How long after eating healthy and eating properly does it take for the body to start losing weight?

JollyHodgers87

I hope my title makes sense. I was trying to keep it short and sweet. I will eventually get all this.

How long after eating healthy and eating properly does it take for the body to start losing weight steadily?

I'm on a 38 day streak. I've worked out almost every day throughout the day on lunch breaks and after work and followed my diet plan strictly. I've lost a few pounds but I know it's safe to lose 2 a week and that's not happening. I do feel like I have lost inches. So this leads me to believe I'm gaining muscle (I've been told you won't gain muscle unless you burn massive amounts of calories exercising each day... more than I've exercised but I feel like I really am getting more trim. My fiancé has noticed it as well. But I'm not losing a lot of weight.

You may see that I have lost a lot of pounds on my timeline, but this has been over a long time, not my 38 day streak. I'm getting this done and over with asap so I don't have to be so strict on it and will feel great in my wedding dress in October! I really slacked in the past!

Has science come up with an answer to how long it takes for the body to start losing a pound or two a week steadily? Is there a calculator?

If not, what is your experience with this. Thanks so much guys!

Mentali

It's not necessarily muscle. I tend to lose fat, then inches, then fat in alternating patterns - I'll lose 10 pounds steadily, but no inches - then once I stall for a bit my measurements will drop a few inches all at once.

If your goal is to look good for a dress, and you're losing inches and getting more trim, what's the issue?

tryin2die2self

Weight is an illusion. Body Fat % is the key. If you are replacing a pound of fat with a pound of muscle... is that a bad thing? Take some measurement, get your weight and get an estimated body fat percentage. Every two weeks, recalculate your body fat %. I would rather see my waist line decease than see a few pounds drop off the scale. Staying the same weight but getting into a slimmer pant size would be epic.

Keep it up. You are going to see results.

JollyHodgers87

Well I want to be more in shape as well. The issue is I know I can do better. What do you mean by stalling? If that works, I want to try it! LOL Thanks.

Afura

You're asking two different things in this.
If you're doing a lot of strength training, then start measuring, it will be a far more accurate assessment of your success than the scale. Also just a good way in general for people losing weight and not necessarily exercising.
There is no science as to how long it takes, because it depends on a lot of variables (sleep, stress, water retention, hormones...), however overall you should see a steady decrease with a caloric deficit alone. It also depends on how much you have to lose as to how much is a good weight loss per week. If you have under 20lb, then a .5lb/week is a good goal. If you have 100+ then 2lb is a good steady way to lose weight.

If you simply want to lose weight, then work on your caloric deficit. If you're set for losing some weight and losing inches, I'd say whatever you're doing is working for you.

Shanel0916

Everyone is different and loses differently so there is really no way to answer this. There are to many factors to take into account, you may not consistently lose a pound week there may weeks you lose 1 pound and weeks you may lose 2 pounds. Just stick to your plan and evaluate it in about 6 weeks make necessary changes if you feel your progress isn't what it should be.

Mentali

wstephens87 wrote: »

Well I want to be more in shape as well. The issue is I know I can do better. What do you mean by stalling? If that works, I want to try it! LOL Thanks.

I mean that I lose little or no weight while I lose inches. I've been stalled for about 2.5 weeks now at the same weight, but somehow my bra went from hooking in the middle hook comfortably to suddenly too big on the tightest hook.

I have no idea what causes it - maybe my body's just bad at multitasking! As long as you're sure you're eating and exercising at a deficit, it'll happen, just with weird timing. Losing 2 a week for 5 weeks can happen, or you might lose 10 pounds over 5 days after losing nothing.

QuietBloom

If you are not losing as quickly as you think you should be, your math is off somewhere, and you are eating more than you think you are. However, as you are losing weight, congrats! Calorie counting is for losing weight, exercise is for health and a good end result. Hope that makes sense.

JollyHodgers87

For some reason it's not letting me hit quote to respond. lol sorry guys. I am going to follow your advice and perhaps ugh start measuring. But I still want to lose weight. l have been to lazy to go get a tape measure. @tryin2die2self, I would love to go down in pants sizes! When I was a teenager, I was a size zero because I was in so many sports. I have no desire to be that little again and at my age, it might look sickening on me, but I could stand to lose some weight. I haven't gone down any pants sizes yet, but I can say that they aren't as tight which is a plus! I was at a point where I decided I refuse to go up another size. I just want to feel like my old in shape healthy self.

Francl27

You're not building muscle eating at a deficit... it's a myth.

It can take a while to lose when you start exercising though because the body tends to retain water to repair your muscles.

ndj1979

Francl27 wrote: »

You're not building muscle eating at a deficit... it's a myth.

It can take a while to lose when you start exercising though because the body tends to retain water to repair your muscles.

not a myth .an untrained beginner following a progressive weight lifting program can gain some mass in the initial training phase - aka newbie gains.

however, OP does not seem to be following a structured, progressive, lifting regimen, so OP is not gaining muscle in a deficit.

SezxyStef

Francl27 wrote: »

You're not building muscle eating at a deficit... it's a myth.

It can take a while to lose when you start exercising though because the body tends to retain water to repair your muscles.

so much of this.

Eating healthy does not guarantee weight loss either...you have to be in a deficit which can be done with any types of foods...it's about how much.

How much you lose is defined by the calorie deficit either created by less for and/or more exercise.

500 a day deficit means 1lb a week. 1000 calorie a day deficit means 2lbs a week.

2lbs a week is a good rate of loss if you have over 100lbs to lose. If you only have 20lbs not so much.

Exercise can contribute to the deficit but if you are eating too much you can exercise till you drop you won't lose the weight.

JollyHodgers87

@Mentali thanks. That is comforting that I'm not the only one who is not losing a pound or two a week. And it's comforting to hear you are losing weight doing the mfp plan even though you stall. Kind of gives me an idea of how this goes. This is the most strict I have ever been on myself.

JollyHodgers87

@Francl27 I honestly didn't know that your body retains water to help repair muscle. I have been drinking the cranberry juice and water to try t help with this though because I thought it was a bad thing. Thanks!

stevencloser

You will start losing weight immediately as soon as you're in a deficit.
The problem is that the weight you're losing by that deficit is just energetic mass. That means fat, glycogen and muscle mostly. You will continuously lose this as long as you're in a deficit. Your body has no other choice.
However, you don't just have energetic mass in you, but also non-energetic mass. That's the amount of still digesting food in your stomach and what's in your intestines (i.e. poop) as well as the amount of water weight you're carrying on you. That can sway up and down however it likes depending on your lifestyle, regardless of your fat loss progress, thus having the possibility of masking your weight loss. If you weigh yourself, drink a gallon of water, then weigh yourself again you'll see a huge increase in weight even though you obviously haven't gained anything.

If you're in a deficit, you'll see a downwards trend in your weight as time goes on despite that irregularity in water weight and intestine contents. If that trend is not as big as it should be, you will need to reassess how many calories you're taking in vs. burning as that would mean your measurements of CI or estimations for CO could be off.