Question about the rate of weight loss :)

paperstargirlie wrote: »

I have been doing really well staying in my calories each day but i've noticed I've only bee at it 19 days and I've lost 8lbs.. is this too fast or a bad thing? I thought I read it was healthy to lose a pound or two a week but it looks like were half way thought the month and im already at 8lbs. I am happy lol but at the same time I don't want to be accidentally sabotaging myself long run. Is it ok? Or... ?

It might be too soon to tell.

It's normal to lose some water weight in the first week or two, plus when we start eating less we have less average food in digestive transit on average (the stuff that will eventually become waste), so sometimes there's a big scale drop early on, then it settles down to a slower rate.

At 19 days, you'd be about at the stage where things should start to settle down. From your name I'm guessing you're female, and if you are young enough to be premenstrual, the hormonal changes during monthly cycles would possibly cause some water weight weirdness, too (does for most women, at different points in the cycle depending on the woman).

If you're feeling hungry, fatigued, or noticing other worrisome symptoms, I'd eat a little more. If not, it shouldn't be too risky to hang on until you can compare body weight at the same relative point in two different menstrual cycles (if that applies to you), or 4-6 weeks, then adjust. If the later weeks look less extreme than the first couple, they might be more representative of what's really happening with fat loss (the part most of us really care about).

Losing weight too fast does increase health risk, and slower is better if you don't have quite a lot to lose, but I'd say you're still a little early to tell for sure what your loss rate is. I'd agree that people with a fair amount to lose are reasonable to target 1-2 pounds a week, but if it's less than 20 pounds, slower than that might be better.

As others have noted, weight loss is often exaggerated at the beginning of a diet. I lost 19.6 pounds in my first month; by the third month the pace had slowed to 7 with NO change in calories or exercise. For many people, week 5 or 6 is when the weight loss rate stabilizes to whatever the long-term pace will be, and that was true in my case as well - on week 6 the fun part was over and the long grind began. Enjoy the easy gains while they last and don't worry about it.