Losing weight too fast?

jetteh22

I heard it's not really healthy to lose more than 2 pounds a week (which is what MFP set my goals at). I am following the diet as strict as possible always eating at least my allotted calories, usually a bit more and then exercising the rest off in the morning and evening (wake up and before I go to bed).

I'm not starving myself, actually feeling full the majority of the day with the exception of maybe an hour or so before dinner. I do a stationary bike for about 60 minutes a day (at least).

I just started on Friday morning. Friday morning I went to the restroom as soon as I woke up I weighed (without clothes) 162.8 pounds. I ate according to diet and rode the bike for 60 minutes that night to make up for my overages.

Saturday morning I woke up and went to restroom again, weighed myself without clothes again and weighed 161.6 pounds. (I have a digital scale and went on three times for both measurements all coming to the same weight).

Saturday I did a lot of exercising (walking around a theme park for about 6 hours.. Was there for eight, figured we stopped for food for like 30 minutes and since we didnt have to wait in lines we litereally walked for about 6 hours) and then rode my bike for 30 minutes last night since I ate bad during the day at the park.

This morning I woke up, went to the restroom and weighed myself the same as usual. 160.00 pounds - all three times I weighed myself.

So - basically.. I have lost almost 3 pounds in two days. Is this a bad thing? Am I doing something wrong, is there anything I should be changing? Or will my weight loss start to slow once my body gets used to the exercise that it never received it before?

LostInOhio

Initially, when you start down a path like MFP, you will initially experience "rapid" weight lost for a few reasons. One is typically water weight coming off. Additionally, you have changed your caloric intake and burning, so you will naturally burn more calories. Over the course of two - three weeks, your body will take notice and start to adjust itself and your weight lost will start to decrease. Your body is an efficient machine and it will adjust your metabolism and other things to compensate for the changes. That's when you will need to change your exercise routine because you will have "plateaued".

Additionally, a number of other external factors can impact weight lost, such as temperature, humidity, etc.

I would continue to focus on what you are doing and follow the plan because you will eventually find that your weight lost will settle down to a safe level, such as 1 lb/week.

If you continue to lose that much weight over a longer period of time, then I would be concerned and probably increase my eating and/or decreasing how much I exercise.

Of course, I assume you aren't walking around 6 - 8 hours every day, which was a one-time even.t

Hang in there!

lizzys

when i was young .i use to drop weight 5 pounds at a time. i exercise a lot and ate small meals . i dont think its unhealthy for you to lose weight that fast just make sure you do eat and get your vitamins that you need. now if you were big like i am now you would want to take it of slow so you could tighten up the saggy skin that you could get from lossing it to fast

klaflamme

I agree with the previous post. Typically, when you start losing weight, you shed about 5-6 pounds the first week - mostly water weight. After that, you should be about 2 pounds a week on average.

twilight1542

Initially, when you start down a path like MFP, you will initially experience "rapid" weight lost for a few reasons. One is typically water weight coming off. Additionally, you have changed your caloric intake and burning, so you will naturally burn more calories. Over the course of two - three weeks, your body will take notice and start to adjust itself and your weight lost will start to decrease. Your body is an efficient machine and it will adjust your metabolism and other things to compensate for the changes. That's when you will need to change your exercise routine because you will have "plateaued".

Additionally, a number of other external factors can impact weight lost, such as temperature, humidity, etc.

I would continue to focus on what you are doing and follow the plan because you will eventually find that your weight lost will settle down to a safe level, such as 1 lb/week.

If you continue to lose that much weight over a longer period of time, then I would be concerned and probably increase my eating and/or decreasing how much I exercise.

Of course, I assume you aren't walking around 6 - 8 hours every day, which was a one-time even.t

Hang in there!

Ditto! I lost well over 2lbs per week for the 1st month, then had a few weeks of less than 2lbs, and have been about 2lbs per week since then. It's normal for your body to drop weight quickly at first, but it will slow down.

Azdak

Like others have said: a lot of changes take place initially when you start a weight loss and exercise program. These are short term: fluid shifts, changes in stored muscle fuel, etc, etc, etc.

Also, in my experience, weight loss does not occur in a linear movement. Mine was more stepwise--i.e. stable for several days, then a noticeable drop, or 2-3 days of steady loss, then a plateau. When I got a more sensitive scale, the steps were more like arcs--every time I reached a new low, the weight tended to move in an arc--slightly higher the next 1-2 days and then a decline over several days to a new low. (I weighed myself every day, just because I like to collect lots of data and then analyze it for patterns. Now I only weigh myself intermittently, but I have a pretty cool graph from the first 5 months or so ;-)

Scale weight loss also tends to be more rapid at first. I lost 4lb/wk my first month, and almost the same rate the month after. Then it slowed to 2.5, 2.0, 1.5, and now I have actually plateaued the past 3 wks or so (but that is also due to injury).

Bottom line: set up a reasonable, healthy program--you can be aggressive and shoot for 2lb/wk, as long as that doesn't bring your calories down below 1200-1300 per day. Then don't overreact to the scale--esp to short-term changes.

jetteh22

Once again - Thanks for the help everyone. You've all been amazing for my first few days here. I will continue to keep an eye on it. Right now all I have is the bike machine but I am going to be purchasing a Bowflex (for toning up) and a treadmill for some additional cardio (gotta start slow on that, I'm in the process of quitting smoking right now so I can't really run long. The reason I don't ride an actual bike and/or jog around my neighborhood is because I live in a good part of a bad area if that makes sense. A couple blocks down and it gets into a bad area and I don't want to just walk up and down a few blocks of road. Plus, exercising at home has advantages like watching TV/movies to make the time go by faster).

Mindful_Trent

Wanted to chime in my thanks for the info - I'm experiencing rapid initial weight loss (about 6 lbs this week, and it's not even over yet...). I'm eating all the calories I'm supposed to, and I really haven't been exercising that much. Was going to see what people thought about it, but I'm glad I searched the message boards before posting a new topic, because I think I found what I was looking for here!