How much of this weight loss is water/food weight?

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lightenup2016
lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
edited January 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi--I hesitate to ask this, because I feel like I should know this by now. This is not my first rodeo – – I've lost weight several times in the past, all by counting calories and increasing activity level. The last time around I found mfp and it worked very well for me. Obviously, not so great at the maintenance!

Well, I'm back at it again, starting at 160 lb a little over three weeks ago (23 days). I've lost a total of 9.2 lbs on my weight trending app. This averages to 2.8 lbs lost per week, but I know some of that is water and food weight. My question is, about how much of that was water and food – – could it be as much as 5 pounds? Then that would mean a rate of 1.3 lbs lost per week. That still seems kind of high, since I'm really aiming for a pound a week. I just want to make sure I'm not losing too fast, and don't crash and burn. Also, for how long would I be losing water and extra food weight? That should be gone by now, correct?

I am female, 44 years, 5'6, with a goal weight of 135. I set my daily calorie goal at 1550 cal. I'm also eating back half of my exercise calories, with that exercise mostly being walking at a leisurely pace. So I don't feel like I'm doing anything crazy or anything. When I put my stats and my goal into MFP, it spits back out 1200 cal per day – – not happening here!

ETA, I've been averaging right at 10,000 steps per day for the past three weeks. For that, I add back 150 calories, for a gross of 1700 calories.

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    stick to 1500 for a couple more weeks and then tweak if your rate of loss is still above 1lb per week.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Yes possibly 5lbs of that is water but regardless you are losing nicely.

    Sounds like you are going about this the right way. You'll know in time with how consistent your loss is if all is as it should be and then can adjust cals accordingly. All the best :smile:
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Honestly, I would consider your first month of data unreliable in measuring your weight loss trend. I also had a drop of 10-12 pounds my first month, and then my rate of loss dropped more than half, which was much more consistent with my intake/output. Weird stuff can happen in those early days. If you're feeling good at your current calorie level (which seems pretty reasonable) leave it alone for another few weeks.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
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    OK, thank you all! I will wait another week or two before adjusting.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,879 Member
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    If you are primarily a walker with 10k steps a day on average.... this would be equivallent to approximately MFPs ACTIVE level with no additional exercise logged for the 10k steps.

    The activity difference from sedentary would give you approximately 0.35*BMR calories, which is probably over 400 Calories, if not closer to 500

    You are giving yourself 150 and only eating half.

    So there is very little reason to assume you're not slightly over-doing things and very little reason not to increase your eating substantially.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
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    PAV8888 wrote: »
    If you are primarily a walker with 10k steps a day on average.... this would be equivallent to approximately MFPs ACTIVE level with no additional exercise logged for the 10k steps.

    The activity difference from sedentary would give you approximately 0.35*BMR calories, which is probably over 400 Calories, if not closer to 500

    You are giving yourself 150 and only eating half.

    So there is very little reason to assume you're not slightly over-doing things and very little reason not to increase your eating substantially.

    Mfp gives me 1200 calories for "not very active", so by eating 1550/day, I'm 350 over that. Then, on days that I hit 10,000 steps, I'm calling that 300 calories, and eating back 150 of them. So I'm eating 500 over what mfp says for sedentary. That's why to me, it seems the numbers should work out, so I was wondering how much of my loss so far is just the excess water/food.
  • lilolilo920
    lilolilo920 Posts: 184 Member
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    Can I just say that I love your mindset with this??! Finally, someone who is looking for sustainability, not just immediately cutting calories to 1200 and doing insane amounts of cardio. It’s refreshing.
    I wish you luck!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,879 Member
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    There is no law that says your results cannot be better than expected.

    Unless you're trying to save on groceries eat some food and slow things down intentionally.

    You can always eat less food again and speed them up if you need to.

    If you wait for things to slow down on their own their *may* be extra lean mass lost and extra hormonal compensation that you don't *have* to incur.

    This is all based on the fact that you're looking at trending, not scale, weight and that you have some idea about the size of water retention swings you may see around your TOM if premenopausal and female. Usually 6 weeks is better than 4 which is much better than 2 or 3 to gauge progress...

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