I didn’t lose any weight yesterday (Tuesday), and I’m not sure what happened. Yesterday wasn’t a fasting day, but I did limit myself to roughly the same food I ate last Tuesday (and I did in fact lose weight last Tuesday). The only difference in terms of food intake between the two days is that I had some cheese yesterday. I went to the grocery store to get salad ingredients and chicken and happened to stumble upon some cubed gouda with chipotle peppers in it. I got it, of course, and consumed all of it eventually (I had some in the morning and some with dinner). It wasn’t a ton of cheese, and maybe it’s not completely responsible for the lack of weight loss, but it must have had at least something to do with it.

Making a grocery list and sticking to it seems to be important when dieting. Despite being a fairly deliberate person, I am prone to impulsivity when at the grocery store. Something catches my eye (like gouda with chipotle peppers), and I end up getting it. Cheese isn’t a bad thing to consume while on a diet (lots of protein and no carbohydrates), but it has no fiber at all, so it doesn’t digest or eliminate quickly. Anyway, I made a similar mistake last Friday when I went to Whole Foods for some cheese and a couple of apples and left with those things plus two pounds of grapes and three pounds of mandarins (which were consumed throughout the day until they were gone). So I’ll need to be more careful about not straying from my grocery list.

I have been going to the gym four days per week, and I’ve likely gained a bit of muscle during that time, but I don’t think that accounts for the lack of weight loss, either. Muscle is denser than fat, so adding a bit of muscle will add more weight than adding a bit of fat if the volume of the two is the same. I don’t think I’ve had any significant gain in muscular volume, though.

Anyway, it was disappointing to get on the scale today. I weigh exactly the same as yesterday. There are likely factors that I’m not considering (cheese is high in sodium, so maybe I’m retaining more water than usual?), but still I was expecting to lose at least a couple of pounds given that I fasted for over 12 hours. Today is a real fasting day though (no food at all), so I should be at least a few pounds lighter tomorrow.