Thread: Gradual Weight Loss

Today, the title of my thread is ironic, though normally it isn't. I'm not on a "diet" exactly, just trying to limit myself to 1200 calories of food per day (and no more than a small glass of red wine per night - another 100-120 calories). I've set myself a target of losing a minimum of 1lb per week, preferably 2lb. I use my Wii Fit daily and yesterday (Saturday) I had put on 2lbs overnight. Now I was bad on Friday , there was a big meeting in the board room over lunch and our boss brought the leftovers into the office. I had just finished a bowl of homemade green veg soup, which my cookbook reckons has only 100 calories per bowl (I adapt and add a few noodles so I don't need bread, but it can't be more than 130/140cal per bowl since I only add a 1-person portion of noodles when I make enough for 4 meals) but there were sandwiches and pakora (1 won't harm - 2 sarnies and 2 pakora certainly did!) and individual lemon tarts (I can resist anything but temptation... and lemon tarts). So Friday was a washout on the diet front so yesterday a 2lb gain wasn't so unexpected. However...


TODAY MY Wii FIT tells me I have lost 5lbs overnight!!! I'm more confused than pleased, I normally lose weight only with the greatest effort.


I wasn't feeling 100% well yesterday so actually didn't do much exercise and only had a large bowl of porridge (made with semi-skimmed milk and a levelish tablespoon of honey) for breakfast, skipped lunch (felt nauseous I don't normally skip meals) and had a low cal evening meal of ginger pork noodles (500ish calories). Oh, and half a bottle of red wine (did a bit of self-justification by telling myself that it was OK on the calorie front - I hadn't had any lunch!)

Before anyone says the Wii Fit is malfunctioning, I checked on my bathroom scales and they are (as usual) saying I am 2lbs lighter than the Wii Fit does (I like my bathroom scales!)


Could skipping lunch yesterday have been enough to make me drop 5lbs? Anyone know? I didn't do anything abnormal yesterday, if anything I was less active, I have an Open University assignment due in and much of this weekend has had to be devoted to that.


The biggest irony of the lot is that yesterday I set myself a mini-target to lose a minimum of 4lb before I go on holiday on 12th March - smashed that in one day -suppose I'd better revise it! Still, dropping 5lbs can't be a bad thing, can it? Even if I can't explain it.

Hi well done!
Do you weigh weekly or daily? I think it's best to pick a day and weight in at the same time every week, I do it as soon as I wake up on Friday mornings. Your weight naturally fluctuates throughout the week/month so I'd weigh in a few days to check. Also I think I read somewhere before that you weigh less the day after drinking alcohol, problably due to dehydration etc.
Good luck!! x

It's very unlikely that you lost 5lbs in a day because that means that you burnt 17500 calories...Weighing daily is tricky because your body retains water, is dehydrated, full of food, and what have you. You're best off weighing in once a week before you've eaten anything and that should be your true weight. Weighing in every day will only get you down because those losses and gains can be quite inaccurate.

I finally twigged that I must have been ovulating over the weekend - certain points un my cycle cause my weight to fluctuate. Not sure why I was being so dozy as not to realise it yesterday (according to the Wii Fit I am back up a lb this morning, but that's OK, it'll come off this week).