Somehow, in the last two weeks, I “gained” 4 pounds despite ‘doing everything right.’ This is a classic set up for a lot of people- it’s what causes them to get exasperated with weight loss, and quit out of frustration. It’s possible to not be one of those people, and it’s possible to figure out what’s going on. In short, it’s sleep. In long, well, just read on!
Basically every piece of advice about weight loss talks about the importance of getting enough sleep. It’s not new information. But, it IS the kind of advice that’s easy to “yeah, yeah”-away. And what I mean by that is you hear the advice, say “yeah, yeah,” and go back to only caring about whether you hit your 10k steps that day, or if you met your protein goals, or calorie target, or whatever. It’s just one of those things that gets lumped in with general health advice, and seems less important than everything else.
Well, dear reader, it’s important. If your goal is better overal health, getting enough sleep is absolutely crucial. If your goal (for right now) is just shedding excess weight (this is r/loseit, after all ;), well, it turns out, it’s just as important.
The above image is made from two screen shots. One from my daily weight log, and one from the sleep tracking section of the Apple Watch. Over the past two weeks, my schedule has completely changed, and I am getting MUCH less sleep than I’m used to. I have felt out of sorts, more emotional, and just, in general, much less even-keeled than I normally am.
In addition to the emotional changes, keeping to my daily 1600 calorie budget has been a REAL struggle (don’t mind today which says I’ve only eaten 600 calories- it’s only noon here, and I haven’t logged the rest of what I’m going to eat today!). Being tired makes me hungry, and it has been a real challenge, in a way I haven’t felt in almost two years (when I started counting my calories), and first reduced my calories. It has been hard!
My weight went up, despite sticking to my goals- I have the proof from my fitness pal; I log accurately, and I eat an appropriate amount. I’m averaging around 8,000 steps a day. At my height, that should be a 2-300 deficit from my TDEE, giving me a slow and steady rate of weight loss (maybe half a pound-pound a month, which is fine for me). I woke up this morning nearly four pounds lighter than I had been over the past few weeks, after finally getting an AMAZING 12 hours of sleep last night. There is no question in my mind that poor sleep was the culprit for the weird data on the scale.
I’m making this post because if this had happened to me two years ago, at the beginning of my weightloss journey, I would have been so frustrated. I have been doing this long enough to know that if my eating is good, then my weight is OK (no matter what nonsense the scale says). It can be hard to keep going, despite the water retention (which also can come from multiple sources: from poor sleep, restaurant food, a particularly heavy day of exercise, a menstrual cycle, and on and on). But, it is important to keep going. Things eventually even out, and by listening to the body (or, if you’re like me, listening to the data on my body that I can track), we will eventually end up back on the path we were headed down.
Getting enough sleep matters, emotionally AND physically. Don’t neglect it!
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