Weight Loss & Weight Gain
If you think you are experiencing a weight loss plateau, you shouldn’t fret just yet. It is incredibly common for the scale not to budge for a few days (or weeks) at a time. This does not mean that you are not losing fat.
Body weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds. It depends on the foods you are eating, and hormones can also have a major effect on how much water your body retains (especially in women). Also, it is possible to gain muscle at the same time as you lose fat. This is particularly common if you recently started exercising.
This is a good thing, as what you really want to lose is body fat, not just weight. It is a good idea to use something other than the scale to gauge your progress. For example, measure your waist circumference and body fat percentage once per month.
Also, how well your clothes fit and how you look in the mirror can be very telling. Unless your weight has been stuck at the same point for more than 1–2 weeks, you probably don’t need to worry about anything.
Awareness is incredibly important if you are trying to lose weight. Many people don’t have a clue how much they’re really eating.
Studies show that keeping track of your food intake helps with weight loss. People who use food diaries or photograph their meals consistently lose more weight than people who don’t. At the same time, there is a potential downside to food tracking, especially when it’s used for the purpose of weight loss. For people with eating disorders, calorie counting and food tracking has been shown to aggravate potentially harmful side effects
