Was surprised by this

jamorgan3777 · February 2019

Have been tracking with Cronometer for a while now and have been seeing pretty steady weight loss. Just for giggles I looked at the last 4 week. Calories say I have a deficit of ~1000 calories per day (I track all food and activity comes from my Garmin). If thats true, then 28x1000 = 28000 calories over that time. 28000/3500 means I should have lost 8.0 lbs. Morning nude weight on Jan 1 = 235.6. Morning nude weight on Feb 1 = 227 which is 8.6# lower. Trend was ~linear throughout the 11 measurements I took in Jan. I am a scientist by trade so used to dealing with numbers and prediction, but I guess I was surprised to see it match up so well. I am still a little skeptical of how well it worked out, but I think it at least means I am tracking my calories in pretty well (not over or under counting) and tracking my activity pretty well (also over or under counting).

Karen_Cronometer · February 2019

That's so interesting @jamorgn3777 ! I love a good deep-dive into the data

Weight loss is not always quite so predictable due to many factors besides calorie deficit (hydration status, bowel movements, our individual physiology and response to the types of foods we are eating, etc.). It's neat to see it all put together in your trends over time.

Congrats on your progress!

jamorgan3777 · February 2019

Thanks. Its actually just a 30 day snapshot from January. I have been tracking and losing weight steadily since August. I did another snapshot in September as well. From Sept 1 through Sept 29 I had an average deficit of 634 cal/day. 634x28/3500 = 5.0lb. I lost 6 lb over that time period, however my weight was a little more variable (likely due to the factors you mention). Larger and multiple timeframes would suggest its a consistent relationship. I guess I shouldnt be surprised. I am just proving that Overall body mass = energy in - energy out!

Susan_RD_101 · February 2019

@jamorgan3777

This is interesting and I would say not most people's experience. What I tend to notice is that the closer a person is to their weight loss goal, the further it seems to be. This isn't due to a lack of effort but because our bodies think we are sick/starving and are trying to prevent further weight loss.

Clearly, you are making some positive changes to achieve such great results! Keep up the awesome work.

Kind regards,

mander · February 2019

I also find my numbers match up pretty bang on too! Congrats on the weight loss

jamorgan3777 · February 2019

@mrsnattybulking Thank you!
@Susan_RD_101 I know what you mean. I am just waiting for the dreaded plateau. I have about 12 more lbs to lose to get to my goal. I have been really surprised at how linear my weight loss has been.

That is since August of this year. The large band with no data was for Nov and Dec. I wanted to see if I could maintain weight loss without tracking. Evidently I could as I picked up in January right in line with where I left off in Nov. I am wondering if going slowly is helping. I am trying to lose 1lb/week and have managed to average about that for about 26 weeks (lost ~26lb in 6 months).

I find this stuff fascinating.

Karen_Cronometer · February 2019

I find it fascinating too! It also highlights the benefit of viewing longer term trends rather than focusing too much on the natural day-to-day variability.

Was surprised by this

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