Sorry about this....

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girlinagirdle
girlinagirdle Posts: 37 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
...but I wonder if I am losing weight too fast and it won't be sustainable.

I'm 5 ft 10" and started of at 92kg/14st 10/203lbs). Within about eight weeks I am down over a stone (16lbs). I've made few changes to my diet because my problem wasn't with what I ate it was with how much I ate and upped my exercise a bit.

I log everything I eat, focus mainly on my calories rather than macros, and half of the exercise I do (I don't log my general walking from tube to work etc) because I don't trust MFP. I am really shocked at how much has come off and in such a short space of time. I'm not stealth-boasting, it bothers me because I can't see how sustainable this is, if it's all water weight, if it came off this easily will it go back on as easily? I have set everything to come off at 1lb a week. And I weigh myself every fortnight because I don't want to get too obsessed by it all.

My sister is anorexic and this is the only place where I feel I can ask questions about weight-loss without negative connotations or being viewed as 'competitive'. I'm really not. My intention was to have a healthier lifestyle and if weight started to come off then it did (because of my sister it's important for me to talk about it in terms of lifestyle rather than diet and health rather than weight-loss) but it has an a bit faster than I was expecting.

I'm sure I've just condemned myself to months of plateau-ing now but I'd be grateful if people could share any similar experiences. And what happened? Did you regain? Did you maintain (how).....did you just thank your lucky stars?. I think my food diary is open....feel free to have a look.

Thank you

Replies

  • emilycarr71404
    emilycarr71404 Posts: 176 Member
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    My hubby lose that amount in the same time frame but if slowed the next week. Let your body take its course. Just keep being healthy.
  • juleszephyr
    juleszephyr Posts: 442 Member
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    Probably your first week's loss would have been mostly fluid, but with a reasonable amount of weight to lose you can expect to lose 2lbs a week, this will slow down as time goes by and your body fat reduces...
    Don't over stress about it unless you are losing much more than that on a regular basis and are eating what MFP says.
  • girlinagirdle
    girlinagirdle Posts: 37 Member
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    Thank you for your replies....panic over! I guess I ought to be thankful while the going is good and be prepared to grit my teeth and keep on going when it gets more difficult. Appreciate the time you've taken to respond.
  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
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    I make that 2lbs a week? That's a healthy number. A plateau is inevitable. Don't throw in the towel when it happens :-)
  • RebekahR84
    RebekahR84 Posts: 794 Member
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    Several years ago, I lost 60lbs. The first 20 just melted off with Weight Watchers. Seriously, it happened in under 2 months. Then the scale didn't budge. for. 3. months. Grrr!!! Just make sure you keep chugging along when you hit a plateau.

    BTW, it was sustainable. I kept it off for a couple of years. I unfortunately put some of it back on when I met my husband. We ate out A LOT! Oh well. It was a delicioius time in my life.

    Good luck!
  • mazdauk
    mazdauk Posts: 1,380 Member
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    I lost 2lb a week at the start then it slowed down. After a couple of months I stuck for a few weeks, so I upped my calories a bit and after 3 weeks it suddently came off 2lb a week for another 3 weeks. Currently losing about 1/2 lb a week as I'm down to the last few lbs now.
  • GenF32
    GenF32 Posts: 184 Member
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    I was about 10kg lighter than you when I got serious about my diet 8 months ago. I had already been working out pretty consistently for a few months prior to that. I lost I think 5kg in 2 - 3 weeks if memory serves me correctly. I was shocked at how quick that was, but I didn't put a single gram back on even with a regular 'cheat night' each week. Of course it's slowed down to a crawl now that I'm 5kg from goal, but that's ok - compared to where I was 6 months ago this feels amazing.

    Well done so far, and don't worry - I didn't detect any stealth boasting :)
  • DocMarr
    DocMarr Posts: 132 Member
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    Think of this as a long term marathon - at the start, with the initial rush of enthusiasm, the body tends to sprint a bit and offloads weight quite quickly, especially if there's a lot to lose. However, after a while, it gets used to the pace and settles down to a steady jog. Along the way, it tries to become more efficient and work out how to cut corners and not have to work so hard. All the while it is looking for stasis - ie a balance. However, you want to stop it from reaching a balance until you get to maintenance - when you then do, in fact, want it to balance.

    Balancing is when your weight reaches a plateau, which is what maintenance is all about. So it's a good thing that our body does it. However, when you are trying to lose weight you don't want it to settle into maintenance at too high a weight. One way you can stop it from doing that is by eating slightly over and under your calories on certain days during the week, to balance out over the week. I don't mean a 'cheat day', I just mean a couple of days eating 200-300 more than your goal, some days bang on goal and other days have a couple of hundred under. This way, it keeps your metabolism on its toes. It won't be sure if there is a surplus or a deficit, so it will have to keep changing the pace.

    Also be aware that losing weight is not a linear process. Weight loss should only really be viewed as an 'average trend over time' as on a daily basis it can spike up and down for all sorts of reasons - so make sure that you take measurements of your strategic points (chest, waist, thighs etc) so that if (when) you reach a time when you are not losing weight for a few weeks, you will still see that things are happening as sometimes you will find that you are losing inches, even though it's not reflecting on the scale.

    Congratulations on a good start and good luck with your lifestyle change. :)
  • girlinagirdle
    girlinagirdle Posts: 37 Member
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    Thank you everyone for all your wise words and encouragement - it is indeed a marathon not a sprint!

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