Last month I’ve been really careful what eat, living away in the week in a hotel but eating salad in my room most nights, muesli for breakfast, fruit for lunch, maybe a yogurt too. – no alcohol or bread at all. Weekends were similar

Active job plus gym on Saturday mornings and 2 hour mountain bike ride on a Sunday.

no weight loss.

This week, I was thought sod it for this week, half arsed gym session on Saturday, night out Saturday with beer, naan bread etc, no mountain bike ride on Sunday, hotel on Tuesday was right near a Wetherspoons so I had a mixed grill and three pints, Wendesday, Chicken burger and a couple of pints. still on mainly fruit for lunch, danish grabbed from Tesco for breakfast. Got home last night, 2.3Kg weight loss???

didnt expect that!

what is going on please folks. Is the “Wetherspoons diet” a winner for me?

You may be under fuelling on your diet stopping your body from losing.

Tell me a about 730 miles on the MTB bike in march, some hard miles too. Virtually no loss. Eating more or less the same. I wouldn’t have though I could keep up in Kcals. (First two months were plenty too, as was the whole of last year).

Mate has lost a lot of weight all of a sudden, riding less; we reckon he has a tape worm.

Dehydrated?

You can lose a surprising amount of weight thought sweat.

Riding 730 MTB miles in a month, I wouldn’t be checking my weight with scales. I’d be using fat calipers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140205165757.htm

I’ve found similar. If I do a lot of exercise and don’t up my food intake, it seems like the muscle regeneration is on hold until I do. So I can feel tired all week after a big weekend, whilst trying not to over eat – then the following weekend I can’t take it any more and binge, without doing anything – then recover and lose weight. Has happend loads of times. I’m assuming that in regenerating itself my body is using more calories than I’ve eaten despite me eating a lot.

OP, I wouldn’t put too much stock in just 2 weight readings a week apart. Your bodyweight changes throughout the day due to varying levels of hydration which depends on many factors (also inaccuracies in your scales could be a factor).

So if you “real” weight is actually between the two readings then it is only a difference of 1.15kg either way, which is 2 pints of water i.e. nothing.

If you want to measure bodyweight reliably over a shortish time period then you need to do it everyday (preferable at the same time/conditions) and look for general trends up or down rather than get hung up on the exact numbers.

You’re pretty vague with what you’re actually eating/doing as well; if you want to really find out what helps or hinders you losing weight you’ll need to keep a proper food/exercise diary.

I also have a suspicion that your body retains water during the recovery process. I’ve never read anything to support that but I’ve so often noticed being slightly heavier after an epic hard ride that somethign must be going on. And I’m not always drinking salty energy drink either.

echoing what others said – weight loss is best measured from month to month or so

one tip that works, but will be poo pooed by the knowledgeable on here.

to burn fat, you need to eat good fat.

but will be poo pooed

And there is another possibility – did you weigh yourself, you know, before or after?

Diets, oh how I had that word, almost as much as I hate this idea of weight loss. Most people don’t want to lose weight, they want to look better, loose the gut/moobs/whatever, so why do we measure success on the scales? Throw your scales away and take a picture of yourself in your undies, every week take another one and see how they compare. Simple and it actually achieves the goal that you have. You can make changes quickly but they won’t stay, you want a change in lifestyle to give a steady improvement and 2 or 3 weeks is not long enough to judge this.

Re. food, very simple, eat clean, non-processed food and eat it regularly. I eat every 3 hours so end up having 5 or 6 small meals not 2 or 3 big ones, every week I have 1 meal where I eat whatever I want, often washed down with a few beers, this is fine and any dient that didn’t allow this would never get stuck to anyway. Eating regularly keep your metabolism up and means you don’t get hungry so hopefully you don’t binge eat on crap. And Ton is right, good fat is not nearly as bad for you as the sugar and general other crap you get in more processed food, so take the fat option rather than the sugary option.

Re. exercise, you use energy to rebuild muscles so do strength exercises to failure, make your muscles scream in pain and ache like hell the next day, you can do this on your bike or in the gym but it does work.

Context, lunge, former owner of a gut and a fine set of man boobs.

Most people don’t want to lose weight, they want to look better, loose the gut/moobs/whatever

Not me – the only reason I want to lose weight is to climb faster on the bike 🙂

Cortisol innit.

Worth thinking about?

I can see weight changes day to day – weighing myself everyday at the same time – just before my shower.

I can see the effect of a chocolate bar the next day – for instance a ritter marzipan bar equals one lb more in weight on the scales the next day – without fail.

Certain exercise drops the weight much better than other forms – cycling not so much but running does, especially as I don’t run very fast so am right in the fat burning zone, it seems.

Certain foods seem to help – baked potatoes are good even if covered in butter. Turkey is good – even a 12 inch Subway melt seems to be good – if I have that for lunch I may even lose weight compared to my normal sandwich.

It’s the sugary stuff that seems bad for me – best to avoid.

My top tip? Throw out the scales! Why the obsession with weight loss, if you need to shed a few kilos then look at the long term. Plan to do more exercise each week, try to eat more healthily (and perhaps less) and don’t become hung up on the short term fluctuations in weight.

Cheers,
Jamie

Why the obsession with weight loss, if you need to shed a few kilos then look at the long term. Plan to do more exercise each week, try to eat more healthily (and perhaps less) and don’t become hung up on the short term fluctuations in weight.

true – fitness is much more important that size – and probably also than what you eat in many cases.

Except that being lighter makes the exercise easier and also less of a load on the body – running is easier on the knees/joints, etc.

Jamie, I would think the scales are a good indicator if you are going in the right direction or not. Even if they have their downsides.

Except that being lighter makes the exercise easier and also less of a load on the body – running is easier on the knees/joints, etc.

Yep, agree on that. But my point is by doing more exercise and eating more heatherly you will become lighter, just try not to become fixated on it- let the body adjust without becoming obsessed by lossing X amount of grams per day.

Just this week my wife commented on my more muscular calves (I’ve been upping the road miles this year), she didn’t say, “oh my, you look lighter” 😉

Cheers,
Jamie

Jamie, I would think the scales are a good indicator if you are going in the right direction or not. Even if they have their downsides.

I don’t need a pair of scales to work out if I’m getting fitter / healthier or not- I can feel it when out on the bike, oh and Strava let’s me know too 😉

Cheers,
Jamie

Just this week my wife commented on my more muscular calves (I’ve been upping the road miles this year)

That’s because you’re being buttered up for something – your legs still look like spaghetti. HTH.

Christmas dinner?