Losing too fast??

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Hybrice
Hybrice Posts: 117 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all, I hope you're well!

I have a few concerns I'm hoping some of the more experienced of you may be able to help with?

Recently after having lost almost 2 stone, I put the majority of it back on during some downtime.
So, knowing I could lose it again because I'd lost it before, I set about strict diet and exercise (this time I'll keep it off! *rolls eyes*).

I've been dieting really well, I ended last week with a 9022kcal deficit, I am also doing Insanity at the moment.

My concern is, in the past 11 days of doing this, I have dropped 4.5-5Kgs (basically 11lbs), this seems much faster than previously and I'm not sure it's healthy? I an doing insanity so my muscles aren't wasting. Is it water weight? Am Just losing very fast? I've dropped a jean size in a week!

My basic day:
1600kcal intake (+whatever I burn off)
T5 ECA Stack fat burner suppliments
4 mile walk to/from work
45min Insanity workout

Can anyone advise at all?

Kind regards,
Matt

P.S here's what it looks like:

cropped.png

Replies

  • Hybrice
    Hybrice Posts: 117 Member
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    bump :P
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Did you start 11 days ago?

    Doing insanity will not guarantee that you will not lose muscle.

    How much do you currently weigh?
  • Hybrice
    Hybrice Posts: 117 Member
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    I started dieting 11 days ago, I'm only on day 4 of insanity.

    I currently weigh 115kgs down from 120kgs.
  • yourpalsoap
    yourpalsoap Posts: 88
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    Most of it will be water-weight. Every cell in your body is 70% water and pro-fighters can lose ~15lbs in a few days just by dehydrating themselves but weight lost =/= FAT lost. At a 9000 deficit, you're set to lose around 2.6lbs a week. Anything on top of that is water weight, either you're dehydrated now or you had lots of excess water to begin with that's been flushed out. Make sure you're drinking enough water (at least 0.5oz per lb of body weight), keep your protein high, do what you're doing, and you'll lose about 2.6lbs of fat per week.

    Also remember that weight-loss isn't linear. You may lose a lot near the beginning and less in a few week's time when your metabolism slows, as long as it's averaging out to a loss overall you're good!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    I started dieting 11 days ago, I'm only on day 4 of insanity.

    I currently weigh 115kgs down from 120kgs.

    Most of the weight loss is due to water weight and food weight (less food in your system).

    I would however encourage you to up your calories (assuming that you do not log an excess of exercise calories and end up actually grossing a high amount). Too large of a deficit can be detrimental. The 'too large' is individual, but the effects can include:

    - greater risk of muscle loss
    - greater risk of bingeing and/or regaining
    - not enough energy to fuel workouts effectively (which in turn can also increase the risk of muscle loss)
    - fats too low = hormonal imbalance, especially testosterone for guys - which in turn, again, can increase the risk of muscle loss
    - protein too low - again, increases risk of muscle loss.

    ETA: I just checked your diary and you look to be grossing about 2,300 - 2,400 calories, which does not seem horribly low. You protein is low however, so I would up that. Your fats look ok.

    With that in mind, I would change your macros to increase protein, but see what the trend is over the next week or so when the water weight settles down.
  • thenaj17
    thenaj17 Posts: 6 Member
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    That is absolutely insane amount of weight to lose in under 2 weeks. Nothing to do with water weight as that fluctuates day to day and you've shown progression over a small amount of time.

    Your calorie deficit is massive and will starve your body to lose weight quicker. But what will happen as a result of this is that your body will soon go into starvation mode and try to preserve whatever fats it can and you'll find the weight loss will slow down and may come to a halt.

    Set your goals on MFP to lose 2lbs a week and then try to stick to the net calorie intake it sets you. Doing Insanity and that much walking must be burning nearly 1000 calories a day. When you do a couple of days under the calorie target, MFP does say that you're eating too few calories and your body will go into startvation mode.

    Fantastic efforts on the exercise so far though, keep it up!
  • DR2501
    DR2501 Posts: 661 Member
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    As above, a 9,000+ deficit in 1 week is a little much, so I'd up your calories by at least 200 (you're actually eating below the recommendations in the Insanity nutrition guide too).

    I didn't eat back my Insanity cals either, but I did eat a minimum of 1800cals and had great results. Good luck!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    That is absolutely insane amount of weight to lose in under 2 weeks. Nothing to do with water weight as that fluctuates day to day and you've shown progression over a small amount of time.

    Your calorie deficit is massive and will starve your body to lose weight quicker. But what will happen as a result of this is that your body will soon go into starvation mode and try to preserve whatever fats it can and you'll find the weight loss will slow down and may come to a halt.

    Set your goals on MFP to lose 2lbs a week and then try to stick to the net calorie intake it sets you. Doing Insanity and that much walking must be burning nearly 1000 calories a day. When you do a couple of days under the calorie target, MFP does say that you're eating too few calories and your body will go into startvation mode.

    Fantastic efforts on the exercise so far though, keep it up!

    It absolutely can have something to do with water weight. When someone decreases calories, they generally decrease carbs. When you reduce carbs, you deplete glycogen and there is 3 - 4g of water for every gram of glycogen.
  • Hybrice
    Hybrice Posts: 117 Member
    Options
    I started dieting 11 days ago, I'm only on day 4 of insanity.

    I currently weigh 115kgs down from 120kgs.

    Most of the weight loss is due to water weight and food weight (less food in your system).

    I would however encourage you to up your calories (assuming that you do not log an excess of exercise calories and end up actually grossing a high amount). Too large of a deficit can be detrimental. The 'too large' is individual, but the effects can include:

    - greater risk of muscle loss
    - greater risk of bingeing and/or regaining
    - not enough energy to fuel workouts effectively (which in turn can also increase the risk of muscle loss)
    - fats too low = hormonal imbalance, especially testosterone for guys - which in turn, again, can increase the risk of muscle loss
    - protein too low - again, increases risk of muscle loss.

    ETA: I just checked your diary and you look to be grossing about 2,300 - 2,400 calories, which does not seem horribly low. You protein is low however, so I would up that. Your fats look ok.

    With that in mind, I would change your macros to increase protein, but see what the trend is over the next week or so when the water weight settles down.

    This is really interesting thanks for that!

    I do think I may need to up the calories however the metabolism boosters I'm taking (T5's) contain an ECA stack (Ephedrine, Caffeine and Asperin) that suppresses my hunger very heavily. I literally have no hunger throughout the day so I find it difficult to eat more than I currently do anyway!

    What can I do to keep the current trend but ensure I don't lose muscle mass/density? Just pile on the protein? Would protein shakes help? Or simply adding more meat/eggs etc to my diet?
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Options
    I started dieting 11 days ago, I'm only on day 4 of insanity.

    I currently weigh 115kgs down from 120kgs.

    Most of the weight loss is due to water weight and food weight (less food in your system).

    I would however encourage you to up your calories (assuming that you do not log an excess of exercise calories and end up actually grossing a high amount). Too large of a deficit can be detrimental. The 'too large' is individual, but the effects can include:

    - greater risk of muscle loss
    - greater risk of bingeing and/or regaining
    - not enough energy to fuel workouts effectively (which in turn can also increase the risk of muscle loss)
    - fats too low = hormonal imbalance, especially testosterone for guys - which in turn, again, can increase the risk of muscle loss
    - protein too low - again, increases risk of muscle loss.

    ETA: I just checked your diary and you look to be grossing about 2,300 - 2,400 calories, which does not seem horribly low. You protein is low however, so I would up that. Your fats look ok.

    With that in mind, I would change your macros to increase protein, but see what the trend is over the next week or so when the water weight settles down.

    This is really interesting thanks for that!

    I do think I may need to up the calories however the metabolism boosters I'm taking (T5's) contain an ECA stack (Ephedrine, Caffeine and Asperin) that suppresses my hunger very heavily. I literally have no hunger throughout the day so I find it difficult to eat more than I currently do anyway!

    What can I do to keep the current trend but ensure I don't lose muscle mass/density? Just pile on the protein? Would protein shakes help? Or simply adding more meat/eggs etc to my diet?

    If you have no appetite but need to up the calories - I would drop the stack.

    Protein shakes are just an easy way to get your protein in. You can get protein from food (usually preferable, but only because most people get hungry and food provides micronutrients also), but if you need a top up - protein shakes are fine. Good sources of protein are meat, fish and dairy (low fat gives a better protein per calorie ratio).

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