Q: Mike, Ramiro here. I wanted to bring you up to date on my progress. I had been holding steady at about 188 lbs for the past month-and-a-half and I was comfortable with that. I have been taking in about 2150 calories daily: 37% carbs, 35% protein, and 27% fat (all rough estimates, so they might not equal 100%). I am doing heavy weightlifting 3 to 5 times a week and doing cardio for 30 minutes 3 times a week. Okay, it seems like I should have still been losing weight given my caloric intake and activity level but I wasn't, any idea why? Now, point 2 and more interesting: after having maintained a pretty stable weight, yesterday, I dropped to 184 lbs. For two days prior to this, I had only taken in about 1800 cals per day (for various reasons) but it seems unlikely that that would have contributed to a 4 pound weight loss. I have had these kinda crazy weight fluctuations before, but this one really caught me off guard: any idea why that happens? Also, I had my body fat checked by caliper and measured at 15% (I used your 3-point calculator). I'm still checking into your site daily, thanks. P.S., I like the way you presently have your Ask Mike section set up, it's very convenient and efficient.

A: Hey, Ramiro, thanks for checking in again! It sounds like even though your weight is staying roughly constant, your body fat level is dropping -- a couple of months ago you mentioned it was measured at 17.4% and now it's at 15%! Even considering that body fat measures can be inaccurate, it still certainly seems like you're making progress.

As far as not losing more weight, it may well be that you can afford to ramp up your metabolism to much higher level which will then allow you to drop calories and lose weight. If you remember, you were eating only 1500 calories half a year ago and now are at 2150 with lower weight and lower body fat! So I'd definitely say to keep upping your calories as you have been, as long as your weight does not go up too much. At 2150 calories you still don't have too much room to drop calories, but if you can rev it up to 2500-2700, then you'll have 500 or so 'spare' calories that you'll be able to cut in order to jump-start weight loss.

Take a few more months to increase your calories to 2500-2700 level while keeping your weight under 190. At that point you can decide whether you want to start cutting them to lose weight or keep increasing them which would rev your metabolism up even higher which would give you even more spare room to cut calories later.

As far as why your weight jumps around like crazy day-to-day... it's actually very typical. And yes, seemingly small changs in calories and/or types of foods you eat/drink can produce dramatic short-term swings in weight. So it's nothing to be concerned about. Just pay attention to long-term (over two weeks or longer) trends in your weight to see where and how fast it's heading to.

Glad you're liking my site changes, thanks for letting me know! And again, great job with your progress and discipline and dedication to carefully track your weight and diet!