Excessive weight loss

potatoyeti

I feel like I'm losing weight way to quickly and trying to come up with ways to slow things down without
going back to my old unhealthy ways. I'm a 6"0 male and my starting weight was 288 lbs. My last reading on monday i was down to 266 lbs. So in 5 weeks I'm officially down 22 lbs. My Dr is satisfied with my progress and speed and have been weighing, measuring and tracking everything that eat. Initially was eating between 1500-1800 calories a day but have up that too 1800-2200 a day. Have been hitting my protien, fiber and nutriet goals. Have been close with fat and under in carbs. Now I'm not complaining about how much I've lost however I would like to slow the rate of loss down to about 2lbs a week. Short of upping my daily intake to like 2600 calories really not sure how to do that and was wondering if anyone has any advice.

amtyrell

Several lbs of that was initial loss.
How many caloriesdoes mfp tell you to eat to lose 2 lbs a week. Eat that

shaunshaikh

It's not unusual to experience a sudden "WHOOSH" when you first start a weight loss program, especially if you started unhealthy. If you've switched to eating less food, eating more protein and less carbs, eating less sodium, and eating at a deficit, your body will respond by dropping a lot of water weight in a short amount of time. Things should level out. Not sure what your exercise routine is or philosophy on eating back your calories. But if you are doing strenuous exercise and not adding those exercise calories to your daily goal, you should if you continue to lose weight at a rate faster than you're comfortable with.

ck2d

It's really common to lose a lot of weight fast in the beginning, especially if you've cut down on carbs and cut down on prepared foods. That's what people are talking about when they say "water weight."
Prepared foods, including restaurants and boxed stuff from grocery stores, are full of salt, which make you retain water. Same with soda and alcohol. Cut salt, you'll stop retaining water.
For every molecule of non-fiber carb you eat, your body attaches 4 molecules of water to it. So whatever the weight of carbs you eat is, multiply it by 5, and that's how much weight your body holds onto. If you've cut down on carbs, you'll drop water, and weight quickly.
I'm not trying to discourage you, but rather let you know that in the beginning, drops like that aren't uncommon, so you don't have to worry about it. Stay the course and your rate of weight loss will naturally stabilize.
Congrats on your fantastic results!

Carol_

If you go to a site called HEALTHY WEIGH FORUM.ORG they have calculators where u put in your weight, activity level, etc..and it will calculate for you. But please consider more than one source before making a decision. Your Doc may have a chart. Some Doctors are good at weight loss advice and others not.

One disadvantage of losing too fast is sooner or later..you get hungry..at least I do. And another is..your body needs time to adjust. I think you are making a wise decision to slow down a little.

Excuse my typos..lol. I am NOT a morning person!

mitch16

I don't know how old you are, but basic calorie calculators put your BMR in the 2400 range. You need to eat more if you don't want to lose so quickly. You can eat more than you are without reverting to your old unhealthy ways--start by adding 100 or so calories every day--adding a container of yogurt will accomplish that easily.

rickiimarieee

Things will slow down, it was probably mostly water but I would up your intake if you don't want to lose it so quickly.

oreo_cookies_1992

Slow and steady is usually best but big weight loss in the beginning is also normal and it will eventually slow down and stabilize. I would suggest eating nuts to bring up your calroies and fats. It won't take much of them, therefore, it may prevent potential overeating. (Or old habits)
However, congrats on your hard work and weight loss!

Silentpadna

potatoyeti wrote: »

I feel like I'm losing weight way to quickly and trying to come up with ways to slow things down without
going back to my old unhealthy ways. I'm a 6"0 male and my starting weight was 288 lbs. My last reading on monday i was down to 266 lbs. So in 5 weeks I'm officially down 22 lbs. My Dr is satisfied with my progress and speed and have been weighing, measuring and tracking everything that eat. Initially was eating between 1500-1800 calories a day but have up that too 1800-2200 a day. Have been hitting my protien, fiber and nutriet goals. Have been close with fat and under in carbs. Now I'm not complaining about how much I've lost however I would like to slow the rate of loss down to about 2lbs a week. Short of upping my daily intake to like 2600 calories really not sure how to do that and was wondering if anyone has any advice.

You have all the proper concerns, kudos!

For your reference, I am 5'11", male. Started at 240. I'm at about 190. I did most of the past 6 months at about 2200 calories... Lots of steps per day, so my activity level was lightly active. Your initial drop is normal. I would expect it to level out a bit at a fairly steady drop. You're probably safe at 2000. You can always adjust you know.

Tacklewasher

potatoyeti wrote: »

I feel like I'm losing weight way to quickly and trying to come up with ways to slow things down without
going back to my old unhealthy ways. I'm a 6"0 male and my starting weight was 288 lbs. My last reading on monday i was down to 266 lbs. So in 5 weeks I'm officially down 22 lbs. My Dr is satisfied with my progress and speed and have been weighing, measuring and tracking everything that eat. Initially was eating between 1500-1800 calories a day but have up that too 1800-2200 a day. Have been hitting my protien, fiber and nutriet goals. Have been close with fat and under in carbs. Now I'm not complaining about how much I've lost however I would like to slow the rate of loss down to about 2lbs a week. Short of upping my daily intake to like 2600 calories really not sure how to do that and was wondering if anyone has any advice.

Give it some more time before making changes. Look at the weight loss by week and you will probably see a big drop in the first week but slower loss over the other 4.

Here's what "often" happens. When you start to diet you end up cutting out "bad" foods like bread and pizza and other wonderful things and focus more on rabbit "good" food. So whether you are intending to go low carb, you kinda end up doing just that. Or at least lower than your normal diet. So the reduced carbs leads to reduced glycogen storage (with other fat storage increasing). Glycogen leads to water. For every lb of glycogen you store 3-4 lbs of water. So, let's say you ate at maintenance calories, but low carb. Glycogen goes down by a lb, but fat goes up by a lb. Weight, however, will go down by 3-4 lbs.

It levels out after a bit and your rate of loss will reflect your calorie deficit a bit better.

TLDR: give it time before making a big change.

potatoyeti

Thanks everyone for your input. Going to hold off doing anything for now and keep it status quo and see what happens. If the weight loss is still happening this quickly in a few weeks will reevaluate and increase daily intake.

AmmarMa626

I'm experiencing that right now. Lost about 60lbs in only 4 months (started at 231.5, now at 172) used to eat around 1200-1500 in the first 2 months, then I went to a dietition and she made me increase it to 1700 (she wanted me to go up to 1900, but I refused) I don't think there would be much of an issue if you're staying above 1500 calories.