Losing 5 lbs a week for last 3 weeks..is this normal?

whitesox56
whitesox56 Posts: 85
in Health and Weight Loss
Not that I'm complaining..I've lost 15 lbs in 21 days. I'm eating between 1300-2000 calories per day (MFP is recommending 2100) and I am working out nearly every day buring an average of 1000-1200 calories each workout which I think that number is a little high) I don't see how I'm losing so much weight. I had lost a lot of weight a few years ago, but I was averaging like 2 lbs a week not 5...... weird.

Replies

  • newdaydawning79
    newdaydawning79 Posts: 1,503 Member
    Is your net between 1300-2000 or is that the amount you're taking in and not eating back the exercise cals?
  • lawtechie
    lawtechie Posts: 708 Member
    What are your numbers? 1 lb = 3500 calories.

    So if MFP is recommending you eat 2100 calories/day to lose X lbs/week, that's your start. If you're adding in exercise and NOT eating those calories, that's an extra 1000+/day or 2 lbs/week at least. So assuming you told MFP 2 lbs week, add in your exercise deficit (you reallys hould eat that btw) of another 2 lbs, and you're up to 4 lbs.

    AND since you're just starting out -- water loss and more water loss.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.
  • bronnyd
    bronnyd Posts: 278 Member
    Did you just start? I lost about 11 pounds in 3 or 4 weeks when I first started and then it slowed down.
  • Poorgirls_Diet
    Poorgirls_Diet Posts: 528 Member
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I totally disagree. I don't eat my calories back and I am more energetic than anyone. I do insanity three days a week and gym the other three days with one rest day and haven't dropped dead yet! Depending on what weight OP is I would just say if its working for you keep doing it, it will slow down so be prepared. Good luck OP
  • whitesox56
    whitesox56 Posts: 85
    Is your net between 1300-2000 or is that the amount you're taking in and not eating back the exercise cals?

    I am physically eating between 1300-2000 per day. I know I get the extra calories from exercising but I'm not eating those. It's defeating the purpose in my book.
  • whitesox56
    whitesox56 Posts: 85
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I'm actually feeling fine. I work 2nd shift so I have a small breakfast usually fruit. Then I go to work out. Then I have a bigger lunch usually 1000-1200 calories at lunch. Then I eat a small meal before I leave work and go to be around 1am-2am. I'm never hungry at night when I get home and I am getting fuller much quicker now.
  • whitesox56
    whitesox56 Posts: 85
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I totally disagree. I don't eat my calories back and I am more energetic than anyone. I do insanity three days a week and gym the other three days with one rest day and haven't dropped dead yet! Depending on what weight OP is I would just say if its working for you keep doing it, it will slow down so be prepared. Good luck OP

    Thank you :) My goal is really 2 lbs per week but anything over that I'll take it as a win! LOL
  • hexrei
    hexrei Posts: 163
    Some of that is going to be water weight. You're not hydrating enough due to working out and eating/drinking less. It won't last.
  • whitesox56
    whitesox56 Posts: 85
    I'm drinking a s**t TON of water.. when working out and when at work. I am constantly filling my water bottle.
  • grassette
    grassette Posts: 976 Member
    This is not a rate of loss that you do not want to maintain. Losing too fast can change your blood chemistry and you can die of heart failure. So be careful with that.
  • hexrei
    hexrei Posts: 163
    It's still not going to maintain, sorry :) It's fun to imagine you are a biological anomaly, but at the end of the day, it won't hold up.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    Some of that is going to be water weight....
    A significant amount is going to be lean body mass too, with a deficit that large.
  • Poorgirls_Diet
    Poorgirls_Diet Posts: 528 Member
    Is your net between 1300-2000 or is that the amount you're taking in and not eating back the exercise cals?

    I am physically eating between 1300-2000 per day. I know I get the extra calories from exercising but I'm not eating those. It's defeating the purpose in my book.

    Too right! The exercise on MFP are totally over the top anyways. Unless you are wearing a heart rate monitor its the only way to calculate your true burn
  • StaceySuperfly
    StaceySuperfly Posts: 101 Member
    The Mayo Clinic diet plan does not say anything about eating back your calories. I trust the Mayo Clinic!
  • cdpark617
    cdpark617 Posts: 316 Member
    My first 2 months I lost about 30 pounds, that is nearly 4 pounds a week. I had pretty much the same experience as you. It did slow down and I couldn't sustain the weight loss, but my energy level stayed high the whole time and now I have a great habit of exercising. Sometimes now I will eat back my calories, or exercise to get more calories, but what you are experience is very close to what I did.

    Good work and keep it up!
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I'm actually feeling fine. I work 2nd shift so I have a small breakfast usually fruit. Then I go to work out. Then I have a bigger lunch usually 1000-1200 calories at lunch. Then I eat a small meal before I leave work and go to be around 1am-2am. I'm never hungry at night when I get home and I am getting fuller much quicker now.

    You feel fine because you're only 3 weeks into it. Good luck with your plan. I hope it works for you.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    The Mayo Clinic diet plan does not say anything about eating back your calories. I trust the Mayo Clinic!

    The thing that everyone misses with the way MFP does things is that you already have a built in deficit for the sake of losing weight. Eating back your exercise calories prepares you for the way you will need to eat once you are ready to maintain your weight. For example...my maintenance calories are 1800. If I workout and burn 300 calories a day and don't replenish my body I will continue to lose weight. So I would actually need to then eat 2100 calories a day to maintain my weight.
  • angdpowers
    angdpowers Posts: 311 Member
    This is not a rate of loss that you do not want to maintain. Losing too fast can change your blood chemistry and you can die of heart failure. So be careful with that.

    I don't imagine u will die of heart failure haha but it is definitely a shock to your body. Good job on the water and as long as u arent fatigued, weak or hungry...then u are doing good. Just listen to ur body...
  • whitesox56
    whitesox56 Posts: 85
    I never plan on eating under my calories. I just get full really fast now. If I'm hungry and I'm not at my limit, I will eat.
  • StaceySuperfly
    StaceySuperfly Posts: 101 Member
    The Mayo Clinic diet plan does not say anything about eating back your calories. I trust the Mayo Clinic!

    The thing that everyone misses with the way MFP does things is that you already have a built in deficit for the sake of losing weight. Eating back your exercise calories prepares you for the way you will need to eat once you are ready to maintain your weight. For example...my maintenance calories are 1800. If I workout and burn 300 calories a day and don't replenish my body I will continue to lose weight. So I would actually need to then eat 2100 calories a day to maintain my weight.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I totally disagree. I don't eat my calories back and I am more energetic than anyone. I do insanity three days a week and gym the other three days with one rest day and haven't dropped dead yet! Depending on what weight OP is I would just say if its working for you keep doing it, it will slow down so be prepared. Good luck OP
    You also have a lot of weight to lose, so you have more "reserves", if you will, for your body to draw from to lessen the hit of that deficit. The OP appears to be about 20 lbs. from his goal weight, so he has substantially less reserves available. This is exactly why people are advised to lessen the deficit and aim for more gradual weight loss as they near goal weight - the leaner you are, the more chance that you'll lose a greater proportion of lean body mass and/or adversely effect your metabolism in the process.
  • StaceySuperfly
    StaceySuperfly Posts: 101 Member
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/535020-do-calories-burned-during-a-workout-need-to-be-replaced/

    It's no secret that eating a balanced diet and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise daily improves your fitness, mood and energy level. Even so, finding the right balance of food and exercise can be challenging. You can burn a lot of calories during a workout, some of which you many need to replace, depending on your goals and eating habits. Talk with your doctor before embarking on a new fitness regimen, particularly if you have a history of heart or orthopedic problems.
    Factors
    Whether or not you need to replace calories burned during a workout depends on factors such as your weight and fitness goals, as well as the number of calories burned. If you want to lose weight, for example, replacing all the calories lost through exercise can be counterproductive. On the other hand, if your fitness regimen includes strenuous, frequent workouts, you may need to replace at least some of the calories burned, even if you do have weight to lose. To maintain your weight, replacing lost calories may help you keep your calorie expenditure and intake in balance.


    Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/535020-do-calories-burned-during-a-workout-need-to-be-replaced/#ixzz2J3O1MvCV

    I know how to maintain once I reach my goal so your argument makes no sense to me. Best wishes on your journey, you do what works for you and I will do what works for me!
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    It's still not going to maintain, sorry :) It's fun to imagine you are a biological anomaly, but at the end of the day, it won't hold up.

    Bingo. It may be an awesome feeling for now, but the calorie deprivation will catch up to you, the losses will slow, and this won't be sustainable.

    So you'll need to decide if you want to see slower losses over the long term that stay off, or if you want the fast fix that might not last. Can you eat this few calories forever? What happens during maintenance?
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/535020-do-calories-burned-during-a-workout-need-to-be-replaced/

    It's no secret that eating a balanced diet and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise daily improves your fitness, mood and energy level. Even so, finding the right balance of food and exercise can be challenging. You can burn a lot of calories during a workout, some of which you many need to replace, depending on your goals and eating habits. Talk with your doctor before embarking on a new fitness regimen, particularly if you have a history of heart or orthopedic problems.
    Factors
    Whether or not you need to replace calories burned during a workout depends on factors such as your weight and fitness goals, as well as the number of calories burned. If you want to lose weight, for example, replacing all the calories lost through exercise can be counterproductive. On the other hand, if your fitness regimen includes strenuous, frequent workouts, you may need to replace at least some of the calories burned, even if you do have weight to lose. To maintain your weight, replacing lost calories may help you keep your calorie expenditure and intake in balance.
    Once again...people are misunderstanding the difference between MFP's method and the methods commonly utilized at other diet sites. MFP is setting you up with a deficit built in and your exercise is not factored in to your daily calories. Other sites/methods usually set you up at a fixed deficit (say, 500 calories to lose 1 pound a week, or TDEE-20%, or whatever), but your exercise is already factored in to that deficit. In that case, you don't eat calories back. In the case of MFP's method, if you don't eat the calories back you're deepening the deficit. For obese people with a lot of weight to lose, the deficit can be tolerated by the body (as mentioned in my previous post) because there are a lot of reserves to draw from. As a person leans out and gets closer to goal weight, that deepened deficit won't be tolerated as well and can result in metabolic/hormonal changes which can slow/stall the weight loss process. It's not "starvation mode" (which is the most misused/abused term on MFP), but metabolic adaptation can definitely occur.
  • Poorgirls_Diet
    Poorgirls_Diet Posts: 528 Member
    If you are only eating 1300 to 2000 calories per day and burning up to 1200 calories a day from exercise your body is only living off of 100 to 800 calories per day. Not enough. So yes, you will drop weight quickly, but you can not sustain this. Pretty soon you will probably start to feel weak and fatigued.

    I totally disagree. I don't eat my calories back and I am more energetic than anyone. I do insanity three days a week and gym the other three days with one rest day and haven't dropped dead yet! Depending on what weight OP is I would just say if its working for you keep doing it, it will slow down so be prepared. Good luck OP
    You also have a lot of weight to lose, so you have more "reserves", if you will, for your body to draw from to lessen the hit of that deficit. The OP appears to be about 20 lbs. from his goal weight, so he has substantially less reserves available. This is exactly why people are advised to lessen the deficit and aim for more gradual weight loss as they near goal weight - the leaner you are, the more chance that you'll lose a greater proportion of lean body mass and/or adversely effect your metabolism in the process.

    I didn't even think to look at what the person has to lose so in fairness you are right in what you have to say! In my case I have loads to lose and can do the not eating back my calories and lose 5-6 pounds a week. It may not sound healthy to some people but if ain't broke I ain't fixing it. I have been told by my personal trainer that I will have to increase on my eating some point along the way but right now I am happy plugging along and enjoying the process. So thanks for your comment, appreicate what you are saying!
  • Bumbeen
    Bumbeen Posts: 263 Member
    Yes it's normal.

Categories