The ledge after the plateau.

Onions.. I lurves you. But you are watery.

So I've taken to checking the scale daily, to see what's up.  I am fully aware that the day-to-day number there will vary and it is the long-term number which is what counts, but I am curious about what is going on.  Most of the time I will either be the same, slightly lower, or slightly higher. Usually by a .5 pound difference one way or the other.

All last week for example I was 289 even. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.. no budging up, or down.  The plateau - as I posted about.  When I weight in Monday though - 286.  And the day after, and today? 284.5.  So between Saturday and today I am abruptly weighing in 5.5 pounds lower.

What the hell is going on?  Good question.  There are some interesting answers, too.

A major one is water weight, as explained in the Dukan Diet book.  When you eat proteins only, you are becoming a pure fuel burning machine - it takes 30% of the calories consumed just to digest the protein, more than any other type of nutrient.  You have to drink a ton of water to help your body with this task, and to be sure toxins are eliminated from your system.

Then you bring in veggies, and all of a sudden you retain some water again.  As the book says, the fat loss is still going on, it's just being hidden by water weight.

When you go back to a protein day, all of a sudden you lose that water weight again, which causes the dramatic changes in the scale I have experienced.  It's really quite strange.. today, for example, I was up 1 pound to 285.5 but I don't care about it much. I know that following my plan, by next Monday's weigh-in I am going to see something lower than 284.5. Probably. It ain't a guarantee. ;)

Salt is critical too. If I eat something too salty, it lets me retain more water. Back to a protein day without much salt? All better.

Certain other things can change this too.. some diuretics like coffee, tea, asparagus, etc.. when you drink or eat them, you help your body release the water.

Yeah, there's a non-secret message being given here.. I pee a lot more on this diet.  My joke with Dawn now is that it's my new favorite hobby.  Every forty minutes I get up and say, "Well, I'm off to practice my new favorite hobby."

You have to laugh at the weight loss process or it can weird you out.

I'm getting closer to 275 though and a new winter coat, my reward at that goal!  I made a few others, for fun: