's just usually less because you haven't eaten or drank anything in 8 hours or more. that's it. Is a person not to eat or drink to maintain that "number"? how does that make a person more healthy?

a scale doesn't tell you if you're healthy anyway. There are loads of "thin" people that are extremely unhealthy and continue to do unhealthy things every day to maintain that number.

Pick a time during the day, usually morning or evening, wear about the same style clothes, no shoes and take a measurement. do it again tomorrow, same time. Now, for the next 2 months eat real food, move every day and then weigh yourself again in 2 months and even then, it doesn't mean much. 150lbs can be healthy or unhealthy depending on what is making up that 150lbs. The number doesn't matter, what you DO matters, what you EAT matters. the scale doesn't mean anything. It makes people continue to focus on the stuff that makes no difference.

I know when i'm not moving enough or eating the right foods. I don't need a scale to tell me that. and if you are eating real food and getting up and moving every day and often, what is the scale going to do for you? motivate you to do more? less? is the number the motivation?

If it made it sound like I'm suggesting something extreme I am not. Just saying that this "mystery" where people "lose" and then "gain" five pounds over the matter of a day is not a mystery, it's very simple, and it's normal, and when people obsess over a number on the scale they are looking at the wrong thing because of things like glycogen levels or even if you have a big poopie still in your intestines.

it wasn't for you I know you were just explaining why weight changes so much in a day and it is completely normal and expected.

It's just every weight loss method, book, motivation, etc is all about "weight", measure, measure, measure. I fight a losing battle and tell everyone the numbers don't matter because they really don't. Quit using them as motivators because misplaced motivators take your focus to a different place.

Health, Health, health, that's it. at least for me I know when i'm doing well and when i'm being a typical American. I don't need a blood test, a weight scale, a BMI, a body composition, or anything else to measure me.

Wow I didn't mean to upset anyone. I simply wanted an explanation of why the dramatic difference in weight. And beanie gave that to me, thank you!

I am just a curious person which is why I weighed my clothes. I decided the easiest measurement for me would be in the morning before anything else so I can track weight reliably. Just as another tool in the toolbox to motivate me to do more. I also bought a tape measure thing as I've heard measuring will show you faster results than a scale.

I guess for me, I am not motivated by oh wow I was more active today or ate better. I need to see numbers to motivate me and see results to keep going. Which is one of the biggest reasons I stop trying to be healthy is because when I look in the mirror I don't see results and quickly lose motivation.

I am just trying as many things to show me data that will help motivate me.

I realize that the actual number on the scale doesn't really matter, yet I have a goal of 120-125 pounds. But if I look in the mirror at 130 pounds and I'm like wow I look so much more fit! Then that's great too.

I am such a picky eater that this will for sure be my worst battle to overcome on getting healthier, so right now I am trying to focus on moving more.

Since I have been tracking calories, I have noticed it is easier for me to pass up on treats as I realize how quickly it is to eat so many calories. So that is good for now. I'm trying to eat healthier breakfasts more often than not and am trying to figure out some healthy lunches or snacks. At least one meal a day I eat whatever I want though. But I know if I switched to all healthy right away that I would not stick with it for very long at all, as I find most healthy foods disgusting.

you didn't upset anyone.

Lifters - please give suggestions for decent gloves? I was hoping my hands would toughen up after a few weeks of 4 days/week, but they're still blistered and painful and it's interfering with my circuit because sometimes the discomfort in my hands causes me to stop to set the dumbbells down for a minute.

Can you try chalk instead? Or if you're in a box, dirt? I honestly hate using gloves. But the best thing to do is actually go somewhere and try them on and find one that FEELS best for your hands. I looked into ordering some online for ages and always talked myself out of it because for every person who loved how they fit, somebody hated it, or it didn't fit as expected or didn't fit right or or or. The pair I own I bought at TJMaxx. I have no clue what brand they are, but I tried them on and I liked how they fit. But in practice I despise having gloves between my hands and the bar... so they are in my gym bag, but I don't ever use them.

If you have open blisters you honestly may need to stop and let the blisters heal. If you keep ripping them open every time, you could actually end up with an infection. Despite what a lot of lifters say (bro-science!!), a blister does not "turn into" a callus. Then slow down a little and lift a little bit lighter so you develop a callus WITHOUT getting a blister.

You might also need to check your grip and make sure you're gripping properly, or if you're using a wrapped grip try a non-wrapped grip, and vice versa.

Different people have different goals, and IMHO - that's totally fine. When I started running, it had nothing to do with health or weight loss. "Running a 5K" was a Thing I wanted to do, like somebody might say "I want to learn how to paint" or "I want to learn how to cook." I still don't run with the mindset "this is making me healthier!" It's just plain not how I approach it. I run because I enjoy it. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't do it. Some people run to lose weight and that's fine. If we all cross the finish line together, who really cares about what our motivation behind the activity is?

So long as people aren't doing anything dangerous or self-destructive, I don't think it matters that much. I would caution you against becoming too concerned with the scale too often, and to keep in mind that the scale may also not accurately reflect what you are going to be seeing in the mirror. I think if you find something you enjoy doing, regardless if it's linked to what people think of as "exercise," you will keep doing it.

Which is exactly my point. If you're eating healthy and moving enough every day, nothing else matters. The issue is the "dangerous" and "self-destructing" which happens very often when the numbers become the goal. When fitting into certain pants are the goal, when being able to bench press 245lb 10x's becomes the goal, I'm sure you're familiar with the very unhealthy and self destructive things people do to reach their "numbers".

Some more self destructing than others and just because it's not put you in a hospital destructive today, doesn't mean that building a lifetime disdain for movement and rejecting healthy foods and the short term goal reaching coupled with long term unhealthy habits isn't self destructive. It is.

It's not a specific argument made against a single person and a specific moment in time, it's a general statement about the culture of "health" in this country and weight loss

I don't care how much your scale says you weigh, if you find healthy food "disgusting" and don't eat it, do you think it matters if a scale says you weigh 125lbs?

We think because we go to a gym for an hour a couple times a week, if that, we're good. Better than nothing, but not really "good" either. Sure you can maintain numbers on that regime, but 40 years of data show us that sedentary during most of the day and and an hour of even intense exercise, doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things regarding health. You would not believe the laundry list of health ailments that long distance runners come in with and how many experience early death. It doesn't mean running is bad for you, but many have focus on things other than health, and thus pay for it with their health.

Hey man, early death means I don't have to worry about retirement. That's what I'm aiming for. I should run a couple marathons to speed that one up.

the first guy ran only one and he died,

Oh, and you think the focus on health is better than people trying to reach a number? How is that less destructive than focusing on a weight goal?

I find it hilarious actually, because most of the people I see on MFP who keep talking about eating clean are MISERABLE, don't know how to deal with their cravings and/or keep binging. I fail to see how that's healthier in the long run. Mental and emotional health matters too...