Beau Jackson

At the risk of turning this into a “diet blog”, I thought I’d mention a phenomenon of weight loss that I call “bouncing”.

I’ve read quite a bit about losing weight, and one of the things I see a lot is this advice:  Do NOT check your weight every day.  Well, nuts to that!  I’m obsesive in a lot of ways, and I want immediate gratification.  I don’t want to wait a week to check my weight.  I want to check it every day.

So here are my tips on checking your weight every day:

1. Try to weigh at around the same time every day, and under the same conditions.  Example – I wake up every morning, use the bathroom, then get on the scale.  Why do this?  Consistency mostly.  If you weigh before breakfast one day, and after breakfast the next, then you have to try and figure out how much your breakfast weighs.  Pick a time, and a set of conditions and keep to it.
2. Weigh in the buff.  (Please, for your sanity, do NOT try to visualize me doing this – it’s not pretty!).  Why weigh in the buff?  It’s about being honest with yourself.  You might be tempted to say “oh, these pants weigh at least two pounds” or “I’ve got heavy shoes on”.  If you’re not wearing any clothes, then you KNOW that the only thing being weighed is YOU.
3. Get a digital scale.  Mine measures in half-pound increments (see earlier post, “269.5″).  Why digital?  Honesty again.  If it’s got a dial with little tics on it, you might be tempted to round up or down.  With digital, there is no ambiguity.

So, why all of that when the subject is “bouncing”.  Well, when I weigh every day, I notice that my weight bounces up and down.  Today I weighed 260.5 (approaching goal #2, yay me!).  Tomorrow, I may weigh less, or my weight may “bounce” back up.  I’ve noticed that I tend to follow a bit of a bouncing pattern.  Day one, I’ll be down one and a half or two pounds.  Day two, I’ll be down another pound.  Day three I’ll be down another half pound.  Day four I’ll bounce and be up a pound.  Then the cycle starts over.  If you do the math, it works out to losing two to two and a half pounds every four days.  Which, is GREAT!

The key is to not get freaked out by the “bounce”.  Sometimes it’s a one pound bounce, but I’ve bounced as much as three pounds in a day.  Sometimes I’ll bounce up a couple of days in a row, but then I’ll have a day where I lose four pounds.  I don’t have any idea why this is.  Maybe I ate something that’s taking longer to digest?  Maybe retaining a little more or a little less water?  Who knows?

Anyhow – I’ll probably continue posting about the weight loss.  Maybe it’s not so exciting for the general population to read, but hey – it’s exciting to me to be losing weight again!  And sharing my methods is as good a subject to post on as any.  :)