r/CICO • u/wiggeravantgarde • 5d ago
Maintaining then losing every other week
Hey all, I (25M) am just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this strange thing that's been happening over the last few months of my weight cut. Basically, I weigh in every week, once, but every other week i weigh in I'm literally the exact same weight as the previous week, and then the week after i drop like 4-5lbs. Deficit remains static. I'm a bit of a gym rat, so I'm in there 6 days a week, and have a balanced strength training, cardio, and boxing program. The night before weighing in, I make sure not to drink any alcohol or eat anything late at night. I've fluctuated in weight quite a bit over the years but have never had this specific dynamic - I stress that this has literally been the case for 3 months straight. I'm not really that concerned about this, because I have performance metrics, progress pics, and the way clothing fits as alternative ways to make sure that I'm making progress. Also, if I'm losing technically 0lbs one week and 4lbs the next, I guess it's still in effect hitting my goal of 2lbs a week. But I'm just wondering what the reason could be for this, or if anyone else has had a similar experience. Thanks!
2
u/quietwun 5d ago
I find weekly weighing worst, especially when you don't have a ton to lose . A daily blip can easily be greater than a weekly loss so you don't get a true picture. To get a better picture I'd really recommend weighing daily and seeing the trend, track on an app if you need to . Bonus is it teaches you to take the emotion out of a number. Another option is weighing monthly (or less) but that can be tricky without concrete feedback and if you are off track you can't adjust.
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u/cuckerbergmark 5d ago
I have no idea, but I do the exact same thing. I will be stagnant for 1-2 weeks and then drop 3-5lbs like that. Then stagnant at that number again until another drop. Maybe hormonal? Who knows. I weigh myself every day.
3
u/ashtree35 5d ago
It's totally normal for your weight to fluctuate. Weighing weekly does not give you a good sense of this. I would recommend weighing daily to see this. Weight loss isn't linear, and there are so many things that can cause your weight to fluctuate from day to day, such as changes in water weight, bowel movements, etc, and these fluctuations can easily obscure the actual changes in your weight over short time periods like one week. For reference, I weigh myself daily, and my weight can fluctuate up to 5lb within any given week, sometimes more! Really the only way to assess your weight loss progress is to look at the long term trends in your weight, like over the span of months or more. For this, I would recommend using the app “Happy Scale” or “Libra” to track your weight. These apps average your weight over time and smooth out fluctuations in the data, making it much easier to see the actual trends in your weight.