The Loop: Understanding Weight Fluctuation

Most folks have a certain idea of what the path toward weight loss should look like.

When you envision losing weight, you picture yourself at a certain goal and assume that you know what you will experience along the way, right? After all, we have all done this in the past, and we get it. If, for instance, you weigh 150 pounds and you envision yourself 30 pounds lighter, you assume that if you are right-on with your program-no cheating or excuses-then when you get on the scale after the first week, you will be down 2 pounds.Great! That's what you expected, and that's what should happen. The next week you do it again, and voila! It happens again! Just as anticipated. And so it should be from start to finish: 2 pounds per week, goal reached, done deal, yeah me!

Unfortunately, even if you are sticking perfectly to a weight-loss plan, and let's assume you will be, the process might very well look a bit different. You might go down two pounds the first week, another two pounds the following week, and maybe one pound the week after; however, when you next weigh in you could be up three pounds! The next three weeks might find you down one, down one, and up one. All the while, this up/down, down/up fluctuation could begin to play with your head. If you don't pay attention to it, you might just give up on yourself because you just don't understand what others in the Loop know.

So, let me explain to you the nature of the Loop. That's right, the Loop. We all have it and we all live with it. You merely need to be aware of it so you can correctly interpret what you see on the scale each day. Here's how it works. Whether you are losing or maintaining, the Loop works the same way for everyone-even those skinny rhymes with "b"s! For most people, the Loop is a two to four pound range within which their weight fluctuates AT ALL TIMES. It's nearly impossible to weigh exactly the same every day due to the effects of water retention, bloating, bowel movements, and undigested food. All of these will impact what our scale registers.

What does the Loop look like if you were maintaining 130 pounds? Well, if that were the case, some days you would get on the scale and see 128, some days you would see 130, and other days you would see 132. That's your Loop. If you are maintaining 130 and you see any of those numbers, you're absolutely fine. You are neither gaining nor losing; you're just living your Loop. If you were to go over 132, you would need to do something to pull it back in, and if you were to go below 128 you would be able to relax your guidelines a little until you Looped up to your low, once again.

There is no difference when you are losing. The Loop is the Loop . If you are on your way down from 150 pounds, you will see many numbers going down and a few fluctuating up. For instance, you might first have some days where the low number of 146 goes back up, but only to 149. In a week or so, the low might be 145 and the high 148. Your challenge is to remain in control, confident that as you move steadfastly toward an overall loss, you will observe the Loop in action. When you understand the Law of the Loop your confidence in your ability to take control of your weight and your health will remain unshaken, no matter what information the scale shares with you each morning! So, think about all that fussing you have been doing over numbers that used to scare you. Now you have the secret: you're in the Loop!!