Comparing my trajectory with the trial curves, carefully — a second dataset

Comparing my trajectory with the trial curves, carefully — a second dataset — setting out what I have, and where I think it stops being reliable.

Maintenance rather than loss, which is the part of this that almost nobody writes about.

I have been at roughly the same weight for 15 months. The interesting questions are all different from the ones I had at the start, and the documentation here is much thinner on this phase.

I would like to compare notes with people who are further along, and I would like to know what the published evidence says about this phase specifically rather than by extrapolation.

Maintenance series are the ones this subcategory needs most and receives least. The interesting questions all change once loss stops.

Non-scale victories: muscle gain or maintenance, clothing fit, energy level, and capability (like climbing stairs without breathlessness) are measurements that scale-based weight misses.

The arithmetic in post #3 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.

The best progress reports here read as records rather than as arguments, and that difference is visible within a sentence.

A weak preference rather than a position.

Where I part company with post #3, and it is a narrow parting.

Self-reported intake is optimistic in a consistent direction, and saying so in your own report is more credible than not.

Someone should write this up properly, and it should probably not be me.

If a pattern survives a rolling-mean treatment it is worth explaining. Most do not, and that is the useful finding.

I am reporting what happened, not recommending it.

Useful. I have added it to my own notes with the date on it.

Nothing here is medical advice and a progress report is a description of what happened to one person under uncontrolled conditions.

Seasonal patterns: some people report weight loss is slower in winter than summer. Body composition and activity changes might contribute. Noting the season is useful context.

Worth saying I have only my own numbers here, and n is small.

This follows post #8 rather than contradicting it.

Menstrual cycle: for people who menstruate, weight can shift by several pounds across the cycle due to fluid retention and other factors. Noting cycle phase when weighing reduces apparent noise.

I would want the raw data before agreeing with my own summary of it.

Post #8 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.

Rate of change matters more than the absolute number for most of the questions people ask about their own series.

The disagreement above is smaller than it looks once the terms are fixed.

I read post #10 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.

Maintenance series are the ones this subcategory needs most and receives least. The interesting questions all change once loss stops.

That distinction has done more work for me than anything else in this category.

If a pattern survives a rolling-mean treatment it is worth explaining. Most do not, and that is the useful finding.

Self-reported intake is optimistic in a consistent direction, and saying so in your own report is more credible than not.