Weight loss question

j_courter

Advice wanted: I started logging food last Thursday and I'm down 5 pounds as of today. Should I up my calorie intake a bit or is this a normal first week loss that should slow down soon? I was thinking a pound a week was what people aim for.

I stand 5'2" on a tall day and weighed 135 to start.
I am moderately active and have a 1680 daily calorie goal.

Thanks for your input.

Angierae75

It's probably water weight. I'd wait a few weeks and average it out before deciding if adjustments are necessary.

macgurlnet

Give it at least 3 weeks at the same calories and see how things go. Very normal to see a big drop at first. You might see a bit of a gain in the coming weeks - also normal.

~Lyssa

malibu927

It's normal to lose more in the beginning weeks due to water weight being lost. If it stays at a higher rate for another 2-3 weeks, then adjust your goals.

Dano74

Keep up the same pace. Many times weight will fly off at first, then slow. Depends on person but you're fine. See it out for a few more weeks as noted above and adjust, if needed from there. Congrats on your kickstart!

akilia112010

I wouldn't suggest taking in more calories. It's most likely that those 5 lbs are mostly water weight.

j_courter

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

malibu927

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

You're consuming fewer calories, and probably fewer carbs/less sodium. This means your body needs to store less glycogen, which holds onto water. Your metabolism does slow down as you lose, as your body needs fewer calories to run off of, but it's not a drastic drop.

macgurlnet

malibu927 wrote: »

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

You're consuming fewer calories, and probably fewer carbs/less sodium. This means your body needs to store less glycogen, which holds onto water. Your metabolism does slow down as you lose, as your body needs fewer calories to run off of, but it's not a drastic drop.

This, plus if you've increased your water intake, you'll be retaining less water, which also shows as a loss on the scale.

I had similar stats in January 2015 when I started losing weight. I'm 5' tall and was 140 pounds. 5 pounds poofed off me in under a week, but I had also started drinking a LOT more water (at least 60 ounces).

After that first week, things settled down to 1lb/week or so.

~Lyssa

jemhh

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

It is completely normal and to be expected to drop several pounds quickly at the start of weight loss. We feel that it is water weight because the majority of us have experienced the same thing and have observed it in others. (In other words, it's normal.)

Cortelli

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

A chunk of it is water weight for sure, for the reasons others have already pointed out. But there is also likely some additional weight loss that is not attributable to "water" or to fat loss.

Most people who begin a focused weight loss effort also lose weight (as in purely a scale measure) because they have, on average, less material in their stomach, in their bowels etc. Think of it this way - if you eat a pound of carrots and weigh yourself right after, you will have gained a pound of weight. Doesn't mean you've permanently added a pound of fat (or muscle, water, etc.)

It is very, very common at the beginning of an intended weight loss period to drop a big chunk of scale weight in the first week or three. Similarly, it is very, very common for someone moving into maintenance from a calorie deficit to add a chunk of scale weight very quickly in the first week or three. You're probably going to hit a target weight sooner than many others on the site (given your stats in your OP), so I hope you will remember this when you move into maintenance and not freak out if the scale blips up a bit pretty quickly after increasing your calorie targets.

fattothinmum

Angierae75 wrote: »

It's probably water weight. I'd wait a few weeks and average it out before deciding if adjustments are necessary.

Very much this. One week isn't long enough to base long term decisions on.

arditarose

It may seem like a lot of water, which it is, but it's possible. The other weekend I dropped 5 pounds of water weight over night.

alyssa0061

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

Because it's definitely not fat

teetertatertango

Nothing stopping you from increasing to 1900 this week and seeing what happens.

Are you eating your exercise calories back?

AnnPT77

j_courter wrote: »

I'm curious as to why so many feel like this is water weight. My weight has never fluctuated like this. I'm pretty consistent even throughout the whole course of a day.

It's not that I am opposed to sticking with this calorie goal, but I don't want to unintentionally slow my metabolism either.

You're not taking a huge metabolic risk, IMO, if you stick with this goal for 3-4 weeks - assuming it feels sustainable to you - and see what your loss rate is. The first week, sometimes two, maybe a bit more, many of us see a big drop. For sure, if you start feeling logy or fatigued, or have compliance issues, eat more before the time is up. Eat more if you see your loss accelerating (probably not likely) during that time, too.

Some of it is certainly water. If we're eating fewer calories, we're eating fewer carbs and less sodium, so we drop water weight because of that. We deplete our average glycogen stores, so we lose some water weight because of that, too. As others have suggested, some of us tend to increase water consumption at the same time, which also tends to cause water weight drops.

Sure, there are other possibilities beyond that: We eat less, so less average weight of food in our system at any given moment - that may drop the scale a bit, too.

But mostly, by applying logic to what we know/believe from research sources, we know it's unlikely to be fat loss, and that it's most likely to be mostly water. Plus there's the part where we tend to see the matching (or close) jump in the scale when we go to maintenance calories.

PinkPixiexox

I lost six pounds in my first week - don't worry, this is mainly water weight. You're doing just fine as you are! Well done!

j_courter

Thanks for the responses everyone. I appreciate you all taking the time to weigh in. ;-)