How long before you noticed a change?

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my2loves04and06
my2loves04and06 Posts: 312
in Health and Weight Loss
I just (re)started my journey to a healthier me last weekend, but I know myself and I know I'll be discouraged quickly if I don't see some sort of results. How long does it typically take for your body to adjust to your new eating habits? I know it's not reasonable to already see changes (i.e. weight loss or inches lost). When did you start seeing changes, and were they in the form of lbs or inches?

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  • melissaogdenrhode
    melissaogdenrhode Posts: 66
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    It varies from person to person. Personally I lost like 5 right away and then stalled for three weeks and then (and currently) lost (lose) evenly about 2 pounds a week....some times more....stall around my period and then lose afterwards when the water retention subsides...just make sure you exercise somewhat hard (Break a nice sweat) for 45 min. or so, stay at or go a little over your original calorie suggestion. (just don't use all your exercise calories) I find this to be a good thing oh yeah...vary your exercise and food patterns or your body gets stubborn. (Or at least mine does)

    Wow I just said a lot....sorry about that
  • la4et
    la4et Posts: 134 Member
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    This probably won't help but it took me forever! One day in early spring I was cleaning my closet, and I found a pair of shorts (18) that I wore all the time. I held them up to me and had a biggest loser moment looking in the mirror. It took me to get to a size 8, and 60 pounds,before I realized the lose for myself.
    Such a mental game
  • HeatherCanDoIt
    HeatherCanDoIt Posts: 165 Member
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    Hi, I think that it is different for everyone. I was in a group of 4 people in a weight loss contest and I lost by far the most weight and it took the longest to show on me. I think that after about a month of strict diet and exercise it began to show on me, my husband began to look different after the first week!
    Good luck, you are going to do great!
  • funkyspunky871
    funkyspunky871 Posts: 1,675 Member
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    Good question, really. I'm used to my eating habits now... I wasn't even paying attention to how long it took. I've been at this since February. I'm going to guess it took about a month or two to get used to my new eating habits, but let's see... It's June now, so I know I'm completely used to low calorie/low fat/exercise by 5 months.

    As for weight, I had 9 pounds come off the first week. This is most definitely because I'm starting at such a large weight, but I've just been following MFP's suggestions, and easily losing 3.5 pounds a week. I expect this to level out to about 2 pounds soon since it gets harder to lose weight when you have less to lose.

    And then inches... Well, I'm a big idiot and didn't think that measuring was really worth it in the beginning, so honestly I have no clue if I've lost any inches. I think the closest I've noticed about losing inches is the fact that my clothes used to shrink a lot in the dryer and I'd have to stretch them out again, but now I can put a shirt in the dryer and wear it right away. And then, about 2 weeks ago, my dad and brother mentioned that they can really notice a difference in my face. My mom also said I no longer have a double chin. Hooray!


    Don't get discouraged. Really, I think that if I can do it, surrounded by junk food and 4 other morbidly obese family members, then anyone can do it. I'm sitting here right now and my 400-450 pound brother is on the other side of the couch eating a huge bag of cheese goldfish snacks.... I wish I were kidding.
  • 00trayn
    00trayn Posts: 1,849 Member
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    I've been steadily losing weight since February, at the pace of about a pound to a pound and a half a week. It really didn't start to show until May. That was when my pants were all suddenly too big, or pants that were tight before fit, and shirts that were fine in December were baggy and looked bad. It was probably about 15 pounds lost when it started to show. Now I'm at 23 pounds and everyone can tell it's a big difference, especially in my waist and stomach area. So, even if the scale is going down, you might not notice a difference for a few months, but once it happens, it's a big change! I can't stop looking at my picture.. haha. I don't think my waist has ever been this narrow and it rocks :D
  • lmillspa
    lmillspa Posts: 2
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    My2,
    In my case, I started out dropping a couple of pounds in the first 2 weeks, but then staying "stuck" for a while at the same weight. I was bummed, until I thought to take a measurement, and was happy to see a couple of inches off my tush in about 6 weeks.

    In my case, I find if I focus on meeting exercise goals, like getting 30 more minutes in a week, or running a block along my walking route, instead of weight loss goals, I get more motivated, because I can ALWAYS get up and take a walk, where I can't always get on the scale and find I've lost a half a pound.

    This is my second start at counting calories (eaten, and burned) in 18 months. I've been back on the counting wagon for about a month, and am down 2 lbs, and 2 inches.

    Good luck with your journey!

    lm

    SW-228
    CW - 209
    GW - 160
  • lisawyckoff
    lisawyckoff Posts: 8
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    I started this site in February when my second son was a month old. Some of the baby weight came off pretty quickly just because I was starting to move around better after my C-section, but then there was the stubborn fat from my eating habits during my pregnancy that got me up to 200 lbs.

    I saw great results after I started P90X. It is one thing for me to watch what I eat, but I really need to exercise to see results that art fast enough for my own motivation. My results were more in inches since I'm building muscle on my second time through P90X. In three months of dedicated exercise and logging on this site, I have gone from 165 to 145. I went from a post-pregnancy tight size 14 to a well-fitting size 8! My goal is to get back to 130.

    Good luck on your journey!
  • my2loves04and06
    my2loves04and06 Posts: 312
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    Darn this world we live in that has many of us wanting immediate gratification! :grumble:

    There's so many varying threads, but should you or should you not eat back the calories you burn from exercise? I assumed I should since MFP added them back into my daily calorie count.

    Thanks for the insight!
  • wiseg2
    wiseg2 Posts: 210 Member
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    It took me about 2 weeks to notice a change. The first place I noticed it was my face.
  • funkyspunky871
    funkyspunky871 Posts: 1,675 Member
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    I say, if you lose weight while eating your exercise calories, why not? More food. You could actually have dessert every night. Maybe actually have enough to eat your favorite high calorie/high fat restaurant meal every once a while. Splurging... without splurging.

    I don't personally eat my exercise calories (except for this past week). I think I'm going to use my extras just in case.

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