04-15-2007, 09:49 AM
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Age: 32
Pacific Beach, CA
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Scientific Answers to ups & downs, and a few Questions..
I have just looked up some info because I've been haunted by my dissatisfaction with the ups&downs. I know the quickie explanation, but I like to know the real science!!! I still have some questions. Hope this is helpful and I look forward to any other answers!
“We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning.”ffice ffice" />>>
I know that fluctuations are normal, but I do weigh myself every day because I don’t want to weigh myself once a week taking the chance the day I choose might be the heaviest day! Daily weighings allow me to see the average, and the trend. To each his own.>>
“Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water.” >>
Watch out for frozen meals….even though they’re low cal!!!>>
“Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum.” >>
“Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss.”>>
“Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it.”>>
My question is: you don’t eliminate the whole meal at once, not even in a day, but how does that magical weight loss happen with digestion?? I lose lbs. from sleep to wake regardless of if I’ve used the bathroom or not. Does it just evaporate?? That’s always baffled me. >>
Do you lose any REAL fat weight on a Low Carb Diet?>>
“Probably not in the first three days--unless you cut 1200 calories out of your usual diet, too. But once you have gotten through the first week or two another benefit of low carbing kicks in that does make it much easier for most people to cut out the calories they need to cut to lose real fat.” >>
“That's because when you cut out your carbs you eliminate the blood sugar swings that cause hunger in most people. The cravings you used to get when dieting may fade out in as little as two weeks. When you stop eating in response to those nasty hunger cravings, you will find it much easier to eat a whole lot less than you used to. It is the drop in calorie intake that follows this drop in hunger that that results in the very real and often dramatic weight loss so many long-term low carbers report.”>>
Will you gain it all back when you go off the diet?>>
“Many books and experienced low carb dieters warn that low carbing brings with it a "devil's bargain." You can lose the weight but if you do, you must make low carbing a "way of eating" for the rest of your life. The instant weight regain that low carbers experience tends to confirm that this is true, which can be very frightening if for one reason or another the dieter decides to return to a balanced-type diet. But the good news is that this may not be as true as most people think. It is true that dieting off more than 10% of your body weight using any diet makes the body "fight for fat" when you go back to eating an non-reduced calorie diet. If you stop low carbing and start pounding the calories you will gain weight, and like any lapsed dieter, you may end up fatter than before. But the equation hasn't changed. You still need to eat 3,500 more calories than you burn. The only "rapid" regain the low carb dieter will experience is the water weight that comes with glycogen refilling. Once you've put on that four plus pounds--whatever you took off when you started the diet--weight gain will proceed slowly--probably no faster than the rate at which you took it off, and often at a slower pace if you regulate your calorie intake to match what you burn off.” >>
“This is good news, because it means that low carbing does not trap you into staying with a way of eating unless that way of eating is something you want to stick with. But low carbers need to remember every time that every time you get on the scale your REAL weight--the weight you will be when you stop dieting-- is whatever you weigh now plus whatever you lost during the first week or two of the diet. If you go off plan for a day, don't panic when you step on the scale. That instant three pounds is only water. Compare what you weigh--with the water--to what you weighed the last time you went off plan. It's less, isn't it? And that is REAL weight loss!”>>
I like the end of the last paragraph. I’m not necessarily doing a low carb diet, but think it is still good info. The last paragraph speaks to the trend you’ll see on the scale. Good to know that my fluctuation up now puts me at a weight that’s a bit lower than the last weight I fluctuated up to, and that reflects real weight loss.>>
I STILL want to know why I feel so much better lately, and think I look a little better, but the loss is so minimal. I don’t want to be crazy and imagining I look thinner than I do just because I’m motivated and sticking to my diet. I was terrified to do measurements. I don’t like those numbers. Is there any explanation????? Any other way to know if I’m imagining that I look better? >>
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