When does the initial fast weight loss slow down?

cncrafton
cncrafton Posts: 82 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been tracking my calories for exactly four weeks and I've lost exactly ten pounds. I am so excited! I really felt like I was someone who just could NOT lose weight, so this is shocking to me.

I know it's relatively typical to drop a bunch of weight really fast in the beginning, especially when you have a lot to lose (I'm 70 pounds from my first goal weight, probably 90 pounds from a really good weight for my height and frame). I am bracing myself for it to slow waaaaaay down, but I honestly thought it would happen sooner.

I am curious to hear your experiences – if you saw a large initial loss, when did it slow down (if it did)?

Replies

  • belladonna786
    belladonna786 Posts: 1,165 Member
    I hit my plateau at 24lbs. Now I have changed my calorie intake and added weight training. We'll see if that kick starts it again
  • Momma2fourunder5
    Momma2fourunder5 Posts: 98 Member
    Good for you on your 10 lbs lost!! I didn't start MFP at my initial heaviest weight, but for me the first 12-13 seemed to drop in about a month and a half...and then it has slowed down from there. Keep up the good work!!
  • NCchar130
    NCchar130 Posts: 955 Member
    I've lost 21 pounds in 10 weeks. Not sure when it will slow down though I'm sure it will eventually! I set MFP to lose 1 pound a week and have followed those guidelines but have instead lost slightly better than 2 pounds a week, on average. The only reason I can come up with is that my TDEE (not including exercise) is higher than the various online calculators have told me.
  • DebraAukett
    DebraAukett Posts: 128 Member
    I hit a plateau at around 12kg and it lasted 2 months during which I still lost a whole lot of centimeters. When I started losing again, two weeks ago I started to lose at the same rate as previously, but I worked out more
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
    If you have it set for 2 lb/wk and there is good enough accuracy all around...

    You should be losing 8 lb every 4 weeks. Most people should be able to hold that rate until they get close to the overweight/obese line.

    You might not slow down all that much. If you're doing things like "not eating your exercise calories back" and being "safe" with your estimating, chances are you actually do have a 1250 cal/day deficit and will sustain a 10 lb per 4 weeks rate until you hit a too big of deficit plateau.

    If you sustain a high rate and reach a plateau, chances are you need to increase you intake (decreasing yoru deficit) in order to break the plateau and return to consistent loss.
  • mearlie
    mearlie Posts: 224
    I thought that I was one of those that just has a very hard time losing, especially after not losing for 5 weeks on weight watchers! But since I switched to measuring/weighing and counting every single calorie, I'm losing at the rate I set! It's freakin awesome, isn't it?!
  • mscolleen2003
    mscolleen2003 Posts: 126 Member
    I started working at losing my weight Feb 2011 (had 46.5 lbs to lose), I have now lost 33lbs. I think it depends on the amount of weight you have to lose.
  • mscolleen2003
    mscolleen2003 Posts: 126 Member
    Great post
  • Raaynn
    Raaynn Posts: 47 Member
    I am 33 5'4 and started in may at 193, I have lost roughly 28 lbs. I had a drop and a gain at the beginning. here is a rough run down of my losses

    1. -5
    2. +1.4
    3. -4
    4-3
    that was my first month and averages at about a 10 lb loss with my gain in there.

    month 2
    1. - .8
    2. -2
    3. - 4 :)
    4 -1.8
    that was a 9 lb loss for the month

    I am averaging now between 1 and 2 lbs a week and if I add in three days of exercise I can lose an extra half lb. if my loss was a 1 it would be a 1.5 with exercise. I don't sweat the working out too much as its not a huge huge difference in loss for me anyway so I skip it on busy weeks. sometimes I will only lose .2 and that is ok as that is usually water weight and the next 2 weeks will be slightly higher losses than the average. I think the most important thing to realize is that weight loss and lb loss are not the same. water plays a huge roll in that especially if you weigh weekly as we do. sometimes I weigh every day and if I have eaten a lot of grain the night before I can see as much as a 4 lb difference the next 2 days. If you do that the night before your weigh in you can even see a 2 lb gain instead of a 2 lb loss even though you have lost a full 2 lbs overall. this is not a linear process and you ned to be prepared to see a possible gain even on a week you have worked out really hard, just remember you are trying to lose FAT not WEIGHT. those are two very different things :) I started to lose at the healthy recommended rate in my second month.

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