Yo-yo Effect

I FEEL better....clothes fit better....but why am I not losing weight?! Again...my OCD google research begins.

I've been keeping up with almost an hour of walking a day (in 70-80 degree weather no less!) plus either housework (it's surprising how many calories MyFitnessPal app says it burns!) or Taebo for an hour or two a day. My calorie intake has fluctuated but I try to keep it at about 800 net calories.

Yesterday morning I weighed myself and almost threw a fit! 175.5! WTF! Woke the fiancé up and everything! I know I didn't eat the best Monday night but there's no way I ate 2.5lbs worth!

Yesterday breakfast: Body by vi shake; Roca Labs

Yesterday lunch: Body by vi shake; walked for 50 minutes

Yesterday dinner: Lean Cuisine @ 280 calories when I got home then took our puppy to obedience training and walked approx. 15-20minutes there (we were learning to "heel"). Came home and did 2 hours of housework/cleaning (392 calories??!?!?!)

Yesterday late dinner: I realized at this point even though I wasn't hungry (thanks to Roca Labs), I was NEGATIVE net calories. I wasn't going to chow down on a Big Mac of anything, so I made a turkey and egg salad (no mayo, about 300 calories).

Net calories = 157...........bad I know, but I honestly had no idea housework was an "exercise". Now my house will probably be spotless!


This morning I weighed myself again, 173.5lb. Confusion. I lost 2lbs in one day?


My OCD googling came up with the "yo-yo effect", which basically means that many of us will "gain weight" at the beginning of any workout routine. Whether it is water retention or the fact that muscle is denser than fat. Somebody like me that doesn't have any muscle besides vital organs (hahaha, I kid.....but practically), may be quick to gain some muscle definition when I start something like Taebo. This means I will lose quick (the 3 lbs I lost off the bat), then bounce back up (the 2.5lbs I gained between Monday and Tuesday), and finally will begin to lose a substantial amount of weight once my body catches up (the 2lbs I dropped between Tuesday and now).

I know the scale is not the best way to keep track of one's weight loss process, but without giving myself a headache with all the math or getting the calculation done by a personal trainer, I'll just settle for this yo-yo effect, which makes logical sense. Here's a couple articles I found:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/83598-why-you-gain-when-starting-a-new-workout

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/f/gainingweight.htm

All of the reading material I've found says slight "weight gain" at the onset is normal and common, then between the range of a week to a month or so (they all say different time spans), my body will catch up and I'll see the weight drop significantly. Given I don't have all the time in the world to wait....the 800 calorie diet I'm on should help speed things up.

I've already found myself more able to keep up with Taebo!

So I'm crossing my fingers ~

Today will be an off-day (from Roca Labs) for me. I've scheduled my off-days this week to be today (Wednesday) and Saturday. Today work is taking us out for a belated Administrative Professionals Day lunch and then the fiancé and I have dinner plans with friends. There's no point for me to waste my expensive Roca Labs when it'll either be impolite/rude or weird for me to eat 1/4 of what I ordered or I simply just want to enjoy myself today. Since we're going out for lunch I won't be able to walk, but I plan to do more housework (laundry, so prolly not as calorie-burning) and Taebo + Wii tonight Fit to compensate. Saturday I'll be with family and will be going to a friend's kid's 1st birthday party, so no point in trying then. Sunday the fiancé is gone most of the day so I'll be home alone and should have no problem doing Roca.