Diet and Cardio - Lost too much?

RaccoTaco

I've been dieting for maybe a week now, maybe a bit more than a week. I've been exercising Monday, Wednesday, Friday - going on an Elliptical, jogging, squats, biking, and going on random workout machines that target my arms and stomach. I'm usually at the gym for about 90 minutes (except this Mondays - was there for about 30 minutes), so in total I get around 270 minutes of workouts for a week. I indulge around 1200 - 1600 calories a day and expected to lose around 1-2 pounds a week. It's been roughly 10 days and the scale tells me I lost 9 pounds so far (160 to 151).

I'm very worried that I shouldn't be losing this much to start off. I keep Googling and every site says it's unhealthy. Am I doing something wrong? I keep looking into the mirror as well and I feel like I haven't lost any fat. Is it just water weight I lost? I do not understand how this works. I'm sorry for asking!

queenliz99

It is mostly water weight with probably some fat loss mixed in. Your weight loss will slow down, however. Keep it up, you are doing great!!

kailadriel

how tall are you, what gender are you, and how old are you?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

yopeeps025

Newbie gains (loss of weight). They will go away soon.

pinkteapot3

Ideally you should eat your recommended number of cals per day, PLUS extra for any cals you burn with exercise. Assuming you're female, 1,200 is the recommended minimum number of NET calories - ie if you burn 500 cals at the gym you should eat 1,700 (1,200 plus 500). It's not the number of calories irrespective of how active you are.

You can go nuts for a week or two eating less and you'll lose weight fast, but it's not a sustainable long term strategy.

If the cals you've said are already net calories (not total) then ignore me completely. A lot of people have a high loss in their first week or two as it's a shock to the system, then their loss settles down and is slower.

ninerbuff

Water weight and not unusual the first week. BTW, you can't "target" fat loss. It comes off systematically off your body based on genetics. That's why some lose it on their legs first and waist last and vice versa. You can target conditioning the muscle underneath though.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

hbb86

I would definitely say this was beginners 'luck' - if you go from doing very little, to doing a lot, you're bound to loose a lot initially as your body gets a bit of a kicking!

I would recommend a sustainable amount of exercise - whether that is what you're doing now or whatever - just do the same for a while and get into a routine - once you've found your rhythm, you can go on and change up intensity etc to suit your weight loss.

Not sure who died and made me the expert here but that's just my opinion! lol x

RaccoTaco

Okay, thanks for the points, guys and gals! At least I know that I'm not unhealthy.