The Thud Fairy
 

Well, it looks like the whoosh fairy has an evil twin.

The Thud Fairy came to visit me last night; today I was a startling 3 pounds up from yesterday! I've been eating relatively well, although my calorie intake the last couple of days was high, but my carbs were well within the post-induction range. I drank a phenomenal amount of water yesterday, and somehow it still went in the opposite direction.

I know the "quit checking the scale" folks are about to emerge from the woodwork and pile on, but for me the regular measurements have been helpful. I've got a graph with my weight, linear trend and 7-day forecast, and another which plots my wieght against my carb and calorie intake, and the day to day correlations are actually interesting.

Not about to succumb, but it is quite a jump for one day.

dont feel like the lone ranger. i've lost ten pound this week. unfortunatly its the same two pounds! over and over and over and over and ov..........

You say you ate more calories over the last couple of days. That may translate into more volume of food that is still stuck inside.

There is no way those pounds are actually fat. I gained 2 pounds of water after eating too much of salty foods.
I won't tell you to stay away from the scale, just accept that it's going up and down but in a long run DOWN!
Check out the graph attached in Terris post.

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...?threadid=93131

Good luck!
Alina

Hey guy-

That happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I about freaked out until I measured my thigh and realized I lost almost 1/2 inch there. I weigh and measure every day, so I am certainly not going to lecture you on that-I just don't take these little thud fairy bumps too seriously.

I am glad you are tracking! From one statistician to another, playing with my own weight and measurement data has been part of the fun. I haven't done a forecast yet, but I should run a regression, huh?

It's not a true forecast; I run a mean average between the linear trend and the 7-day moving average to get the approximation for the next week. Then it's interesting to see how closely the actual graph follows it.

Yep, I'm a data-geek. :D Having the numbers and seeing the different correlations I can plot makes it almost a game. I just made a chart for Caitlin that plots her calorie breakdown (fat/carb/protein) against her daily fluctuation; we're trying to see if tweaking her foods can make a difference.

If that works, you will have people clammering for that! I never thought of using stats to test something like that. How cool! I have to go play with Excel now....

hacker's diet?
 

Hey Scott, have you ever read the Hacker's Diet by John Walker (co-author of AutoCAD)? I do the same thing with the moving average, and that's where I got it from. I'm a programmer/database type too, so that kind of numbers game makes me happy. I really think everyone should read the Hacker's Diet, not so much for nutritional advice (it's low-cal) but for its insights into the physiology of weight loss, gain, and maintenance. His concept of the body as a "Rubber Bag" really made sense to me and helped me stop stressing out about daily fluctuations like you've just had. If you've never read it, give it a look.

Interestingly, the author talks about being in a ketosis state as a result of a low-cal diet, and describes it right down to keto-breath. He's not saying that you should worry about getting into or being in ketosis like Atkins does, but he's not dogging the process either. I never really thought about low-cal people actually being in ketosis as well, but it makes some sense from a physical perspective. Since lipolysis is the state of burning bodily fat, and ketones are the metabolite of that fat, you're going to be spilling ketones whenever you are burning fat, regardless of how you're doing it. Has anyone else ever looked into ketosis and low-cal diets?

Awwww, have heart, and like another poster said don't feel like the lone ranger here. Hang in there!!!

I like your data idea. That is pretty cool, think I'm gonna have to have fun doing that to....could be very interesting to say the least...

charts
 

Another data freak here...

Have you developed a program to do your analysis or are you playing on spreadsheets? I think it helps my motivation to play with the numbers.

Amy

Hey Scott, I love my program, NutriBase. It's like fitday, but does all kinds of tracking from bodyweight to body temp to measurements etc. It even charts your daily nutrients. I like that. It's great for people who are comfortable with software. I also have an excel spreadsheet to adjust my ECCs to accurately reflect my daily nutrient breakdown.

Boy, aren't we all obsessive. But the more I track, the more I enjoy the process (and the more I realize how inaccurate weight really is) ;)

Wanda

3# in one day? Lots of water you say? Can only mean one thing: sodium!

Now, if you were a woman, you could even blame it on hormones!

I have had a lot of sodium in the past couple days. Oh, goodie, another value to track! :lol:

I use spreadsheets; Excel is the swiss army knife of number crunching. I like being able to manipulate the numbers in whatever way I see fit, and to add more values and more ways to look at them. (and when my relatives ask me what I do for fun, I have no ready answer... :rolleyes: )

Atlee:

Yes, I've read The Hacker's Diet. I think it's terrific that Walker made it publicly available for anyone to read. I even used the EatWatch program on my Palm before moving to CalorieKing. I was given the link by a good friend who lost 100 pounds or so following the principles in it.

I love calorieking's Charts and tables, and if you use the electronic diary, then you can see a breakdown of almost everything in your diet.
But it is a low cal website.

Calorie King?
 

What is this ? I need all the help I can get, I thiought I had it made, now I'm stalled & don't know why. I think I will quit Fitday, it just takes tooooo much time. Let's all chase the Thud Fairy away!!!!!!!!!! :wave:

don't like the Thud Fairy! :mad: I think she is holding the whoosh fairy hostage! Quick someone pay her off :D

Well . . . thanks, I guess
 

Hi all,

atlee -- Big fat hairy thanks a lot ! 'S'all your fault for posting Walker's site. I've just wasted-- er, no, spent in "research" -- a whole bunch of time there. Fascinating and fun.

If anyone just peeks into the site for entertainment value, read the bit on the quick evolution and devolution of the peach fuzz diet. I'm sure it is a spot on accurate picture of how fad diets boom and then fade away after their 15 minutes of fame.

Grudging thanks, atlee.

Thud Fairy
 

I agree about the sodium problem. Just ask any woman around that TOM. Five pounds are easy in one day! Just keep on doing what you're doing and the Whoosh Fairy will appear from nowhere!

Must have been the salt... :rolleyes:

Down 2.5 today; makes an interesting twist in the forecast graph to have that spike in this week's numbers. :)

I actually took a look at where all my sodium intake is coming from, since I don't add much--if any--salt while cooking. Turns out it's my favorite condiment: Red Hot Sauce. A whopping 200mg per teaspoon! One batch of chicken wings uses 1/2 cup of the stuff--that's a jaw-dropping 4800mg. Ow.

Just gotta up that water I guess; it's not like I'm about to ban hot sauce... :D

I love hot sauce
 

Hi all,

S Hysmith -- I love hot sauce too, lots of it. I never thought to consider the sodium.

I'm always trying to figure out how to duplicate things in my kitchen, often (he said with great modesty) with great success.

Just grabbed a bottle of hot sauce. This one's a generic store-lable brand, but the ingredients don't change much: cayenne red peppers, vinegar, salt (and, depending on the brand, xanthan gum and garlic.) Of course what makes the best hot sauces are the way they are aged, I know.

Wonder if you could just toss some red peppers and vinegar into your blender, buzz it good, then strain it and put it in a bottle ? Did you ever try this ? (I have made oriental hot oil -- sneaking in some paprika for the fiery red color). You could even put one of those salt substitute things in the stuff.

Just wondering. (Oh, have heard of Carbo Witch, but from now on I'll be thinkin' "Thud Fairy." Nice work.)

Re: Calorie King?
 

I've used both Calorie King and Fitday. I prefer to use Fitday. It gives more information, such as Fat, carb, and protein percentages. I still have Calorie King on my Pilot and will use it to look up info. when I'm eating out. It has a good restaurant database.

Oh you were singing my song!!
 

I have to tell you this. I feel foolish. I have been whinning for 3 days about how I gained 5.5 lbs overnight, when, silly me, as of this morning, I lost 4.5 of it. :daze:
Water is an evil, evil thing! You are suppose to drink lots of it (Which I do, 3-4 liters) yet if you have too many carbs or too much salt, or heaven forbid you only drank half your water, wham bam, thank you mam! You gain 5-7lbs! :eek:

Its enough to drive anyone crazy! :daze:

Arrow:

I'm not patient enough to make hot sauce. Granted, the ingredients are quite simple, but you have to create a mash and ferment it for anywhere from six to 36 months to get that special "bite". (Tabasco's own fermentation is in wooden barrels and takes the full 3 years .)

I've always wanted to try my own ideas for hot sauce, but the one time I tried to age something that long I lost all patience. (homemade Grand Marnier, supposed to be 12 months and I had it completely consumed by 10...) :rolleyes: