Daily weight variation on the diet - part I

The diet weigh-in

While I'm mostly judging the success of this diet by what I look like in the mirror, checking my weight is obviously an important key performance indicator. Particularly at this early stage in the diet.

While I would like to add a bit of muscle mass in the future - likely meaning I'll put some weight on - the first stage was always going to be about shedding the ballast, and that meant making sure the reading on the scales came down.

As I wanted a bit of a confidence boost at the beginning, I made the first weigh-in day a Saturday, knowing that I did, let's say, enjoy my food and drink over the weekend, so I wanted a nice Saturday morning number prior to eating enough calories to last 3 1/2 days in 2.

Dieting away the glycogen

With that precedent established, Saturday became the regular, weekly, weigh-in day. What that has meant though, is that, with a calorie target established for the next week, I'd burned through plenty of those before even making it to Monday. By the time I got to Thursday and Friday, things were often getting a little desperate in terms of how many calories I had left.

All of this led to Friday becoming something of a super-low calorie day. Certainly a lot, lot fewer than I was burning. Where did a lot of the energy I needed come from? Probably those glycogen stores, that were full to bursting from a week of eating doughnuts and cookies.

Let's say that there's perhaps about a pound of glycogen in there, with a concomitant water weight; let's call it three pounds. So, let's say I start the day with all of that in there, and use it all up at the end of the day, that could be as much as 4 pounds gone purely from using up those glycogen stores - which doesn't actually take a whole lot of doing if you're up and about all day.

Add that to the glass or two of wine I have on a Friday night to dehydrate a bit more, and the difference in my weight from a Friday morning to a Saturday morning could be really quite significant.

Losing weight while putting it on

Of course, with that precedent established, if I was actually careful with my calorie budget over the course of the week, I might not have to starve myself on Friday and I might wake up on Saturday with some glycogen and some water left. If I get on the scales, my weight could have gone up since the previous week.

For some folks who've worked hard to stick to their plan, that could be quite demoralising.

Let's look at my situation. I could have weighed in last Saturday - glycogen depleted - and been 162 pounds. The next week - a better planned week - I could have had lots of calories to play with on Friday, gone out for dinner, had a few pints and stopped for a hospitality-sized bar of chocolate on the way home.

I might have finished the week under target - let's call it 3500 calories under what I burned that week. I get on the scales the next morning, and I'm 165 pounds.

Aaagh! I've put 3 pounds on! How's that happened?! Well, I'm just not comparing like with like. When you think about it though, you might well have lost a pound of fat, it's just you've put 4 pounds on in glycogen and water weight. Burn through that glycogen and you could be 161 pounds tomorrow morning.

It's nothing to worry about, you're doing well, it's just a bit of variation.

Long term vs. short term

For me, the long term goal is losing the fat. It's worked out so far that, as every Friday has mostly been the same, I've been comparing like with like. However, over time that's not really what I'd like to be doing.

For the first few weeks, it's been great to see the points on the graph fall every week. It's given me empirical confidence that my diet plan works and that many of the top search engine-ranked 'experts' are talking complete guff and I wouldn't send them with a short list to do my shopping.

Now though, I don't think there's any harm in letting that number pop up from the previous week occasionally. Who cares? As long as the trend is heading in the right direction, that's okay. As I mentioned in the holiday post, I want to be able to go out and have fun without a diet cramping my style. As Friday night is a good night for that, always having to fast because that's the day before the weigh in is not what I want to have to do.

So, from now on, it's all about that trend so, if you see a point on the graph that looks a bit out of place, you'll know why...

Day 52 - 2050 calories

Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)
Ham sandwich (150)
Shortbread (100)

Lunch
Chicken, bacon and cheese sandwich with chips (900)

Dinner
Lentil soup (300)
Weetabix and milk (150)
Wine (150)

Exercise
100 press ups
4x sets dips
30m walking

Day 53 - 2300 calories

Breakfast
Milk (100)
Protein bar (200)

Lunch
5x double chocolate cookies (1100)

Dinner
Ham (200)
Wine (700)

Exercise
Walking (60m)

Day 54 - 4100 calories

Breakfast
Milk (100)
Toast (150)
Weetabix (150)
Shortbread (150)

Lunch
Lentil soup (300)
Bread 250

Dinner
Poached egg on toast (200)
Shortbread (150)
2x flapjack bar (250)
A good evening of beers (1500)

Dinner II
Cheese on toast (450)
Weetabix (200)
Toast with chocolate spread (250) 

Exercise
40m walking