How long did it actually take you to lose weight?

rachmurra · January 29

How long did it actually take you to lose weight / see results? How long did it take for the pounds to start coming off on a consistent basis?

I’ve been at it for 5 weeks now, and I’ve lost 1-1.5 lbs and no change in measurements. On one hand, I’m like this is great, slow and steady wins the race. Then the other part of me is like I’ve been working out more than I have in a long time and pushing myself, so shouldn’t I have more progress than this?

Lietchi · January 29

I lost between 0.5 and 1lb per week (aiming for 0.5lb per week) at the start, slower at the end, to lose 75lbs in total.

Slow and steady is good, but it can't hurt to check some things.

Did you just start eating less or did you also start/increase exercise? Exercise can cause water retention, masking fat loss on the scale.

What weight loss rate did you select in MFP?

How accurate is your food logging: are you weighing everything and checking you are using accurate database entries?

HoneyBadger302 · January 29

Traction is going to vary based on how often you weigh, what you're starting at, how consistent you are with tracking/weighing/measuring everything (or just using generic entries or labels), and a variety of other factors such as new workouts, etc.
If I am "getting back on the wagon" it will take months before I start to see "steady" losses and my weight is more predictable, but starting out, I will spend several months of seeing fluctuations, wooshes, upticks, etc.
Personally using a trend app (Libra in my case) helped save my sanity and helps me see if I'm "trending" downward when the scale on a day to day basis is all over the place. It's also helped me learn my body's patterns, which doesn't make it "easier" but does help me realize that the process will, indeed, work.

Retroguy2000 · January 29

The first 25 pounds I lost, not sure, I wasn't really tracking it, or my progress in MFP at the time. It must have been at least three months. The next 30 pounds was at one pound per week average, so close to a year for 55 pounds. I've since maintained at around +5 from there. TBH I could lose another 20 from here, but this has been good enough for me for a while. And I'm sure I've gained some muscle.

OP, working out how? Have you been tracking calorie inputs too? If you're really pushing hard in the workouts your NEAT may go down later, and you may end up eating more too. Bottom line, you aren't as far under your maintenance level as you apparently think you are.

yirara · January 29

My weightloss at the moment is 1kg per month, thus about 1/2 lbs per week. Slow and steady wins the race, especially as I only want to lose a bit of weight and work out quite a bit. I do eat back all of my exercise calories.

frhaberl · January 29

The first 20lbs took 12 weeks (1.7 lbs/week). The next 20 took 10 weeks (2 lb/week). The next 20 took 14 weeks (1.4 lb/week) and the most recent 5 lbs have taken 7 weeks (0.5 lbs/week). I have another 20 (?) to go and I'm planning to stick with the current pace of 0.5 lbs/week.

In retrospect, I feel like I was putting too much pressure on myself for that 10 week period when I lost at an average of 2 lbs/week, but I loved the results and resisted backing off. I'm glad I recognized the need to slow the pace, but kind of wish I had figured it out a bit sooner. I think it's important to give myself the mental space of "I'm living the life I want to live from here on out" rather than crowding it up with "I need to get to my goal weight". I tend to gravitate towards a perfectionistic mindset, so I'd rather be trying to perfectly live a long term healthy lifestyle than trying to perfectly lose weight. I'll let you know when I've perfected that.

One tool I've used is asking myself "If I wasn't trying to lose weight, what would I change?". My goal is to answer that with "nothing", or to empower myself to change the thing I would change even if it impacts my weight loss pace. I've you're happy with the lifestyle you are living to lose 1.5 lbs in 5 weeks, then I say just keep doing what you're doing. You will get to where you want to be and be happy through the journey. MUCH better than rushing to where you think you want to be, being miserable the whole time, and figuring that getting there didn't make you any happier.

mtaratoot · January 30

The first 10 pounds took four or five years. It just wasn't something that I was serious about apparently. I gained and lost the same six to ten pounds or so over and over between 2013 and 2017.

Once I made it a priority, I lost the next 20 in about six months and the last ten in about nine additional months. That was early 2018 through earl 2019. I have mostly maintained the loss since, but sometimes still bounce around.

Over these years, I've learned a lot. I am still learning. Imagine if I had actually been serious back in 2013. The best time to start working on weight management and fitness was five years ago. The second best time is TODAY. Stick to it!

Corina1143 · January 30

I lost 10 pounds a month for 6 months. Quit trying, regained 20. Maintained for years. Lost 30 in 2 months, lost hair, energy because of it. Lost another 10 in about 6 months. Now losing at an absolute snail's pace. About 5 more pounds to go.

zebasschick · January 30

for me, it's varied a lot over time - at times, i lost 2 pounds a week, at times i lost 1 pound every 4 weeks. it was never consistent. also i lost weight in periods, then didn't lose any weight or might put a few pounds on for periods of up to a year at a time.

that being said, i lost the first 60 pounds (and never put them back on) in just over a year, and in the last year or 13 months, i lost 20 pounds.

AnnPT77 · January 30

Averaged about a pound a week for just under a year, but it was faster at first, really slow as I got close to goal weight. In fact, it was too fast for a while at first, accidentally - close to 2 pounds a week. Although I corrected quickly, as soon as I realized, I got weak and fatigued. It took multiple weeks to recover back to normal. No one needs that! Toward the end, loss rate was more like half a pound a week.

I lost too fast at first because MFP underestimates my calorie needs, even with accurate profile settings. If you're losing ultra slowly after following your calorie goal closely for at least 4-6 weeks, some possibilities are that MFP overestimates your base calorie needs, you have your activity level set higher than realistic, or your exercise calories are overestimated (assuming you eat them back). If the workouts are new and intense, you might also still be seeing some new water retention masking fat loss, even after 5 weeks.

Fast loss can be a bad idea. Slow loss can be a good one.

Best wishes!

threewins · January 30

I weigh daily. Pretty much every time I've started my weight loss I've seen a drop in weight within 3 days. In order to get good data, I don't vary my salt intake. That can really play havoc for results. I don't massively exercise "hard" initially, since that can cause water retention which plays tricks with my mind when the scale shows an increase. I baby my weight loss at the start because I never want to see my starting weight again.

xbowhunter · January 30

On July 31st 2023 I was 181lbs. This was 31lbs overweight for me.

Hit my goal weight on Nov 01 2023.

So took me about 3 months to lose 30lbs.

I can lose about another 5lbs right now so I have started cutting calories again.

cmriverside · January 30

Yeah, as you can see weight loss rates can be all over the place.

YOUR particular weight loss experiment means YOU adjust when things are not moving in the direction you want.

Don't make big changes in how much you're eating right now.

First, set reasonable goals for rate of loss (like 1 pound per week unless you're obese or have less than 15 pounds to lose, total.) Learn to log food accurately and log everything you eat for a month.

To log: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Rate of loss goals:

How long did it actually take you to lose weight?

Answers

Categories