How long did it take you to lose your first 15lbs?

cefleischman
cefleischman Posts: 46 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Just as the title asks: How long did it take you to lose your first 15 lbs? Were there any "game changers" to your diet/exercise routine/anything else that helped you lose the first 15?

Replies

  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,219 Member
    The first time around it took me about 5 months to lose and keep off 15 pounds. After my bulk it's taken me two months.

    The difference is that I set my goal to a slower rate of loss and I use a food scale. I also understand that I can eat the foods I enjoy still, so I don't feel deprived. Understanding that weight loss comes from the number of calories you eat compared to the total amount your body needs is important. You don't have to kill yourself doing exercise you hate to lose weight.
  • janpoodles
    janpoodles Posts: 5 Member
    I usually lost 1 lb per week up until I got to having lost 20 lbs. Then I stayed the same for a few weeks and then my weight loss continued - still at about the same slow but steady rate. Have lost 35 lbs now and am almost where I wish to be. I don't exercise much so it was basically just calorie counting and portion control.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    My goal was 1lb per week from the very start and when I maintain my goal I lose exactly that. no game changers, no tricks, just consistency. I exercise but that just changes my CO and so allows me to eat more.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited September 2017
    About 2 months...but my first two weeks was 10 Lbs that was a lot of water and waste...after that it was about 1 Lb per week...sometimes a little more and sometimes less.

    If all you have is 15 Lbs to lose (likely vanity weight) then it's going to be a relatively long process. I was just over the line to obese when I started losing weight.

    I put on about 10 Lbs every winter, but still at a healthy BF%...it takes me about 3-4 months to take that off. The less fat stores you have to mobilize, the slower weight loss will be.

    ETA: that I don't log anymore, even when I'm cutting...so that likely has something to do with it taking a big longer to drop those 10 Lbs...but I do it pretty carefree.
  • Penthesilea514
    Penthesilea514 Posts: 1,189 Member
    edited September 2017
    It took me about the same as @cwolfman13: 2 months to lose 15lbs. It was likely water weight and I was very obese to begin with so as he said, YMMV depending on your starting point. Since then I have had a couple starts and stops, but I have been losing steadily at 1-1.5lbs/week since I started to log consistently and accurately.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Eight weeks. I lost my first eight pounds in two and a half weeks and then hit 15 pounds lost at the end of eight weeks. The first month, I changed how I ate--limited sweets (e.g., cake, ice cream, etc.) and bread/pasta to one serving per week, reduced overall volume of food eaten, and focused on mainly eating vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, seeds, nuts, dairy. The second month, I started walking 15-20 minutes 3-4 times per week.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    2 months to lose the first 15 lbs when I lost 72 lbs.

    I'm at it again with only 25 to lose this time, so I expect the "first 15 lbs" to take 4 months since I have less to lose.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited September 2017
    Starting at 5'2"/208 lbs I lost about ten pounds in my first month (I'm sure there was a good bit of water weight in there), maintained for two and a half months because I wasn't being diligent enough due to various things, then lost the next five over about six weeks, which is just about the rate I've been losing at since then. That first month I mainly switched from eating restaurant food several nights a week to eating in at least 5 nights a week (not coincidentally, that's also what slid a bit during that maintaining phase).
  • Spiderpug
    Spiderpug Posts: 159 Member
    56days - just hit it! expecting the rest to be slower
  • AMV91
    AMV91 Posts: 86 Member
    2-3 weeks, but I was over 300 pounds and went from 4k+ calories to (lol) 1200cals + water weight.
  • ona1990
    ona1990 Posts: 58 Member
    3 months for my first 15lb. Obviously slower than you hope. But losing is losing :)
  • jdlobb
    jdlobb Posts: 1,232 Member
    2 months to the first 15, then another 15 in the month after that. I shed a good 5-10 pounds rather quickly, then plateaued for a few weeks.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,622 Member
    About a month and a half, but that included an initial water weight drop, so it slowed down after that. The whole 50-some pounds took a little under a year, faster at first, then gradually slower as I had less to lose.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    edited September 2017
    It took less than a month, but I had 150 to lose. The game changer was logging accurately from day 1 and keeping up consistency. Also walking and strength training from day 1.

    If someone has only 20-30 to lose, it will take them quite a bit longer. So you can't compare yourself to random other people.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    About two months.
    Game changer was to track and log everything I ate, weighing pretty much everything I ate at home.
  • ZhivagosGirl
    ZhivagosGirl Posts: 161 Member
    It took me between 2-3 weeks, but I started at 300 lbs.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    My first time around I lost the first 20lb fast in 1-2months. Of course I had almost 90lb to lose and the full loss took 2 years to reach goal. This time I came back with 30lb to lose and it took a full year to lose 20lb.
  • Polo265
    Polo265 Posts: 287 Member
    It took me about 65 days to lose 15 lbs and that also included the initial water weight drop.
  • daisyfields79
    daisyfields79 Posts: 69 Member
    It took me 19 days but I was 300 pounds when I started so it dropped fast. Today is exactly 2 months since I changed my eating habits and I'm down 33 pounds.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    I lost 10 in 4 months by with my own "eat a damn vegetable" rule, where I just tried to eat healthier and made sure I had a large portion of veg with lunch and dinner, which pushed out the excessive bread/sides/snacking for the most part. That loss slowed and I took up serious tracking and I then lost pretty steadily at 1.5lbs a week, so another 2-3 months for another 15.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    Took me 4-5 months but I had only 35 to lose.
  • ruqayyahsmum
    ruqayyahsmum Posts: 1,513 Member
    2 weeks......... because i started at 387lb
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
    About 5 monnths, but that's becsuse I suck at exercising and not eating cake and sour patch kids.
  • Meghanebk
    Meghanebk Posts: 321 Member
    About 5 months.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    it took me 3 months to lose 17lb and that was with just exercise and not weighing my food. I kept it off for about 6 months and then started gaining it back.I was using measuring cups and eating the same amounts of food. I had no idea you had to eat less than you burned and that the less you weight the less calories your body needs.

    I always thought all it took was eating healthy and exercise. boy was I wrong. so after gaining half of it back I came here because I wasnt losing no matter what I did or how much I worked out, and several people told me to get a food scale and start weighing everything. I did and lost that weight and then some. I know now I can eat what I want as long as it fits into my calorie goal.. I weigh everything I can(unless Im out somewhere then I will estimate it a little high). weighing food opened my eyes as to how fat off measuring cups can be and how much I was really eating.
  • btanton27
    btanton27 Posts: 186 Member
    Depends on how much u weigh when u start. I was pretty obese and lost about 18lbs in the first month. The less u weigh, the longer it takes to lose weight. I would say the average person should expect a loss of 1-2lbs a week with a healthy diet and exercise regimen.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    btanton27 wrote: »
    Depends on how much u weigh when u start. I was pretty obese and lost about 18lbs in the first month. The less u weigh, the longer it takes to lose weight. I would say the average person should expect a loss of 1-2lbs a week with a healthy diet and exercise regimen.

    health issues can factor into the slower weight loss as well. for me I lose super slowly even when I was obese, due to having a metabolic disorder. now even if I have a good week I lose less than half a lb a month most times. thats even with a big deficit where most people would lose 1.5-2lbs. of course the closer you are to a healthy weight the slower its going to be. I know you said healthy people, but even for those that are healthy 1-2 lbs may not come off every week due to weight loss not being linear and other things can factor into the scale not moving as well.
  • bweath2
    bweath2 Posts: 147 Member
    edited September 2017
    19 days. Just hit 15 lbs today. But I started at nearly 300lbs...
    ETA: Game changer was the MFP app. Makes tracking calories so easy.
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,486 Member
    4-5 months for the first 15lbs; a year for a total of 30lbs.
    This was going from the top (130) to near the bottom (100-105) of my normal BMI range.
    (Not dead sure of the numbers as I had a scale change half way through)

    It really does, as you can see, depend on where you are starting from. Vanity lbs (within normal BMI) are slower to lose generally.

    Cheers, h.
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