How do you know if you're losing water weight vs fat?

angellll12
angellll12 Posts: 296 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
i been on a weight loss journey since last year, hardcore gym and working out at home and I lost 30 pounds ish. I stopped working religiously after i came back from Portugal end of July but managed to lose five more pounds and been maintaining since, keep in mind I did still worked out here and there just not hard and religiously as I use to.

I been working out.... I have a workout routine again, low carb, no meat diet and im losing weight . But I'm not sure if I'm losing weight or water weight, I'm not sure because everyone says in the beginning of your weight loss journey the first couple pounds are just water weight... But I'm not really just starting a journey.

Just curious. How do you know your losing actual weight vs water weight?

Replies

  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    It's not really necessary to know, if you KNOW you're in a deficit. If you're just working out but not counting calories, then I guess you'd need to see that progress if you're not willing to count.

    But no, the first couple pounds are not just water weight, not necessarily. But it isn't uncommon to lose weight in say, the first day or two. That's mostly water weight, and probably glycogen. Or if you lose something huge like 4 lbs in your first week -- a chunk of that is water.

    If you look at the math, you can at least get an idea. Did you lose 2 lbs in your first day? You can't possibly have come in 7000 calories below maintenance for the day, so, that's mainly water. Same with unexpected gains -- if you didn't overeat by a ton but you're up 3 lbs all of a sudden, it's mostly or all water.

    Also, every lb is a mixture of fat, water, and other body tissues. You just hope to reduce fat primarily.

    Out of curiosity... what is a low carb, no meat diet? Sort of like a vegetarian low glycemic paleo or ?
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
    If it's not carbs or meat, what else is there?
  • angellll12
    angellll12 Posts: 296 Member
    edited June 2015
    futuremanda wrote: »
    It's not really necessary to know, if you KNOW you're in a deficit. If you're just working out but not counting calories, then I guess you'd need to see that progress if you're not willing to count.

    But no, the first couple pounds are not just water weight, not necessarily. But it isn't uncommon to lose weight in say, the first day or two. That's mostly water weight, and probably glycogen. Or if you lose something huge like 4 lbs in your first week -- a chunk of that is water.

    If you look at the math, you can at least get an idea. Did you lose 2 lbs in your first day? You can't possibly have come in 7000 calories below maintenance for the day, so, that's mainly water. Same with unexpected gains -- if you didn't overeat by a ton but you're up 3 lbs all of a sudden, it's mostly or all water.

    Also, every lb is a mixture of fat, water, and other body tissues. You just hope to reduce fat primarily.

    Out of curiosity... what is a low carb, no meat diet? Sort of like a vegetarian low glycemic paleo or ?

    Thank you.

    Low carb, well... I'm not eating any sort breads, pastas, crackers . Oatmeals, wheat basically is where I'm getting my carbs from.

    I guess it's like a vegetarian diet
  • futuremanda
    futuremanda Posts: 816 Member
    angellll12 wrote: »
    futuremanda wrote: »
    It's not really necessary to know, if you KNOW you're in a deficit. If you're just working out but not counting calories, then I guess you'd need to see that progress if you're not willing to count.

    But no, the first couple pounds are not just water weight, not necessarily. But it isn't uncommon to lose weight in say, the first day or two. That's mostly water weight, and probably glycogen. Or if you lose something huge like 4 lbs in your first week -- a chunk of that is water.

    If you look at the math, you can at least get an idea. Did you lose 2 lbs in your first day? You can't possibly have come in 7000 calories below maintenance for the day, so, that's mainly water. Same with unexpected gains -- if you didn't overeat by a ton but you're up 3 lbs all of a sudden, it's mostly or all water.

    Also, every lb is a mixture of fat, water, and other body tissues. You just hope to reduce fat primarily.

    Out of curiosity... what is a low carb, no meat diet? Sort of like a vegetarian low glycemic paleo or ?

    Thank you.

    Low carb, well... I'm not eating any sort breads, pastas, crackers . Oatmeals, wheat basically is where I'm getting my carbs from.

    I guess it's like a vegetarian diet

    Vegetarian diets are often pretty high carb, that's why I was confused. Oatmeal and wheat (grains in general), fruits, vegetables, dairy all have carbs. (You should eat however you want to, I just was curious.)
This discussion has been closed.

Categories