If you started out very overweight, how long did it take you to lose your first 20 lbs?

livb528
livb528 Posts: 55 Member
edited November 10 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,
I am starting at 260 (5'8) and my first major goal is 240. I think I'll be able to go down a pant's size at this point. I'd love to hear some different accounts of how long it took you to lose those first 20 lbs. I would love to be down 20 when we go on vacation March 1 but I don't know if that's unrealistic. Either way, I'll keep on trucking until I hit my major goal of 60-70 lbs gone. ;) I'd just love to hear some different experiences!
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Replies

  • NoelFigart1
    NoelFigart1 Posts: 1,276 Member
    I started at the same weight you did, but I'm about a head shorter. I weigh every day, so it bounces around, but taking a smoothed curve, it took me from the first of October to about a week ago to lose 20 lbs. I'm losing at about 1.3 lbs a week.

  • jdb3388
    jdb3388 Posts: 239 Member
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    edited January 2015
    How long did it take you to PUT ON your first 20 pounds.

    That is the more relevant question.

    HINT: you likely put it on slowly ... and that will be your best way to take it off. Slowly.
  • livb528
    livb528 Posts: 55 Member
    edited January 2015
    2 or 3 weeks? Wow, that would be really really fast. My secret hope is 3 lbs a week initially but even then I am a breastfeeding mom with hypothyroidism and that kind of slows things down a little bit but I am hoping all the extra exercise will really bump things up.
  • NoelFigart1
    NoelFigart1 Posts: 1,276 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.

    No, women generally don't lose that fast.
  • jdb3388
    jdb3388 Posts: 239 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.

    No, women generally don't lose that fast.

    Not in the long rung, but when you stop eating fried food and go water only, kicking the cokes and sweet teas and all that mess, then you're body is gonna let go of a lot of crap and you'll see that huge initial dip in weight. After that is when it slows down, man or woman.
  • livb528
    livb528 Posts: 55 Member
    How long did it take you to PUT ON your first 20 pounds.

    That is the more relevant question.

    HINT: you likely put it on slowly ... and that will be your best way to take it off. Slowly.

    I actually developed hypothyroidism after my 2nd pregnancy and put on 40 lbs really fast. It didn't help that my Dr misdiagnosed me at first so I went unmedicated for awhile. BUT I still don't think I will lose it super quickly. I am just interested in other people's experiences. I have no idea if losing 20 by March 1 (so 6-7 weeks) is realistic for someone my weight. Thanks for replying!
  • besaro
    besaro Posts: 1,858 Member
    i started at 250, 5'6, and i lost 9 that first week, but its not cause i cut out certain foods, its because MFP put me at 1260, which after being on MFP for 2 years now, I know is too low for me. I could have probably lost that same 9 at 1400. Dont let specific timelines or deadlines be your goal, cause even once you lose all the weight you want to lose, it will be an on-going process to either keep it off or push further...
  • livb528
    livb528 Posts: 55 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.

    No, women generally don't lose that fast.

    Not in the long rung, but when you stop eating fried food and go water only, kicking the cokes and sweet teas and all that mess, then you're body is gonna let go of a lot of crap and you'll see that huge initial dip in weight. After that is when it slows down, man or woman.

    Very true! I've generally eaten healthy (no pop and sugar free 85% of the time) but I think my portion sizes were too big. Even healthy foods in too big of portions are not going to let you lose weight. This is my first time calorie counting and it seems like it's working well for me so far.
  • txlawyer87
    txlawyer87 Posts: 14 Member
    I'm in about the same situation. I started at 275 and have lost 12 pounds in 2 weeks. This is, of course, with major dietary changes. At the rate I'm going, I should lose 20 pounds fairly soon. I've been at various weights, and I can personally testify to the fact that the more weight you have to lose the faster you'll lose it (at first). Good luck!
  • jimgatewood
    jimgatewood Posts: 86 Member
    a couple weeks.
  • jnv7594
    jnv7594 Posts: 983 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.

    Ummm, it isn't a rule of thumb that you will lose 20 pounds in 2 to 3 weeks if you are morbidly obese. I started out at 294 and am 5 foot 8 inches tall. It took me a month to lose my first ten pounds, and I've lost five to ten pounds every month after until recently. I'm now down 65 pounds and my weight loss has slowed a bit. I'm pretty much right on track now with MFP and lost 5 pounds last month, and it looks like I will lose about that much this month. That's just me. We are all individual. But you can't say flat out that someone will lose a certain amount of weight in a certain amount of time.

  • JenW70503
    JenW70503 Posts: 22 Member
    I lost 9.6 pounds in the first week. I am 5'2 and started at 278.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,148 Member
    I started at 313#, 5'1". Took me a month to lose 20#. I worried more about portion control than keeping track of how much I was eating. I might have lost faster had I had any knowledge about calorie counting. It'll probably be slower with you since you have other things going on.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    My weight gained slowly, and it came off slowly. My estimate is that the first twenty pounds took four months to come off. I started out heavier than you, at 5' 4".
  • zezelryck
    zezelryck Posts: 251 Member
    I started out at 329lb and now weight 146lb. It took me around 18 months to achieve. I lost 26lb within the first 4 weeks :-)
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    livb528 wrote: »
    2 or 3 weeks? Wow, that would be really really fast. My secret hope is 3 lbs a week initially but even then I am a breastfeeding mom with hypothyroidism and that kind of slows things down a little bit but I am hoping all the extra exercise will really bump things up.

    Disagree and id treat that with a lot of scepticism. Normally when you start you get some faster weight loss as water weight going. We are all different and hes making that statement without knowing what on earth you will be doing for your diet including how much deficit you will be running and how much exercise.

    Also have no idea how much in excess you were eating before. You need to eat a minimum1800 calories if you are breastfeeding and there are dangers if you run too high a deficit. I wouldnt worry about how quickly it comes off and pay more attention to doing things correctly to give you a better long term effectiveness.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    edited January 2015
    It took me 3.5-4 months for the first 20, 3 months for the second, and going on six months since
  • NoelFigart1
    NoelFigart1 Posts: 1,276 Member
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    jdb3388 wrote: »
    260 is morbidly obese at 5'8''. You'll lose 20lbs in 2 or 3 weeks. When you begin, the heavier you are, the more you lose. It's the next 20 you're gonna have to work for.

    No, women generally don't lose that fast.

    Not in the long rung, but when you stop eating fried food and go water only, kicking the cokes and sweet teas and all that mess, then you're body is gonna let go of a lot of crap and you'll see that huge initial dip in weight. After that is when it slows down, man or woman.

    Cupcake, did you READ my post about my rate of weight loss for the first twenty pounds?
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    edited January 2015
    I started out at 220 and lost 20 lbs. in about two and a half months, I think.
  • FlossieBeulah
    FlossieBeulah Posts: 7 Member
    I'm 5'3" and started on 10/13/14 at 215 (last weigh in before was 219 on 2/19/14). I now weigh 189.6. The first 10 took about 6 weeks, the next 10 took a little bit longer, 8 or 10 weeks.
  • mart001
    mart001 Posts: 194 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Here is a chart of my weight loss satarting Jan 4, 2013 thru a week ago. As you can see I have been very steady starting at 282 pounds and now at 150. I am 5'7".....To be exact, I got to 182, 20 pounds down on Feb 8, so about 4 1/2 weeks, then the next 20 was on was on April 24th....
  • NikonPal
    NikonPal Posts: 1,346 Member
    You're a lot skinnier than I was (I'm down 179 pounds);

    You said: "I would love to be down 20 when we go on vacation March 1" -- 6 weeks from now - IMHO that is not unreasonable to expect for your initial loss.
  • serenefractal
    serenefractal Posts: 16 Member
    I started out a little above you (but same height) and I've lost 14 pounds in 4 weeks. The first 2 weeks were the most dramatic. Huge intake in veggies and fruits, cutting out most added sugar & junk food, only drinking water.
  • karenrich77
    karenrich77 Posts: 292 Member
    I started at 370. 50 weeks ago. It took me about 4 weeks to lost the first 20 but I weighed a lot more than you xx
  • Lourdesong
    Lourdesong Posts: 1,492 Member
    It took approximately 6 weeks to lose my first 20.
  • naturesfempower
    naturesfempower Posts: 107 Member
    I lost 4 lbs the first week and 3 lbs the second week and 2 lbs a week for a month after that. I drank only water, cut out anything fried, dropped all ground meats, and ate a huge salad for lunch every day. The first twenty pounds was easy, after that it's kind of a struggle. You can do it!
  • AmigaMaria001
    AmigaMaria001 Posts: 489 Member
    I lost an average of 1-lb a week ... a little more the first 12 weeks and then it started to come off slower. Patience and reasonable goals will will the race!
  • livb528
    livb528 Posts: 55 Member
    edited January 2015
    999tigger wrote: »
    livb528 wrote: »
    2 or 3 weeks? Wow, that would be really really fast. My secret hope is 3 lbs a week initially but even then I am a breastfeeding mom with hypothyroidism and that kind of slows things down a little bit but I am hoping all the extra exercise will really bump things up.

    Disagree and id treat that with a lot of scepticism. Normally when you start you get some faster weight loss as water weight going. We are all different and hes making that statement without knowing what on earth you will be doing for your diet including how much deficit you will be running and how much exercise.

    Also have no idea how much in excess you were eating before. You need to eat a minimum1800 calories if you are breastfeeding and there are dangers if you run too high a deficit. I wouldnt worry about how quickly it comes off and pay more attention to doing things correctly to give you a better long term effectiveness.

    MFP has me at 2200 calories per day and I am down 2 lbs so far this week. I'd be very happy to lose 2-3 lbs per week initially! I've noticed if I work out and don't eat all my calories my milk supply is low so I am definitely taking advantage of all the calories they give me! ;) I have no idea how much I was eating before but probably enough to keep me in maintenance and not lose as I really haven't gained since she was born, just not been able to lose. Thanks for the advice!
  • cbirdso
    cbirdso Posts: 465 Member
    I'm 5'4" and started at around 210. I lost 45 pounds in the first year, 20 pounds the second year, 5 pounds the third year. Then gained 5 pounds back the 4th year. I am now working on losing those 5 pounds (again!) this year. When I first started, I received a lot of feedback that said I should be sad I was losing so slowly. I did not feel that--ever. I was very happy with my results. I had minimal loose skin (that is now all gone) and gradually got used to eating less, eating better and exercising more---knowing that I could never go back to the habits that made me gain weight in the first place. My reasoning was, these new habits are going to have to be my habits for THE REST of MY LIFE...why adopt temporary VLC and high exercise habits temporarily and make myself miserable?
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