Is it true that the first 10-15 pounds you lose is all water weight?

JessicaLSpinder · July 2015

I lost 5 pounds and I'm working on eating better and portion sizes. I'm not consistently working out. Will it be much harder to lose actual fat? How does it all work?

erimethia_fekre · July 2015

Not true. Measuring yourself makes it easier to know how much you're losing, not just what lb or kg you're losing on a scale (which isn't too accurate, especially if you're building muscle). Exercise is going to be your best chance at burning fat.

yopeeps025 · July 2015

It's not all water but I might say more than 50% could be water weight.

Exercise for health. You don't need it to lose weight. All you need is a consistent calorie deficit.

RGv2 · July 2015

lmaharidge wrote: »

Not true. Measuring yourself makes it easier to know how much you're losing, not just what lb or kg you're losing on a scale (which isn't too accurate, especially if you're building muscle). Exercise is going to be your best chance at burning fat.

Calorie Deficit is your best chance at losing weight. Some sort of weight training while in a deficit is your best chance at losing mostly fat.

OP, with the ticker you have there's a good chance that initial "woosh" was indeed mostly water and the weight loss will slow down. Don't worry about it though, that's normal.

Also, don't worry about "muscle building" stalling out the scale. Building muscle is extremely hard, and even more difficult and slow in a mild deficit. When we're in a deficit we lose water, fat, and muscle. Lifting in that deficit helps preserve muscle so we lose mainly water and fat. Since we're losing mainly water and fat, the scale won't move as fast as we believe it should due to the difference in density of what we're losing. This is why the tape measure can be a more helpful tool when it comes to measuring progress instead of the scale.

RaggedyAnnazon · July 2015

RGv2 wrote: »

lmaharidge wrote: »

Not true. Measuring yourself makes it easier to know how much you're losing, not just what lb or kg you're losing on a scale (which isn't too accurate, especially if you're building muscle). Exercise is going to be your best chance at burning fat.

Calorie Deficit is your best chance at losing weight. Some sort of weight training while in a deficit is your best chance at losing mostly fat.

OP, with the ticker you have there's a good chance that initial "woosh" was indeed mostly water and the weight loss will slow down. Don't worry about it though, that's normal.

Also, don't worry about "muscle building" stalling out the scale. Building muscle is extremely hard, and even more difficult and slow in a mild deficit. When we're in a deficit we lose water, fat, and muscle. Lifting in that deficit helps preserve muscle so we lose mainly water and fat. Since we're losing mainly water and fat, the scale won't move as fast as we believe it should due to the difference in density of what we're losing. This is why the tape measure can be a more helpful tool when it comes to measuring progress instead of the scale.

I'm not OP but thank you for breaking that down. That makes more sense to me and understanding that may help me become more patient while I lose weight. I always heard measuring is more accurate but no one really broke down in detail as to why. So thank you

ManiacalLaugh · July 2015

Jessicalynnespin wrote: »

I lost 5 pounds and I'm working on eating better and portion sizes. I'm not consistently working out. Will it be much harder to lose actual fat? How does it all work?

It's not neccesarily all water weight. It depends on a couple of factors, including how overweight you are and how drastic the changes are that you're making to your everyday life. I find that most people who have around 90 or more lbs to lose do lose a lot of water in the beginning and then slow down for the actual fat loss. I wouldn't really call it "more difficult" to have lost the fat though.

I've lost 90 lbs. Here's what I went through:

I came home from a trip and made drastic changes to my diet and activity level. I lost 12 lbs in almost two weeks. Yes, this absolutely felt like it was mostly water with a bit of glycogen because it absolutely spilled off of me. Then, the weight loss stopped for about a week and a half or so. This is where patience pays off. If you can make it through this full-stop period, you'll start losing the real stuff soon enough.

After the short "plateau", and without making any changes to my diet or activity level, I was on my way back down, at a rate of about 2 lbs/week. I haven't gained it back, and aside from a few plateaus due to life issues, it's been trending downward ever since.

Need2Exerc1se · July 2015

Jessicalynnespin wrote: »

I lost 5 pounds and I'm working on eating better and portion sizes. I'm not consistently working out. Will it be much harder to lose actual fat? How does it all work?

To answer your subject line - it depends. The first 10-15 could be water weight if you start out very large and are retaining a lot of water.

To answer this post - it depends. What you do mean by "not consistently working out"? How much fat you lose is impacted by activity level, but that encompasses more than just “working out”. The higher your activity level, the more calories you burn and burning more calories than you consume is how you lose fat. The more resistance you put on your muscles the more muscle you can retain while losing fat.

Is it true that the first 10-15 pounds you lose is all water weight?

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