I ended up losing 4 lbs in one week when trying to do maintenance. Is this normal?

[acruz7439]

Last week I came over to the "What is my body fat percentage?" thread to receive some help in figuring out what my overall body fat percentage was based on the images I posted in my body space.

I was told that I was around 22% body fat and my body is most likely to go through a recomp phase if I ate at maintenance for the next 3-6 months due to me still being fairly young (I'm 21) and new at the gym.

Is it normal that I've lost 4 lbs in my first week when trying to reach maintenance calories? I was told I shouldn't expect big changes on my scale when eating at maintenance.

I've been eating at around 2000 calories and my lifts have progressed as well. However, in only about two exercises I've had to reduce the weight of my lifts simply for starting with heavy weight during the Fierce 5 program.

[AdamWW]

Last week I came over to the "What is my body fat percentage?" thread to receive some help in figuring out what my overall body fat percentage was based on the images I posted in my body space.

I was told that I was around 22% body fat and my body is most likely to go through a recomp phase if I ate at maintenance for the next 3-6 months due to me still being fairly young (I'm 21) and new at the gym.

Is it normal that I've lost 4 lbs in my first week when trying to reach maintenance calories? I was told I shouldn't expect big changes on my scale when eating at maintenance.

I've been eating at around 2000 calories and my lifts have progressed as well. However, in only about two exercises I've had to reduce the weight of my lifts simply for starting with heavy weight during the Fierce 5 program.

You say you lost 4lbs, but if you've only been doing this one week, there's no way you'd have a good average of your real bodyweight.

How often are you weighing yourself? When are you weighing yourself? And, how are you comparing weights?

[acruz7439]

You say you lost 4lbs, but if you've only been doing this one week, there's no way you'd have a good average of your real bodyweight.

How often are you weighing yourself? When are you weighing yourself? And, how are you comparing weights?

I've been weighing myself every Sunday (I began about two months ago with a bad split program I shouldn't have done since I'm a beginner) from around 8 to 10 AM. Depending on the time I would wake up.

I usually compare my weights by basically memorizing (or typing down) the weight I had the week before to now.

In this case, I was 165.50lbs when I weighed myself Sunday last week and again this week's Sunday with the overall result showing up 161.80lbs (I should've made this post yesterday instead).

[AdamWW]

I've been weighing myself every Sunday (I began about two months ago with a bad split program I shouldn't have done since I'm a beginner) from around 8 to 10 AM. Depending on the time I would wake up.

I usually compare my weights by basically memorizing (or typing down) the weight I had the week before to now.

In this case, I was 165.50lbs when I weighed myself Sunday last week and again this week's Sunday with the overall result showing up 161.80lbs (I should've made this post yesterday instead).

Weighing in once a week isn't enough if your goal is monitoring weight changes, like I said.

You can expel several pounds of water, food, etc in a single day, which can throw off your measurements. You should be weighing in every day if possible in the order with basically nothing on after using the bathroom, and then averaging the weights week over week, using a rolling average of days.

[CommitmentRulz]

Weighing in once a week isn't enough if your goal is monitoring weight changes, like I said.

This ^^^^^.

OP, as someone else here often says, scientists never want LESS data to reach a conclusion.

[acruz7439]

Weighing in once a week isn't enough if your goal is monitoring weight changes, like I said.

You can expel several pounds of water, food, etc in a single day, which can throw off your measurements. You should be weighing in every day if possible in the order with basically nothing on after using the bathroom, and then averaging the weights week over week, using a rolling average of days.

Ah alright! So every day I would have to wake up at around the same time, record my weight before eating anything or after using the toilet, and then average out all of my recorded weights by adding them together and then dividing it by 7 (because I week contains 7 days)?

[SuffolkPunch]

Ah alright! So every day I would have to wake up at around the same time, record my weight before eating anything or after using the toilet, and then average out all of my recorded weights by adding them together and then dividing it by 7 (because I week contains 7 days)?

Take the differences between each day.

E.g. if your weights are:
80
80.1
79.8
80

Then the differences would be:

+0.1
-0.3
+0.2


Add these up and divide by the number of differences you have. That will tell you the average daily weight change (zero in this example)

[Tommy W.]

Water fluctuates quite a bit day to day, especially if the day before you weigh in you had a lot of salt and\or carbs you'll hold a lot of water. If I go out for mexican food or pizza i don't weigh myself for 4 days.

[AdamWW]

Ah alright! So every day I would have to wake up at around the same time, record my weight before eating anything or after using the toilet, and then average out all of my recorded weights by adding them together and then dividing it by 7 (because I week contains 7 days)?

Another way of looking at it is this:

Today's 7-Day Average Weight = (Sum of Today + last 6 days of weigh-ins) / 7

So basically your 'true' weight you're using for comparison isn't just today, it's today averaged with the last 6 days + today.

[acruz7439]

Take the differences between each day.

E.g. if your weights are:
80
80.1
79.8
80

Then the differences would be:

+0.1
-0.3
+0.2


Add these up and divide by the number of differences you have. That will tell you the average daily weight change (zero in this example)

So let's say for one week from Sunday to the next Sunday I check on my weight every day and the following results are shown:

(All of these numbers are just made up)

-165.50
-167.80
-164.30
-165.43
-166.33
-164.22
-165.45

And I see the differences being:

+2.3
-3.5
+1.13
+0.9
-2.11
+1.23

I then add and divide up the number of differences I have, which results in -0.008 lbs. That'll mean I have lost in total -0.008lbs for that entire week (or just 0 if rounded up)?

And sorry if I keep bringing this thread up. I want to make sure I'm understanding this stuff properly before proceeding.

[acruz7439]

This ^^^^^.

OP, as someone else here often says, scientists never want LESS data to reach a conclusion.

That's actually a really good way of seeing it! Many of us have been taught basic data recording when doing science fair projects for school. And yet I never thought of applying it here..

[acruz7439]

Weighing in once a week isn't enough if your goal is monitoring weight changes, like I said.

You can expel several pounds of water, food, etc in a single day, which can throw off your measurements. You should be weighing in every day if possible in the order with basically nothing on after using the bathroom, and then averaging the weights week over week, using a rolling average of days.

Got it! I'll make sure to monitor myself every day and see if I can adjust my calories if necessary.

[SuffolkPunch]

So let's say for one week from Sunday to the next Sunday I check on my weight every day and the following results are shown:

(All of these numbers are just made up)

-165.50
-167.80
-164.30
-165.43
-166.33
-164.22
-165.45

And I see the differences being:

+2.3
-3.5
+1.13
+0.9
-2.11
+1.23

I then add and divide up the number of differences I have, which results in -0.008 lbs. That'll mean I have lost in total -0.008lbs for that entire week (or just 0 if rounded up)?

And sorry if I keep bringing this thread up. I want to make sure I'm understanding this stuff properly before proceeding.

No that's a loss per day. So you need to multiply by 7 to get per week.

I just checked with a more sophisticated method (OLS regression) and it confirms.

Of course the above assumes that you had the same calorie intake and expenditure on each of those days. If you don't, it will produce misleading results especially over a longer period. You can take the average for a 'window' of the previous 7 days if you want. (A moving average)

[Bohdizzle]

Last week I came over to the "What is my body fat percentage?" thread to receive some help in figuring out what my overall body fat percentage was based on the images I posted in my body space.

I was told that I was around 22% body fat and my body is most likely to go through a recomp phase if I ate at maintenance for the next 3-6 months due to me still being fairly young (I'm 21) and new at the gym.

Is it normal that I've lost 4 lbs in my first week when trying to reach maintenance calories? I was told I shouldn't expect big changes on my scale when eating at maintenance.

I've been eating at around 2000 calories and my lifts have progressed as well. However, in only about two exercises I've had to reduce the weight of my lifts simply for starting with heavy weight during the Fierce 5 program.

Are you eating at your maintenance calories but not factoring in exercise? This would explain it. You may have also changed your diet, reducing carbs and releasing some water retention? What changed in your diet besides calories? How did you calculate your maintenance?

[Streetjudas]

Lmao wanna switch?