Dropping Faster than Intended/Expected

thisberichard

I have been losing weight faster than I meant to -- faster than is healthy -- and would appreciate any guidance on what I might be doing wrong and how I might correct those mistakes. Alternatively, if I don't actually have anything to worry about, I'd like to know that so I can stop feeling anxious about this and just enjoy the dropping numbers.

So. With details, my situation is this:

I just finished my fourth week on a diet that features a net 1000-calorie deficit, the plan being to lose two pounds per week. I wanted to lose weight as fast as I could without doing anything that would significantly reduce my metabolism and make it more difficult to keep the weight off when, once I'm where I want to be, I eventually switch to a maintenance diet.

For the first three weeks things went as planned: -2 lbs every week, measuring Tuesday nights before bed. With the second week I'd only seemed to lose half a pound, but recognizing the potential for simple daily variations, I did a follow-up measure on the following night and confirmed that I'd lost the entire two pounds I'd intended.

This past Tuesday, though, after my fourth week, I was down three and a half pounds from the previous weigh-in. I followed up the next night in the same way I had previously, but the message was the same: nearly four pounds lost.

Now, as glad as I am to see the weight leave in a hurry, I care more about losing the weight /right/ than losing it /fast/. No one seems to reccommend a loss of more than two pounds a week, and I'm trying to understand what I did wrong to ensure that I don't keep doing anything that will make things worse for me later on.

By way of potentially-relevant information...
1. I'm male, six feet and no inches tall, and I'm 28 years old.
2. I've been following MFP's suggestion, eating roughly 1400 calories per day.
3. I've been hitting and usually surpassing both my protein and fiber targets.
4. I've been overrunning my carbohydrate target by 100-400 on most days.
5. My fat count is usually low, though I've been trying to pull it up.
6. As much as I know I should exercise, I have not been doing so. At all.
7. My job is extremely sedentary, as are my recreational activities.

Really, I'm hard-pressed to think of how I could burn fewer calories without hitting a major depressive episode and failing to even get out of bed... which, itself, is fairly similar to my weekends. So that means it probably isn't just a matter of me using more calories than MFP calculated... right?

I'd appreciate any help, guidance, wisdom, and what-have-you.
Thanks!

littlebrownbat3

My guess, since it's only been a few weeks, is that you've lost water weight too, and that speeds things along. From what I gather, when you have a bunch to lose, the first few are the easiest. You seem to be doing fine (although I'd up the exercise, personally),

More disconcerting is the depression thing you mention at the end. Have you spoken to someone about that? If you have the resources, use them, because that is a bad sign.

_Zardoz_

Your body won't lose weight in a linear way.it doesn't know one week from the next. Some weeks will be more others less. One week of three and half pounds isn't going to kill you.

MinnieInMaine

With the amount of weight you have to lose, a 1.5 pound per week goal would actually be more reasonalbe so I would recommend reducing that calorie deficit to 750 per day.

Here is a great guideline for setting weekly weight loss goals:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.

When you exercise, are you eating back the earned calories? If not, do that.

If you cleaned up your eating quite a bit, meaning less processed foods (sodium, added sugar), more water drinking, etc, the extra may just be water weight coming off. Not to negate your loss though, fantastic job so far my friend! But less to worry about than losing muscle (which is why you don't want to lose fast BTW).

For protein, the # MFP gives you is more like a minimum so try to shoot for about 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. If i'm doing the math right, that'd be about 157 grams per day for you. Less is fine but that's more the number you want to shoot for. This will also help you retain your lean body mass/muscle.

thisberichard

My guess, since it's only been a few weeks, is that you've lost water weight too, and that speeds things along. From what I gather, when you have a bunch to lose, the first few are the easiest. You seem to be doing fine (although I'd up the exercise, personally),

More disconcerting is the depression thing you mention at the end. Have you spoken to someone about that? If you have the resources, use them, because that is a bad sign.

I thought about water weight, but I can't figure why it wouldn't make for bigger losses on the first three weeks only to show up in a big way on the fourth. But I don't really know much about weight loss, so that could be it, I suppose.

The Depression thing has been a lifelong struggle. I've been approaching it as well as I can manage, with meds and weekly therapy. Getting my body into better shape can also help, which is one more reason I'm doing this.

miqisha

The weigh loss goes fast the first few weeks for a lot of people, the closer you get to your goal it will or should slow down. Sorry you are struggling with depression but glad you are getting help. Stay strong!!!!!

thisberichard

I know that a single week of larger-than-intended losses isn't the end of the world. I'm mostly concerned with making sure that I'm not doing anything that could make it happen with some kind of regularity.

The graduated weight loss guidelines seem like a great idea!
I think I'll probably either adopt that structure (or, at least, something awfully similar).

I don't really exercise -- I plan to, but can never seem to get myself moving -- but I /have/ significantly improved my diet, from 2 cups of water or so to 7-10, from lots of fat and sugar to lots of fiber and protein. If it's water weight coming off, I'm comfortable with that, but I'm a little uncertain since I wasn't losing so much the previous three weeks.
Knowing that the protein value is a minimum is a pretty big relief. I've been overshooting it by a fair deal, but I still haven't been hitting 150 with any regularity... so I think I'll start purposefully shooting for more.

More and more it's sounding like this is probably just a fluke resulting from the early stages of weight loss, so that's a load off my mind. Also, though I'd read that there's usually a drop in losses further in, for some reason I'd still been clinging to the idea that the deficit was all that really mattered. With this though, I've been pretty thoroughly disabused of that notion. That'll be a huge boon when... y'know, things start slowing down.

Thank you all so much for the guidance and good wishes!

dellaquilaa

Before I started eating better, I was having fast food 1-2 times per day and drinking a TON of soda. When I think about it now, I was probably averaging 3000 calories per day without meaning to (which is, obviously, why most of us are here.)

Now, when I switched to a healthy intake and more wholesome foods, the first 10-11 pounds came off in no time flat - over about 2 or 3 weeks. Partially water weight, because I stopped eating the processed junk and partially fat because my body was so shocked by the deficit.

But I've been losing at a steady 3-4 pounds per month since. Don't get too worried about it, especially if you were eating garbage before this or started off with a significant amount to lose.