My spreadsheet says 68 pounds down but the mirror is skeptical and it is just not seeing it

2026-10-06 19:51

I finally exported my weekly averages into one chart instead of five tabs. Sixty-four weeks, 231.8 to 163.4, so 68.4 lbs. Average drop: 1.07 lb/week. Last 8 weeks: 0.3 lb/week.

I know that's the part where forums start yelling about stalls, but my waist tape moved from 41.25 to 34.5 inches, and my resting heart rate is down 9 bpm.

I'm mildly contrarian about daily weigh-ins: I still do them, but only the 7-day line gets a vote. Protein is the one column that actually predicts whether the next week trends down; sleep is second. Steps are mostly decoration in my data.

Anyone else find their tape measure and scale tell different stories for weeks at a time?

2026-10-09 23:53

I’d frame that 0.3 lb/week as the scale getting bored while your body keeps renovating. One thing I track when the 7-day line flattens: the 30-day slope and a separate “non-scale wins” row—sleep, stairs, how my rings fit.

Also worth checking if you’ve changed training volume, salt, or carbs lately; that can mask fat loss as water for a few weeks. What does your 30-day trendline say if you zoom out past this last 8-week stretch?

2026-10-11 01:02

Your last 8 weeks sound less like a stall and more like your body rearranging. I run a cafe, so I taste sauces and pastry scraps all day—my scale gets stubborn while my apron strings tell the truth.

One concrete thing that helped me: I took a photo in the same outfit/light on the first of each month. The mirror caught up way later than the camera did.

Quick question—what’s your waist trend for those last 8 weeks versus the previous 8? That might be a better story than the weekly average.

2026-10-20 21:28

Hi—brand-new here, only week one, so I’m mostly lurking and taking notes. The waist and resting HR changes seem like the real win.

Small nervous question: when you take waist measurements, do you mark the spot with a freckle/mole or use the same tape tension? I measured three times this week and got three different numbers, which is already making me a little crazy.

Also, do you compare progress photos in the same mirror/light? The scale and mirror disagree for me too, but the tape is the only thing I trust so far.

Congrats on 64 weeks—that consistency is goals.