I consider myself a seasoned dieter (meaning I can manipulate my weight +/-10kg fairly easily). Over at least a dozen weight cuts/bulks, the most effective practice I've found is writing a meal plan, and writing down everything you put in your mouth.
Many people have started losing weight just by doing this - without actively changing their diet. It has a really profound subconscious impact on what/how much you put in your mouth.
The psychological/hormonal aspect of food is fascinating.
my weight is probably going +/-6kg, on a semi-week basis. When I eat, I eat a lot (fruits at will, legumes, fish vapor-cooked, honey, Camargues rice living in France, lentils). I think it's useless to weight yourself, it's easy to feel how much fat you've built, you then need to consume it first before re-eating (I'm around 60-62kg, 1.83m, with a thin morphology so it's not underweight)
I feel really well with that "lower-frequency" diet cycle, it's of course easier when working remote.
+/- 6kg is basically water. 1kg of fat is 8800kcal - 4 days of average adult's caloric intake. There's no way to lose 6kg in a week unless what you've lost is almost entirely water.
It's not very likely to happen with water either. 6kg of water is 6 liters, which is probably more than the amount of blood in their body. I have to question the measurements on the 6kg fluctuations, going from 60kg to 54kg in a week is serious.
That's true, but there is a lot of water in the body aside from the blood.
While most people will feel physical effects after losing 5% of their body weight in water, many can lose up to 8-10% without significant adverse physical or mental impact. Loss over 10% is considered serious dehydration.
World champion marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie famously won the Dubai marathon in 2005 with a 10% body weight loss during the race:
It's pretty common to cut 5-10kg in preparation for wrestling/judo competitions.
A natural 6kg fluctuation isn't inconceivable. I'm fairly sure I could get there starting dehydrated/carb-depleted and pounding a carb-heavy meal with a lot of fluids.
I've fluctuated about that much in 48 hours just going from eating a lot of food constantly -> fasting (no food, no water). Think about all the food and liquid you can pack into your stomach and intestines.
Seems crazy, but try it. I went from like 180lbs to low 160s. Of course, it comes back when you start eating and drinking again.
This isn't what people typically mean when they talk about weight loss, though. Which is why normally you hear recommendations for measuring your weight at the same time every day with an assumption that your eating patterns are roughly constant.
This, i find i can lose like around 2.5kg by fasting 2 days
1.5kg is usually water weight and 0.5 kg feels like food mass and the other 0.5kg fat loss. The water and food mass weight will come back once you start eating again.
I'll try to measure it, it's something like 58-59kg, after a long bike ride the sunday and 64-65kg after eating - I buy 10-12kg of fruits/legumes twice a week - so yes it's 80% water
Many people have started losing weight just by doing this - without actively changing their diet. It has a really profound subconscious impact on what/how much you put in your mouth.
The psychological/hormonal aspect of food is fascinating.