Losing A Pound A Day... Healthy?

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AshleyWallace3
AshleyWallace3 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there; I'm a 5'7", young adult female who weighs 165 pounds; my calorie in-take is 1200 calories a day. Every other day, I burn 170 on the treadmill, and my diet consists of Slimming World/Weight Watcher friendly foods, as well as any snack foods I can have, if I have the spare calories! My life style's admittedly quite sedentary, other than the treadmill, I'm usually on my backside!

So why am I losing a pound a day? This is excellent, and I appreciate that it's a lot harder for other people, but I'm wondering how I can possibly be losing weight so fast? On the flip side, I certainly can gain a pound a day very easily... But if this rate keeps up, I'll have lost a stone in two weeks. I'm confused, because that doesn't sound healthy. Is it because I'm overweight and it's easier to shed that weight, or...?

I weigh myself daily to see my progress, and I hate giving into the temptation - obsessing over those scales daily is another thing that just ain't healthy.

Cheers guys!

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    how long have you been losing a pound a day for?
  • jenna_nicolo
    jenna_nicolo Posts: 62 Member
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    It's just water weight and will eventually taper off. We have similar stats (I'm 22, 5'8 and 160lbs) and my TDEE is about 1800 calories a day sedentary or about 2050 on days with light exercise. If yours is close enough to that, your 1200 calorie diet puts you at about a 800 calorie deficit per day - you'd need it to be 3500 per day if that one pound was all fat. At your rate you should be losing about 1.6lbs a week, which is right on the money.
  • Dan31S
    Dan31S Posts: 5 Member
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    I agree that it is water weight right now but ride the wave until you hit a wall then you may have to switch things up a little by altering your types of exercise and counting the calories. 1200 calories a day is fine and with exercise you can always add on calories at the backend. Enjoy the ride. : )
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,406 Member
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    Besides water weight, there's reduced average daily digestive system contents - food and waste en route from mouth to the other end. Digestive transit can take 50+ hours.

    So, over the first 2-3 days of an eating reduction, you're seeing this weight reduction on the scale, too - can be several pounds.

    If this rate of weight loss - or any rate beyond about 1% of body weight weekly - continues beyond the first 2-3 weeks, I'd suggest eating more.

    MFP, or any other calorie-requirements calculator, is only giving you a calorie estimate based on the averages from large-group research studies. Individuals vary, and a very small percentage of people (1 in 20, say) vary a lot.

    I lost way too fast at first on MFP's estimate, and fixed it as soon as I realized, but still experienced fatigue and weakness that took time to recover from. It turns out that MFP underestimates my calorie needs by at least 30%.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    Long term it would not be healthy to lose more than 2 lbs per week unless you weighed a lot more.
    Your calorie goal is a bit low. It should probably be closer to 1600 as a sedentary person with your stats without exercise and you should be eating some more if you exercise.
    You are not very overweight. Set your goal on MFP to lose .5 to 1 lb a week and see what it tells you for a calorie goal.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    It's water weight from now, but 1,200 is unnecessarily low. It also sounds like you're not eating back your exercise calories. You will lose 1-2 lbs a week eating a net 1300 to 1500 cals a day.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,222 Member
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    I started at exactly your stats 18 months ago. With completely sedentiary I was eating 1100 and was losing 1lbs per week at most. (I was at 400cal deficit at 1100 due to only sitting)
    So what you have been losing is guaranteed water.
  • rickiimarieee
    rickiimarieee Posts: 2,212 Member
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    Could be water weight. If it's that it'll slow down.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    At 5'7" 165 you're not more than a few lbs overweight. If you want to lose, no more than .5 to 1 lb per week. I agree 1500-1700 per day. That has worked for me and I'm the same size.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,730 Member
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    Not everybody needs to eat 1200 calories in order to lose weight..

    It sure sounds that unless you're trying to save on your grocery bill you have no reason to only be eating 1200.

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