Why am I not losing more weight? Any suggestions?

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  • FitAgainBy55
    FitAgainBy55 Posts: 179 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Katherinelittle24 wrote: »
    That's very fast weight loss, even for someone of your size.

    Her rate of weight loss is around 1% per week which is on the high side of the recommended rate (.5% - 1%) but still within a reasonable range -- especially in the beginning. While that rate might not be sustainable long term, I don't think it's a high enough initial rate to be concerning.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,436 Member
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    FitAgainBy55 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    That's very fast weight loss, even for someone of your size.

    Her rate of weight loss is around 1% per week which is on the high side of the recommended rate (.5% - 1%) but still within a reasonable range -- especially in the beginning. While that rate might not be sustainable long term, I don't think it's a high enough initial rate to be concerning.

    Sure. I think we're just disagreeing about terminology. I'd consider 1% to be "very fast", which is the term I used.

    Too fast? Don't know. I suspect people at very high weight can lose a bit faster as a generality (as a percent) than those at a lower weight. Certainly, people at a high weight can have health risks from weight alone that make it worthwhile to take risks with a faster than typical rate. (OP doesn't say whether she's under close medical supervision for potential complications from fast loss, nor whether she has health conditions that might make that monitoring of higher priority. Medical consultation, ideally specialized, would be a good idea if over 1% for an extended time, as a generality, I think. Heck, I talked to primary care about my weight loss plans, even when below that.).

    In OP's case, I suspect her weight loss has been at a high enough rate to potentially lead to the effects I mentioned, stress-related water weight increase (especially if there are other stresses in her life), or some adaptive thermogenesis. That was the point.

    I didn't say she should lose slower; I just said she was losing fast enough to consider some of those effects as a factor in a stall.

    I'm always concerned that people (generically) have been over-influenced by stupidities of popular culture, when it comes to evaluating weight loss rates. (I'm not saying this applies to OP: No idea.) Generically, the effect of reality TV weight loss shows ("Biggest Loser" is the classic, with multi percent weekly weight loss common), plus nonsense in tabloids and the blogosphere ("Lose 20 pounds in 30 days on the Doctor XYZ diet!!!") has been to make many people think that actual fast weight loss (that 1%) is hardly weight loss at all. Again, not saying that's what OP thinks, just that that's the cultural context.
  • n95girl
    n95girl Posts: 10 Member
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    I think the body doesn't like to lose weight as it is a sign that there is famine and something is wrong. So just let your body adjust to the weight you have already lost and then all of a sudden when it realises it isn't in famine it will drop weight again. It has to do with hormones. Also stress causes us to put on weight so if you are stressing for any reason then that will also make a difference. Exercise can be too much stress also for the body so ease into it and enjoy the journey. Do not expect what happened over 20 or 30 years to be reversed in a day.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    lgfrie wrote: »
    OK ... 44 lbs lost in 2 months, and the last week only 1 lb. That clarifies things.

    OP you are doing fantastically well. Normally, losing 22 lbs per month for 2 months would be a huge red flag, as it's too fast, but at your weight level people do get results like that, for a while.

    I think there's three things going on here:

    1 - weight loss does fluctuate. For instance you might be holding onto 2-3 pounds of water from eating those pickles, so losing 1 lb last week could actually be 3 or 4 pounds of fat and it'll show up eventually. Learning to roll with the punches on weight fluctuation is pretty important. Many of us have struggled with this.

    2- your weight loss rate IS going to slow down. For most people it's around week 5 or 6 when, all of a sudden, the easy part, the diet honeymoon where every day brings a joyful weigh in and you think "Man, this is just so easy, why didn't I do this years ago? Piece of cake", is over. Sounds like you made it to week 7 or 8 before that happened, which is great! But this was always going to happen. You are not going to lose 22 pounds per month going forward. I lost 19 lbs my first month, 12 the 2nd, and have never exceeded 7 lbs since. At your weight level, you will almost certainly put up better numbers than those for a long while but you too will have your own version of the numbers coming down and having to adjust mentally to that.

    3 - it doesn't sound like you have diet fatigue yet, but even if you haven't, eventually you will. By which I mean, getting slack on the measuring and counting, cheating a little, taking more off meals, using a "rounded" tablespoon of some tasty thing instead of a truly flat tablespoon LOL, just being less diligent about it in general. If that has started AT ALL, it would explain why your weight loss slowed down and also tells you it's time to really tighten up the calorie counting and logging, and especially food weighing as opposed to volume measurements.

    You're doing great! Keep it up!

    Such a good post! I'll add that another option when #3 happens (when, not if) is to take a "maintenance break."
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    Also, a weight-trending program can be super helpful in helping you see through the scale fluctuations. Libra works for Android and Happy Scale works for iPhone. Weighing at the same time every day in the same state (a lot of people weigh first thing in the morning after going to the bathroom) makes for some level of consistency in the measurement. Over time, you’ll see how your weight is reflected by hormones, type of food intake, bowel movements, etc. and it makes the scale a lot less scary.
  • mpkpbk2015
    mpkpbk2015 Posts: 766 Member
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    You may not be losing weight but are you losing inches? The scale doesn't always tell the whole story as we journey to lose weight. It has taken me a little over 2 years to lose almost 100 pounds. During that time there were many weeks when I didn't lose weight but I did lost several inches. I learned to not only weigh but to measure also. And to guage my success by how my clothes were fitting and if I was able to climb the stairs without getting winded.
    We dont put the weight on overnight and it takes time to take it off. You are doing great be patient with yourself it will come if you weigh and measure and diary everything you eat consistently. Good luck on your journey.

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