How long did it take you to see results?

Hang in there. It's great that you're making positive changes, but realistically it can take up to 4-6 weeks to really start seeing what effect our changes are making. Weight loss IMO is a game of patience and persistence. (I'm in year 7 of maintaining after about a year of loss. Long time. Takes dogged persistence, sometimes.)

More specific yammering from me about your question and my answer:

Define "see"? If you're weighing daily under consistent conditions, the answer might be different than if you're weighing less frequently under varying conditions. If you're using a weight trending app, that might give you better hints, but it still works best with consistent daily weighing and at least a month of data.

(Weighing under consistent conditions = something like first thing in the AM, after bathroom before eating/drinking, same state of (un)dress.)

On top of that, individual results will vary. If you start new exercise, or change your eating (such as get more veggies/fruits and fluids rather than eating the same foods in smaller quantities), it can take longer to show up. A few women who have monthly cycles only see a new low weight once a month, at a particular point in their cycle, even when losing fat at a reasonable pace. The influence of hormones can be that weird, although that's not the most common pattern.

Generally, folks around here who've done this for a while recommend going for 4-6 weeks on any new routine, then looking at average weight loss per week over the whole time. For women who have monthly cycles, it can be important to compare weight at the same relative point in at least two different cycles. If the first two weeks look unusual (fairly common), throw out those 2 weeks from your average, and go another couple of weeks.

If you were maintaining your weight on over 2000, let's say 2200 on average (just for example), that would imply that 1400-1800 would be an 800 calorie daily deficit (around 1.6 pounds of fat loss per week roughly) to a 400 calorie daily deficit (around 0.8 pounds of fat loss weekly).

I don't know about you, but for me, my routine daily water retention and digestive contents fluctuations (not fat!) can be 2-6 pounds, so realistically fat loss could play peek a boo on the scales with that for at least 2-3 weeks, even weighing daily under consistent conditions . . . and I'm in menopause, so no hormonal weirdness.

But, to answer your actual question, I cut calories stupid far at first, to my own detriment although by accident, and saw loss on the scale within a couple of weeks (as a menopausal woman losing too fast).

Are you noticing any differences in clothes fit or careful tape measurements of multiple body parts? Sometimes loss will show up there when water weight weirdness is masking progress on the scale.

(Don't try to manipulate your water retention, if you're generally healthy. Water weight shifts are part of how a healthy body stays healthy. Our bodies know what they're doing in that space: We shouldn't mess with that.)

I totally get that this is frustrating, but hang in there. Some people find that they have a "stall and whoosh" pattern where they see nothing much on the scale for a while, then a substantial drop . . . and that pattern repeats. If you're new to this, you'll figure out your patterns with time. (Our patterns can even change over the course of life or at different times during weight loss.)

I hope you'll see the reward for your efforts soon. Please don't be discouraged! This is very much a "monitor and adjust" kind of thing. You'll succeed if you keep working at it, analyzing, and adjusting.

Best wishes!

celestialsecrets7232 wrote: »

I noticed if I eat more often, my metabolism works better. Eating 3 meals plus 2 snacks per day speeds up my metabolism. When I only ate 2 meals per day and no snacks, I never lost weight that week.

Metabolism works just as efficiently with two meals as it does with five "meals." There were other factors at play in that week that you haven't considered - not the least of which are calories, salt, sleep, travel, food choices (carbs, fats, protein, fiber, alcohol,) activity and exercise. It's all about how much I eat over a period of time (longer than a week,) not the timing or number of times per day.

Welcome to the forums! I learned here and with other research that a lot of what I believed was just diet myths.