Lost 17.7 lbs in the first week, is this normal?

wally2wiki

Hello all, I weighed in at 302.3 lbs after Thanksgiving break.

I adopted a diet of 500 calories deficit/per day, consumed about .7 g protein/ lb of bodyweight, and performed 4 weight training/ cardio sessions per week.

This morning I'm down to 284.6 lbs. I understand water loss is typical in the first week, but never experienced this much.

yirara

How badly did you do during thanksgiving? Thinking lots of extra waterweight and food waste in your system. Alternative: broken scale?

sollyn23l2

The short answer is no, I don't believe it's "normal", but it's impossible to say why the scale is showing that much that fast. Just don't expect it to continue. You will likely average out around a pound per week as you continue if you're accurate.

kshama2001

Did you get a weight before Thanksgiving? I'm thinking the 302.3 reading was unusually high for the reasons stated above. But do enjoy this big drop even though you know it's not fat loss

springlering62

I started much lower than you. I lost 30 in my first couple months, later an average of 10 pounds a month the first six months. Not in your range but still a considerable amount.

I think that if you are starting high and being super mindful of what’s going in your mouth, you’re going to lose at a good clip.

I was eating an unholy shedload of junk food, so of course my weight dropped pretty quick. Heck, I probably sent my innards into shock.

My advice is, don’t go hog wild and
deliberately undereat. Or you do risk shocking your body and not in a good way.

I never ate less than 1470, and that was only for the first couple months. A dietician had me increase to 1700 after that first couple because I was losing so quickly she felt it was unhealthy and suggested 1900 a couple months after that. The trainer I hired at six months suggested I increase to 2100 and then again, and I still lost weight because by then I was feeling so much better I was becoming very active.

Saying all this because people get it in their heads that 1200 is some kind of magic number, lose rapidly, but then run out of steam just as rapidly and put it right back on.

Also, don’t expect your fast loss to continue. Weight loss is steady- but in the context of a pound up, a pound and a fraction down, rinse repeat ad naseum. Don’t expect the graph to be a straight slope down. It’s going to be about as jagged a graph as you can imagine, and the first sawtooth that happens puts people off their mark.

Know it, plan for it in advance, and be prepared to shrug your shoulders when the first increase happens and not to run around clutching your head and wailing at your “failure”.

springlering62

pS on the off chance you travelled to your Thanksgiving destination I wouldn’t be at all surprised. I can easily put 6-8 pounds water weight on during a flight, due to cabin pressure, even at my smaller size.

springlering62

And finally, if you were sore from new workouts before and during break, and the soreness went away after Thanksgiving , that’s a few pounds water weight, too. Google DOMS or search it here on the boards.

Much much success to you. I can’t express how much losing a large amount of weight changed my life for the better. I wish this for you, too. Please stay with it. It’s goi g to be challenging but in a year you’re going to smack yourself for not having done it earlier. That year will go by faster than you can ever imagine.

wally2wiki

Thank you all, I've tried different scales-and I've had the same readings. Also, I did not weight myself before Thanksgiving, but I'm positive I was around the 294lbs range.

Corina1143

That makes more sense. 294 down to 284 wouldn't be unusual. A lot. But not unexpected.

Retroguy2000

Congrats on starting.

Don't count this first week wrt estimating fat loss, since a lot of the initial drop is water.

Track your inputs and weight change from here. That will inform you what your TDEE is, better than any calculator can estimate.

e.g. if you lose 2 pounds per week from here you're likely in a 1,000 per day deficit.

PAV8888

Congratulations on catching early on that it is not an individual weigh in that matters But your overall weight trend over time.

And trend over time requires both multiple weight samples and some passage of time!

It sounds as if you're achieving a deficit.

Depending on the types of foods and the choices you've made, they may be contributing to an extra initial drop or not (low carbs for example)

The possibility does exist that you're also achieving a higher than anticipated deficit

If you're eating at the sedentary minimums, or if after the 3rd or so week you're continuing at a significantly accelerated rate that exceeds 1% of your body weight a week, then I would definitely revisit how much deficit you believe you're achieving.

I would also make sure that your scale is on a solid level surface not carpet or something soft