8 Pounds Down in 20 Days, Is That Good?
mithion
Posts: 78 Member
I am 36 y/o, 5"10 and 20 days ago I weighed 198, this morning I was 190. 8 Pounds in 20 days. I have done it with a combination of following a 90 day fitness program from www.darebee.com, getting at least 10K steps every day, tracking all my food and exercise with MFP and eating healthier. I also do an intermittent fast for 16 hours every 4 days and do dumbbell workouts twice a week.
Does this seem like good progress? Am I on the right path?
Does this seem like good progress? Am I on the right path?
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Replies
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Most of that is probably water weight. If you keep registering big losses like that, you're likely running too aggressive a deficit. According to https://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=36&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10&cheightmeter=180&printit=0&x=30&y=24: Based on the healthy BMI recommendation, your recommended weight is 128.9 lbs - 174.2 lbs
Which means that depending on where you're shooting for in that range, you probably don't want to lose more than 1lb per week. If you're going for the high end of the range, even 1/2 pound per week might be more appropriate.
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Very good progress. I did read a few articles that say to keep the weight off it is best to go at a slower pace say 1-3 pounds per week.10
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The first few weeks are kind of all over the place due to water weight loss, new foods being introduced that may affect digestion, adding exercise etc.
Look at your monthly trends and start to aim for around a pound a week.5 -
2.67 pounds per week is too much for your stats, but if you had big losses the first week or two, you can chalk them up to water weight and discard them as far as calculating your weekly rate of loss.
What's your goal weight?5 -
Goal weight is 165-1700
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Yeah with 25lbs to lose 1lb/week is the safe maximum. With 15-20 or fewer, 0.5lbs/week. Too aggressive a deficit and your body will start to burn muscle along with the fat.3
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So to add more detail to my specific fitness journey- I normally sit around 182-186 with a terrible diet and basically no exercise but with an average of 12 to 14K steps a day just from my job. I spent about 10-11 weeks doing nothing but sitting on a couch and eating terrible and went form my average 184ish up to 198. I believe that I will somewhat easily lose this weight and plateau around 180. If was was an avarge 184 with terrible diet and no exercise getting back down to 184 should be relatively easy. Getting from 180 down to 165-170 will be my real challenge IMO0
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14k steps is in the realm of MFP's very active setting. Take that into account if you're telling the app you're sedentary.
Once you get to your goal weight what are your plans for the rest of the year?
You're not in a race.
Even if a lot of your swing both ways (up during Christmas and down now) was water weight... extreme changes to eating and activity often tend to prove too extreme to stick around for long... take it easy and look to what changes you can adopt long term...3 -
jcrisaf702 wrote: »Very good progress. I did read a few articles that say to keep the weight off it is best to go at a slower pace say 1-3 pounds per week.
The two have an indirect relationship. Losing weight at a slower pace isn’t what keeps the weight off, it has more to do with the fact that those who lose slowly often times develop more sustainable, long term habits than those who lose at an aggressive rate.
I just realized you said 1-3 lbs per WEEK. No, no, no... that’s not a slow pace for someone that doesn’t have 100+ lbs to lose.
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My goal is to stay around 165-170 and begin more weight lifting workouts. I don't want to be a bodybuilder by any means just look fit and feel good.1
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At 270 lbs and have lost 40 lbs over the last 4 months. Averaging 10 lbs a month as discussed with my nutritionist that thinks thats fantastic.1
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Enjoy your loss..who in the world wants to slow the pace and lose slower?22
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I am 36 y/o, 5"10 and 20 days ago I weighed 198, this morning I was 190. 8 Pounds in 20 days. I have done it with a combination of following a 90 day fitness program from www.darebee.com, getting at least 10K steps every day, tracking all my food and exercise with MFP and eating healthier. I also do an intermittent fast for 16 hours every 4 days and do dumbbell workouts twice a week.
Does this seem like good progress? Am I on the right path?
I believe your weight loss in the next 30 days will be more indicative and what you’ll likely experience in your journey. Of course, this assumes your discipline remains stellar. If it is, my bet is you’ll experience additional weight loss of 5.5 to 7.0 lbs. per month. We’re somewhat close in similarity. FWIW, through today, my loss is 27.3 lbs. in 131 days with loss in last 30 days of 8.2 lbs. The loss does slow down ad you get closer to your destination.
I’m privately cheering for you.
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elisa123gal wrote: »Enjoy your loss..who in the world wants to slow the pace and lose slower?
Those of us who like to keep our hair, avoid split nails, and retain as much muscle as possible? Not to mention stand a better chance at keeping the weight off once we reach goal?23 -
elisa123gal wrote: »Enjoy your loss..who in the world wants to slow the pace and lose slower?
Me?
I mean I don't know about you elisa; but, *I* certainly did NOT find 1.5lbs a week during my first year to have been either ineffective OR slow... if anything it still pushed the limit of how fast my brain could adjust to my downward size changes and I was equipped with much more fat than the OP who is detailing something even faster.
As to the benefit of slowing down? For me it seems to have worked out a-OK so that today, a month and a half past my 4th year MFP anniversary I am still within 0.1lbs of where I was on my 3rd year MFP anniversary (with a goal of maintaining).
Deficits of about 15% of TDEE result in relatively fast weight loss.
When deficits exceed 20% of TDEE the probability of encountering "side effects" increases.
Not talking about single days here, obviously.13 -
Please read my second post in this thread, I believe it will add more insight to my specific weight loss situation. I think that my loss from 198 down to around 184ish will be very fast and easy. Once I get BACK DOWN to around 184ish I feel like the loss will slow down quite a bit.0
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Please read my second post in this thread, I believe it will add more insight to my specific weight loss situation. I think that my loss from 198 down to around 184ish will be very fast and easy. Once I get BACK DOWN to around 184ish I feel like the loss will slow down quite a bit.
So out of curiosity, if you are already 100% sure that the speed of your loss is great and should continue, why did you ask what people think?
Your body can only burn so much fat at one time. The general recommendation is to lose at most 1% of your body weight per week, otherwise you are risking unnecessary muscle loss. It has nothing to do with whether it's easy or hard, it's not like you can feel your body burning muscle. Lots of people lose fast and then are unhappy with how they look at the lower weight because they have less muscle. And muscle is way harder to build than it is to lose. That's the irony of all this - fat is easier to gain than it is to lose, muscle is easier to lose than it is to gain.
If you were my friend, I would really try to convince you to aim for 1 lb per week, because I would want you to be happy with where you end up and would rather you learn from other people's mistakes and experience rather than go through it yourself. Best of luck however you proceed!6 -
elisa123gal wrote: »Enjoy your loss..who in the world wants to slow the pace and lose slower?
What Are the Risks of Rapid Weight Loss?
Rapid weight loss creates physical demands on the body. Possible serious risks include:- Gallstones, which occur in 12% to 25% of people losing large amounts of weight over several months
- Dehydration, which can be avoided by drinking plenty of fluids
- Malnutrition, usually from not eating enough protein for weeks at a time
- Electrolyte imbalances, which rarely can be life threatening
Other side effects of rapid weight loss include:- Headaches
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Constipation
- Menstrual irregularities
- Hair loss
- Muscle loss
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Ok here is my thing. Up until I was maybe 26-27 I was very skinny and I had a six pack because of that, not because I ate healthy or worked out.
I just had a fast metabolism and was very skinny.
I weighed 135 at 24 years old in 2007. Around 26-27 I changed nothing, I still didn’t work out or eat good st all and I steadily risked weight every year. From 2007 at 135 up to the end of 2018 where I weighed 184. That’s almost 50 pounds of weight gaines just from getting older. I changed nothing in my exercise or diet over those years. My job, where I am on my feet all day, gave me around 12-15 thousand steps a day. Sill horrible diet and no exercise besides my steps and work I sat around 184 and while having a gut was still generally healthy and able to do whatever I needed to do in life with no problems. For 10 weeks Insat around depressed and did nothing but lay on my couch and eat terribly. That’s eBay got me from 184 to 198. 21 days ago now I decided I was done and started working out, eating right and paying more attention to my health. In this 21 days I have gone from 198 to 190 but I look exactly the same. I see no visual difference at all. I feel much better, aside from the aches and pains from running and exercise. I think my body is shedding this weight quickly because this is all extra lazy weight. Remember I naturally sat around 184 with a terrible diet and no exercise at all. From 198 back down to 184 should come off pretty steadily. Once I hit around 184 again where I naturally sat with no exercise and horrible foods, I think I will see this weight loss slow down dramatically. I don’t think this is unhealthy at all. I don’t think I am burning any muscle. I think that with eating healthy and exercising I am very very slowly building up my muscle to active levels and shedding all of that lazy weight from the 10 weeks of doing nothing. Just my opinion. I feel great but the mirror shows no visual change at all. I don’t think my gut will start to show change until Ingrt below 180.7 -
Ok here is my thing. Up until I was maybe 26-27 I was very skinny and I had a six pack because of that, not because I ate healthy or worked out.
I just had a fast metabolism and was very skinny.
I weighed 135 at 24 years old in 2007. Around 26-27 I changed nothing, I still didn’t work out or eat good st all and I steadily risked weight every year. From 2007 at 135 up to the end of 2018 where I weighed 184. That’s almost 50 pounds of weight gaines just from getting older. I changed nothing in my exercise or diet over those years. My job, where I am on my feet all day, gave me around 12-15 thousand steps a day. Sill horrible diet and no exercise besides my steps and work I sat around 184 and while having a gut was still generally healthy and able to do whatever I needed to do in life with no problems. For 10 weeks Insat around depressed and did nothing but lay on my couch and eat terribly. That’s eBay got me from 184 to 198. 21 days ago now I decided I was done and started working out, eating right and paying more attention to my health. In this 21 days I have gone from 198 to 190 but I look exactly the same. I see no visual difference at all. I feel much better, aside from the aches and pains from running and exercise. I think my body is shedding this weight quickly because this is all extra lazy weight. Remember I naturally sat around 184 with a terrible diet and no exercise at all. From 198 back down to 184 should come off pretty steadily. Once I hit around 184 again where I naturally sat with no exercise and horrible foods, I think I will see this weight loss slow down dramatically. I don’t think this is unhealthy at all. I don’t think I am burning any muscle. I think that with eating healthy and exercising I am very very slowly building up my muscle to active levels and shedding all of that lazy weight from the 10 weeks of doing nothing. Just my opinion. I feel great but the mirror shows no visual change at all. I don’t think my gut will start to show change until Ingrt below 180.
That's just not how it works. You don't shed "lazy weight" (whatever that is) any differently than you do "regular weight"- through a calorie deficit.
My husband started off about the same size as you, underestimated his calorie needs (also a very active job and a weight lifter) and lost 30 lbs in under 3 months. Yes, he was lighter, but he looked terrible and lost a lot of his muscle gains. He also had all that lovely, saggy skin leftover. He had lots of inquiries about his health (his diet was fine). He is better now, but it took a lot of time to undo the damage.5 -
Ok here is my thing. Up until I was maybe 26-27 I was very skinny and I had a six pack because of that, not because I ate healthy or worked out. I just had a fast metabolism and was very skinny. I weighed 135 at 24 years old in 2007. Around 26-27 I changed nothing, I still didn’t work out or eat good at all and I steadily gained weight every year. From 2007 at 135 up to the end of 2018 where I weighed 184. That’s almost 50 pounds of weight gained just from getting older. I changed nothing in my exercise or diet over those years. My job, where I am on my feet all day, gave me around 12-15 thousand steps a day. Sill horrible diet and no exercise besides my steps and work I sat around 184 and while having a gut was still generally healthy and able to do whatever I needed to do in life with no problems. For 10 weeks I sat around depressed and did nothing but lay on my couch and eat terribly. That’s what got me from 184 to 198. 21 days ago now I weight 190. I don’t think that’s unhealthy at all, I think I am just losing that lazy weight. When I get back down to 184ish I think my weight loss will dramatically slow down.0
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Ok here is my thing. Up until I was maybe 26-27 I was very skinny and I had a six pack because of that, not because I ate healthy or worked out.
I just had a fast metabolism and was very skinny.
I weighed 135 at 24 years old in 2007. Around 26-27 I changed nothing, I still didn’t work out or eat good st all and I steadily risked weight every year. From 2007 at 135 up to the end of 2018 where I weighed 184. That’s almost 50 pounds of weight gaines just from getting older. I changed nothing in my exercise or diet over those years. My job, where I am on my feet all day, gave me around 12-15 thousand steps a day. Sill horrible diet and no exercise besides my steps and work I sat around 184 and while having a gut was still generally healthy and able to do whatever I needed to do in life with no problems. For 10 weeks Insat around depressed and did nothing but lay on my couch and eat terribly. That’s eBay got me from 184 to 198. 21 days ago now
You can keep telling your story, but you lose weight by burning more calories than you are taking in. Doesn't matter if you put it on 10 years ago or 10 weeks ago. Cutting too aggressively is going to unnecessarily cost you more lean muscle mass period. What you do with that knowledge is up to you.
Edited to add: Taking into account that some of those first few lbs were likely water weight, you may not be that bad off at the moment, but as has been mentioned, you shouldn't be aiming for more than 1 lb/week.4 -
So I guess you just want everyone to tell you it's great, regardless of what they really thought?
OK, congratulations on your success and best of luck! Hopefully you know better than the rest of us :drinker:10 -
Ok here is my thing. Up until I was maybe 26-27 I was very skinny and I had a six pack because of that, not because I ate healthy or worked out.
I just had a fast metabolism and was very skinny.
I weighed 135 at 24 years old in 2007. Around 26-27 I changed nothing, I still didn’t work out or eat good st all and I steadily risked weight every year. From 2007 at 135 up to the end of 2018 where I weighed 184. That’s almost 50 pounds of weight gaines just from getting older. I changed nothing in my exercise or diet over those years. My job, where I am on my feet all day, gave me around 12-15 thousand steps a day. Sill horrible diet and no exercise besides my steps and work I sat around 184 and while having a gut was still generally healthy and able to do whatever I needed to do in life with no problems. For 10 weeks Insat around depressed and did nothing but lay on my couch and eat terribly. That’s eBay got me from 184 to 198. 21 days ago now I decided I was done and started working out, eating right and paying more attention to my health. In this 21 days I have gone from 198 to 190 but I look exactly the same. I see no visual difference at all. I feel much better, aside from the aches and pains from running and exercise. I think my body is shedding this weight quickly because this is all extra lazy weight. Remember I naturally sat around 184 with a terrible diet and no exercise at all. From 198 back down to 184 should come off pretty steadily. Once I hit around 184 again where I naturally sat with no exercise and horrible foods, I think I will see this weight loss slow down dramatically. I don’t think this is unhealthy at all. I don’t think I am burning any muscle. I think that with eating healthy and exercising I am very very slowly building up my muscle to active levels and shedding all of that lazy weight from the 10 weeks of doing nothing. Just my opinion. I feel great but the mirror shows no visual change at all. I don’t think my gut will start to show change until Ingrt below 180.
There is a lot of thinking and not sures and 'I the want it now' approach isn't such a wise approach for sustainable healthy weight loss and weight maintenance.
You asked if '8 Pounds Down in 20 Days, Is That Good?' and many experienced weight losers and maintainers have weighed (no pun intended) on this and you seem very steadfast with your plan so I am not sure why the questions at all.
Use this thread as reference when you reach those points in your weight loss, effects from rapidly doing this and the body competition changes that comes with that.. this will answers those questions, hopefully you'll refer back here sooner rather than later.6 -
I’m not saying what anyone has posted here is wrong. None of you know me or my body or my physiology. I understand what all of you are saying. Here is what I do not understand. I am eating healthier than I ever have before, I am tracking my calories and macros and taking vitamins, probiotics, omega 3. I am doing body weight exercises, light dumbbell exercises, various cardio exercises and following a detailed fitness plan.
How in the world is that not a good thing? How in the world are you all going to tell me that exactly what MFP is meant for and it’s working for me is wrong?
There is a setting that asks how much weight per week you want to lose, I put 2 pounds, I put active for the activity setting. How is any of this not a good result? How after all of this good stuff, good food, vitamins and exercise is going from 198 to 190 in 20 days not a good thing? I’m sorry but that’s absolutely rediculous. What I am doing is working. I feel great, I’m motivated, I haven’t missed a single day. I’ve even had several “cheat days”. But y’all or going to say my results are too much? That’s it’s not healthy? If losing 2 pounds a week is not healthy than why the heck is there that choice to the question when you make your profile goals? I genuinely appreciate all of the concern and scientifically, biologically etc I understand what you are saying, losing too much too quick is not healthy and your body will begin to eat your own muscle.
My calorie deficit is from exercise. MFP set my calorie goal to 1,880, almost every day I am under that goal either due to just not eating that much or from exercise with net calories. There have been several days where I went way over 1,880 with just food and only marginally offset it with exercise. What I get from all of these comments is that what I am doing is working too good and too fast. I’m sorry but that’s absurd! Once again, I appreciate and respect all of the advice and concern. My original question of 8 pounds in 20 days is that good was simply to see what other people have experienced in their fitness journey. I’m not special in any way and I am not doing anything special or unique. This is just the way my body is reacting and I feel amazing. I 100% disagree that losing 2 pounds a week is unhealthy. I am hydrated, I drink a whole lot of water every single day, I eat healthy 90% of the time, I run, walk, lift weights, do burpees and all that calisthenics stuff and for the first time in my 36 years of life I feel amazing and feel that I am stronger and have more endurance. It’s baffling to me that the responses to my question indicate that what I am doing to is too much. I am no expert on diets or fitness or exercise but I am listening to my body. I truly don’t mean to come off as arrogant or like I know everything because I very much do not, I just started this 21 days ago. I surely educated my self obsessively on how the body uses calories and stored energy and how it’s carbs then fat then protein when it comes the body looking for energy with the lack of food. I have learned about intermittent fasting and how the body responds to it, how lifting weights to gain muscle increases metabolism because it takes more energy to sustain muscle etc. I feel like my body is responding to this new lifestyle in the best way. 8 pounds in 20 Days, is that good progress? Well it seems like to everyone else here it’s too much so I will keep that in mind no matter how much I disagree with that and with how great I feel. Once again thank you for all of the comments, I appreciate it. Everyone have a blessed day and may your fitness journey be the best it can be for you.6 -
estherdragonbat wrote: »Most of that is probably water weight. If you keep registering big losses like that, you're likely running too aggressive a deficit. According to https://www.calculator.net/ideal-weight-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=36&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10&cheightmeter=180&printit=0&x=30&y=24: Based on the healthy BMI recommendation, your recommended weight is 128.9 lbs - 174.2 lbs
Which means that depending on where you're shooting for in that range, you probably don't want to lose more than 1lb per week. If you're going for the high end of the range, even 1/2 pound per week might be more appropriate.
How can a healthy weight for a 5'10 man be 128 Pounds?That seems off--I know it's a range for a reason, but ....3 -
I’m not saying what anyone has posted here is wrong. None of you know me or my body or my physiology. I understand what all of you are saying. Here is what I do not understand. I am eating healthier than I ever have before, I am tracking my calories and macros and taking vitamins, probiotics, omega 3. I am doing body weight exercises, light dumbbell exercises, various cardio exercises and following a detailed fitness plan.
How in the world is that not a good thing? How in the world are you all going to tell me that exactly what MFP is meant for and it’s working for me is wrong?
There is a setting that asks how much weight per week you want to lose, I put 2 pounds, I put active for the activity setting. How is any of this not a good result? How after all of this good stuff, good food, vitamins and exercise is going from 198 to 190 in 20 days not a good thing? I’m sorry but that’s absolutely rediculous. What I am doing is working. I feel great, I’m motivated, I haven’t missed a single day. I’ve even had several “cheat days”. But y’all or going to say my results are too much? That’s it’s not healthy? If losing 2 pounds a week is not healthy than why the heck is there that choice to the question when you make your profile goals? I genuinely appreciate all of the concern and scientifically, biologically etc I understand what you are saying, losing too much too quick is not healthy and your body will begin to eat your own muscle.
My calorie deficit is from exercise. MFP set my calorie goal to 1,880, almost every day I am under that goal either due to just not eating that much or from exercise with net calories. There have been several days where I went way over 1,880 with just food and only marginally offset it with exercise. What I get from all of these comments is that what I am doing is working too good and too fast. I’m sorry but that’s absurd! Once again, I appreciate and respect all of the advice and concern. My original question of 8 pounds in 20 days is that good was simply to see what other people have experienced in their fitness journey. I’m not special in any way and I am not doing anything special or unique. This is just the way my body is reacting and I feel amazing. I 100% disagree that losing 2 pounds a week is unhealthy. I am hydrated, I drink a whole lot of water every single day, I eat healthy 90% of the time, I run, walk, lift weights, do burpees and all that calisthenics stuff and for the first time in my 36 years of life I feel amazing and feel that I am stronger and have more endurance. It’s baffling to me that the responses to my question indicate that what I am doing to is too much. I am no expert on diets or fitness or exercise but I am listening to my body. I truly don’t mean to come off as arrogant or like I know everything because I very much do not, I just started this 21 days ago. I surely educated my self obsessively on how the body uses calories and stored energy and how it’s carbs then fat then protein when it comes the body looking for energy with the lack of food. I have learned about intermittent fasting and how the body responds to it, how lifting weights to gain muscle increases metabolism because it takes more energy to sustain muscle etc. I feel like my body is responding to this new lifestyle in the best way. 8 pounds in 20 Days, is that good progress? Well it seems like to everyone else here it’s too much so I will keep that in mind no matter how much I disagree with that and with how great I feel. Once again thank you for all of the comments, I appreciate it. Everyone have a blessed day and may your fitness journey be the best it can be for you.
To be fair, you did ask what we thought and if it was good progress. We may not know you, your body or your physiology, but keep in mine neither does MFP. You can tell it what you want and it’ll calculate what needs to happen to attain those results, but it certainly doesn’t check in with your doctor to ensure that’s it healthy for you. I, a 5’5” 130 lb, active female could tell MFP that I want to lose 2 lbs per week and it would tell me to eat 1200 calories a day because that’s the minimum and I could do just that, but would it be healthy? Absolutely not. While all of us are different as far as our bodies go, none of us are exempt from the hard truth that if we lose too much too fast it can have disastrous effects on our health that may not be apparent right away.
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[/quote]To be fair, you did ask what we thought and if it was good progress. We may not know you, your body or your physiology, but keep in mine neither does MFP. You can tell it what you want and it’ll calculate what needs to happen to attain those results, but it certainly doesn’t check in with your doctor to ensure that’s it healthy for you. I, a 5’5” 130 lb, active female could tell MFP that I want to lose 2 lbs per week and it would tell me to eat 1200 calories a day because that’s the minimum and I could do just that, but would it be healthy? Absolutely not. While all of us are different as far as our bodies go, none of us are exempt from the hard truth that if we lose too much too fast it can have disastrous effects on our health that may not be apparent right away.
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I comepletely understand what you are saying. My results of 8 pounds have made no visual change to my body at all, I am basing my success on how I feel. I can’t go to a doctor every day but I do know that I have more energy, I’m not depressed or anxious anymore, I feel amazing and I am super motivated. To me that’s success!
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