bbbean 

Given the daily fluctuation, how do you know whether any given weekly weigh in is on the high or the low side of your normal fluctuation? If you had consistent daily weigh ins, you'd eventually be able to spot factors (sodium intake, sleep, carbs, stress, etc) impacting your weight, and have a better feel for what your base range is.

bbbean 

Wearing white after Labor Day is one of the worst mistakes people make!

There is no such thing as too much data or too much consistency. The only potential flaw is not using the data to make good decisions, or misinterpreting the data (i.e. - I" I lost 2 lbs yesterday, I can quit exercisnig now!").

bbbean 

I'm the same way with my power and HR. I only look at random intervals, because I wouldn't want the data to mess with my mind.

AlmostTrick

Everyone knows what a good diet and exercise program looks like, and they know if they're failing without weighing themselves everyday. Even "Biggest Losers" only weighed in once a week... and then sent a loser home.

A healthy persons weight really shouldn't be fluctuating all that much. If it is, somethings not right.

bbbean 

If it was that easy there would be a lot more healthy thin people.

Everyone knows whether their car is going fast, too, but we still check the speedometer on a regular basis.

AlmostTrick

Of course it's not easy to achieve and maintain healthy weight!

I really enjoyed this thread, and reading how difficult it can be for some:

https://www.bikeforums.net/clydesdal...-so-big-3.html

Interestingly, pretty much all said their weight gain was from too much food/booze, and too little exercise. Some blamed their lifestyle choices on jobs/family/relationships, but just as many or more, said it was all on them. Not one blamed it on not weighing themselves often enough, which was the point I was making.

The difficult part is making the right choices.

Amitoj

I used to weigh myself every day. Same time every day. Doing that made me realize what foods had a bigger impact on my weight (rice for dinner) and what food had no impact (almost everything else)

Now I weigh myself occasionally. I have learnt to use better measures for my fitness. Like how fast or how much further I can ride my bike And also how well my clothes fit me.

Seattle Forrest

bbbean 

Thank you so much for clearing that up.

GailT

It is easier to make the right choices when one is paying attention to diet and weight, and the daily weigh-in helps focus my attention. I knew I had gained some weight in my 50s but I was shocked when I finally pulled the scale out of storage and saw the number. I've been at my target weight, +/- 2 lbs, for a couple of years, but I still like the positive reinforcement when I check the number each morning.

wolfchild

I disagree with the above....I think it's very easy to loose and maintain healthy weight...Most people who are having trouble with weight loss fall into one of those categories listed below:


- bad lifestyle choices
- laziness and lack of self-discipline
- following "fad diets" and following wrong type of workout routines which do nothing for fat loss
- those who have medical issues or are genetically predisposed to extreme weight gain
- those who are trapped into a lifestyle which prevents them from exercising and eating right

DrIsotope

Horse****. The human body gets acclimated to a level of activity very quickly. So someone can be eating XX number of calories of all the right things, exercising regularly, and over time, will still begin to gain weight. I know this because even with dietary restrictions (divirticulits,) monitoring my daily calorie intake (limited to 2,800 a day) and riding 180-200 miles a week, I was gaining weight. I'm down to 2,200kcal a day, ride 160 miles and hike 25 miles a week, and lose roughly 1.5lbs per week.

None of it is easy. Averaging 16 hours of cardio a week, always under my calorie goals, still 15lbs over my optimum weight. If you think it's easy, you're either young, skinny, or have a hard time gaining weight. I can gain weight by sitting still and breathing heavily. A typical week for me looks like this:

15,330kcal weekly (2,190kcal per day)
14,689kcal recorded (2,099kcal per day)
10,196kcal burned (1,457kcal per day)
Net kcal per day: 642kcal

But I can't do this forever. I just want to sit down and eat a whole meatloaf and chase it with a cheesecake.

wolfchild

I agree...and cardio is one of those activities that is easiest for your body to get acclimated to.




That's your problems right there. Too much cardio and not enough of anything else. Your body has become very efficient at cardio and it burns less and less calories...The more efficient you become at certain exercise the less fat and calories you burn...If you want to loose fat you should try doing some resistance training, weight training and some higher intensity stuff, do something that your body is less efficient at doing.

DrIsotope

It's just that easy, folks! Give up everything you love: eating, riding a bike, taking hikes, and replace it all with kale and resistance exercises!

If that's the "easy" way, I want nothing to do with it. Because the body gets used to stuff like weight lifting, too. Then when you stop lifting weights, you turn into a meatball.

Altimis

Someone here fall in "more is better" traps hehehehe...

I been trapped in loophole of "more is better" mindset for 2 years before I finally to cracked a code how to stay "healthy" and "maintenance" for whole life.

Balance and sustain is a key. You *can* do it forever. Not *must do* it forever.

AlmostTrick

Agreed. And the latest "fad" diet is low carb. A poster above claimed they can see it on the scale the next morning when they had rice the night before for dinner! Really? How many pounds of rice are they eating, and what is mixed in with it?

There are entire civilizations with extremely low levels of obesity that ate/eat tons of rice as a main staple. Go figure.

KraneXL

Actually, how you look is determined primarily (80%~) by your diet. If you want to change how you look, focus the majority of your attention there. No exercise necessary.

That said, for overall good fitness and health, you need to exercise. Cardio for good cardiovascular fitness, and weight training for your muscles. These encompass the remaining 20%.That's because those civilizations burned those calories as fuel and maintained a lower overall caloric intake. Americans, on the other hand, consume twice their caloric intake they need daily. It begins with total caloric intake, and second, how these calories are used.

Seattle Forrest

Why on earth would you give up hiking and riding a bike to lose weight?

You have a power meter. You know exactly how many calories you're burning on the bike, within 5 % of the gods' honest truth anyway.

Your power meter doesn't get wronger and wronger the more you get better at cycling.

Seattle Forrest

Vegans eat a high carb diet, and everybody's idea of the typical vegan is an emaciated waif. That alone makes it pretty obvious carbs don't cause fatness. (Energy imbalance does.)

KraneXL

Guns don't kill people, people do. So true. On the other hand, I never me anyone overweight that didn't get that way by not gorging themselves on excess carbs.

Seattle Forrest

I never met anyone who was overweight who didn't get that way by eating more calories than they burned.

Some of those calories came from carbs. Some came from fat. Some came from protein. It's not like people are sitting around mainlining granulated sugar.

KraneXL

A fundamental truth that cannot be denied. On that point I must disagree. In fact, that's exactly what they do. Typically almost all of those excess calories come from carbs. Fats are satiating, and proteins need to be chewed. Carbs, on the other hand, are the only macro nutrient that can literally be consume indefinitely.

OBoile

How do you know if you're making the correct choices unless you weigh yourself?

noglider 

I weigh myself just about every morning. Myfitnesspal (I know, I know) reminds me to weigh myself every Monday morning. I just started using it a few weeks ago. I was 165 lbs, and it asked me if I wanted to lose or gain weight. I couldn't decide but then I decided to say my goal is to weigh 175 lbs. I'm up to 171, and I'm not sure if that's good, bad, or indifferent.

OBoile

The rice is causing him to retain some water which (temporarily) causes him to gain weight. It's not permanent and I don't think he implied it was.