A video I watched yesterday confirmed a thought I had almost a year ago when I started this: Don't look at your weight every day! It can fluctuate a pound or two from day to day just from water retention alone. Check it once per week (I check every Monday first thing, before I eat or start any routine, and always wearing the same getup—my workout clothes add about 2 pounds to the scale, but I prefer the consistency and don't want my daughter catching me in my skivvies
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Brad, thanks for the clarification on the calories/pound thing. I got my numbers from a Men's Journal article I read last year when I first started out, but IIRC it was a "sort-of/averages may vary" article. But, it was still the focus of my first efforts. Where I fell down was in trying to put on a bunch of new muscle while trying to lose weight. The two are not synonymous with each other. In fact, muscle is denser and heavier than fat, so a person can get caught in a vicious cycle trying to do both. Again, this is why I have recently changed strategies: Get rid of the fat; grow muscle (which will also grow some fat); get rid of the fat; grow more muscle; wash, rinse, repeat.