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I thought you guys might find this mini-study interesting. I track my food intake every day because if I don't, it's impossible to hit the 1300-1400 calorie zone. You always look at a cup of something and say, "Oh... half cup..." 
I got curious the other day, as to why I can lose a half pound consistently for three days and then gain a pound the fourth day. One day last week I dropped 2 pounds overnight
If you go entirely by calorie expenditure - intake, I should lose an average of about a half pound a day.
(3300 burned -1350 consumed) / 3500 = .55 or a half pound
But obviously that never happens - your weight fluctuates wildly some times. So I started running some numbers in a spreadsheet and found some interesting correlations. At first I thought it was related simply to intake, but it wasn't - it was sodium! Now I know you're saying well duh... sodium makes you hold water and yeah, duh, everyone knows that, but the interesting thing here is how absolutely synchronized the two are.
Here's the chart that resulted from my calculations. I'll explain the data after the chart.
The blue dots there represent the mathematical weight change amount each day if the only variables are calories burned and calories consumed. For me the average there is about -.55 (values below zero on this chart indicate weight lost). So here the blue dots indicate a consistent loss of about a half pound each day if nothing else interferes with the process.
The red dots in the chart represent the actual loss (or gain) in pounds from day to day. Most dots indicate a loss, but some are at zero and some are actually above zero indicating a gain in weight for that day. Notice the day I lost 2 pounds overnight was Feb 15.
The green dots in the chart are a representation of my sodium intake by day. If you look closely, you'll begin to see an interesting pattern with the red dots (actual weight loss). If, in your mind, you slide the green dots about a day and a half forward, the peaks and valleys match up almost identically. Even without visualizing the change, you can clearly see it around the 3rd, the 8th and the 15th of February.
Here's the chart with the sodium moved over to the right to line it up with the actual weight loss values. Now you can clearly see the two are absolutely related in almost a precise way.
So, make of that what you will. Obviously your body will work differently than mine, but this was way too related to be a coincidence. I guess I thought there would be more factors at play - which there are - but with this kind of correlation, I'd have to say that any others would be minor in comparison.
I'm going to start monitoring sodium now and avoid high intake to see how that changes my progress. In another couple months I should have some updated stats to use in comparison.
I got curious the other day, as to why I can lose a half pound consistently for three days and then gain a pound the fourth day. One day last week I dropped 2 pounds overnight
If you go entirely by calorie expenditure - intake, I should lose an average of about a half pound a day. (3300 burned -1350 consumed) / 3500 = .55 or a half pound
But obviously that never happens - your weight fluctuates wildly some times. So I started running some numbers in a spreadsheet and found some interesting correlations. At first I thought it was related simply to intake, but it wasn't - it was sodium! Now I know you're saying well duh... sodium makes you hold water and yeah, duh, everyone knows that, but the interesting thing here is how absolutely synchronized the two are.
Here's the chart that resulted from my calculations. I'll explain the data after the chart.
The blue dots there represent the mathematical weight change amount each day if the only variables are calories burned and calories consumed. For me the average there is about -.55 (values below zero on this chart indicate weight lost). So here the blue dots indicate a consistent loss of about a half pound each day if nothing else interferes with the process.
The red dots in the chart represent the actual loss (or gain) in pounds from day to day. Most dots indicate a loss, but some are at zero and some are actually above zero indicating a gain in weight for that day. Notice the day I lost 2 pounds overnight was Feb 15.
The green dots in the chart are a representation of my sodium intake by day. If you look closely, you'll begin to see an interesting pattern with the red dots (actual weight loss). If, in your mind, you slide the green dots about a day and a half forward, the peaks and valleys match up almost identically. Even without visualizing the change, you can clearly see it around the 3rd, the 8th and the 15th of February.
Here's the chart with the sodium moved over to the right to line it up with the actual weight loss values. Now you can clearly see the two are absolutely related in almost a precise way.
So, make of that what you will. Obviously your body will work differently than mine, but this was way too related to be a coincidence. I guess I thought there would be more factors at play - which there are - but with this kind of correlation, I'd have to say that any others would be minor in comparison.
I'm going to start monitoring sodium now and avoid high intake to see how that changes my progress. In another couple months I should have some updated stats to use in comparison.
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