Losing weight every couple of days; is this normal?

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sdeloris37
sdeloris37 Posts: 22 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have noticed that in the past few days that I'm losing a lot of weight. I don't know if it's water weight or what, but I was at 185, but every day, I'm losing weight. Like yesterday, I weighed myself and I was 184 with clothing on and this morning when I woke up without clothing (sorry), I weighed 176. Now, right now, I weighed myself again, just to be sure and I'm 181 with clothing on. The only thing I have done is got rid of soda and fast food. I sometimes eat a cookie, but I don't binge like I was doing. I eat more vegetables, protein, and fruits. I mean, I noticed my appetite has gone a little. I mean, I still get cravings for soda. Like, last night, I drank a little bit. I eat most of my calories. I'm not exercising as much. I'm not complaining, but just wondering if this is normal.

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  • kmsnyg
    kmsnyg Posts: 100 Member
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    If it's your first week, it's completely normal. You lose a lot of water weight the first week.

    Plus, it's normal to see daily fluctuations of your weight secondary to water.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    I think you should weigh every morning when you wake up with minimal clothing and resist getting back on the scale until the next morning. This will give you the most consistent baseline.
  • sdeloris37
    sdeloris37 Posts: 22 Member
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    Oh, Ok. Thanks. I was thinking maybe I need to eat more calories. Thanks.
  • sdeloris37
    sdeloris37 Posts: 22 Member
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    My goal is to weigh myself once a week, but I was just curious since I have a lost of appetite. I mean, I have cravings, which I'll eat in moderation. I don't binge like I used to. I was downing two to three sodas a day, including a whole big bag of chips, sometimes 3 to 5 cookies. Basically, whatever I craved, I ate it.
  • TheSatinPumpkin
    TheSatinPumpkin Posts: 948 Member
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    Good for you. congrats on your progress.
  • mbcieslak87
    mbcieslak87 Posts: 206 Member
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    Most likely water weight, although cutting out several sodas, chips, and cookies a day will also bring your caloric intake to a screeching a halt. Overall though, even if you were consuming 1,000 extra calories previously, that's not even a 1/3 of a lb a day, so that would not account for all the weight loss you've seen. I agree with some of the previous posts - definitely always weigh yourself first thing in the morning with no clothes on to get an accurate count. Even then though, I know I often lose five lbs between Monday and Tuesday (obviously water weight), especially if I ate a little more over the weekend than I should have. I have been doing this a long time and know those fluctuations are normal for me personally. If you are still dropping major lbs in a month, then you may need to reassess your caloric intake, but for now, I would chalk it up to water weight.
  • ntnunk
    ntnunk Posts: 936 Member
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    What's been recommended to me is to weigh yourself every day but look at your weekly weight average for progress. It's always best to get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, and then weigh yourself immediately with minimal clothing. Then, as previously mentioned, stay off the scale until the next morning. Write your weight down somewhere (I keep a spreadsheet on my phone, but I'm a techie geek so maybe not for everyone...) and average it out for the week. That should account for daily fluctuations and still show you progress. The key is to not get too hung up on the daily fluctuations.

    The reasoning behind weighing every day rather than once per week is that if you trend upwards several days in a row it could be something that should be addressed. Far better to catch something after a couple days than spend a week gaining weight because of something you're doing and have to lose all that again.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    If you are tracking calories and eating at a healthy deficit (no more than 20% from your maintenance needs), then it's likely water weight. Since you're cutting out foods that are likely higher in sodium, you may just be losing a lot of water weight.

    I once gained 25lbs of water weight in the hospital, took a week or so to lose. So... I mean I was losing a lot of scale weight in a short period of time, but the fat pretty well was consistently the same.

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