Forget Weight Loss. Think Weight Erosion.

Loss is a loaded word. At least in terms of weight loss, it implies a rapid reduction in weight, even though it really shouldn't.

I think this is because the word is usually used as part of an effusive, exclamatory statement when the first time someone that you haven't seen in a while notices something's up. They never say, "Wow, it looks like you've been gradually reducing your weight since I last saw you!"

Also, it doesn't help with gyms and different diet plans promising enormous and mostly unrealistic weight losses in a month or two. "Steady" and "gradual" aren't in their marketing lexicon. These days, if you're not selling instant gratification, you're not selling.

This isn't to say that you won't or can't lose weight quickly on the Cheapo Plan. There are weeks that you won't drop much at all or maybe even gain slightly, often due to routine disruptors or for whatever reason, but there are weeks that you'll drop 2-3 pounds.

There are constant variables and conditions affecting your weekly weight averages: how much excess water your body is retaining, your level of access to power foods over a stretch of time, any unavoidable high calorie days/events, whether you're feeling healthy and active or under the weather and relatively sedentary, foul weather or time crunches preventing you from getting out and walking as much as you'd like or perfect weather and plenty of free time to get in additional steps.

That's why I prefer to think of weight loss more like weight erosion. If you look at my weight chart in the Intro thread, you'll see lots of peaks and valleys along a downward trajectory. If my level of commitment depended upon positive feedback from the scale every day, I wouldn't have made it more than a couple of weeks and probably would have given myself a broken hand from punching a wall.

Also, the word loss has an opposite: gain, i.e. the common term for what happens when your diet fails. (Accretion is the opposite of erosion, but since you're probably unfamiliar with the term, let's keep it that way for now.)

This isn't a diet but a new life plan. We don't lose or gain. We just get an accounting of all the calories we're ingesting and start the erosion process through moderation until all the excess fat is worn away from the shoreline.

The bottom line is that there are some days when you'll unavoidably (or deliberately) run calorie surpluses, but the key is most days you're running calorie deficits. And, while the short-term loses may be hidden within the noise, the cumulative effect of consistent calorie erosion will ultimately get you to your goal weight.