Is this normal?

[Dilla]

So I started tracking calories 3 days ago, from 2500+ calories per day (I know... disgusting) to 1600 a day. And yes I calculated my BMR and am within a safe zone.

So, the question is I have lost 8.6lbs in three days?! That can't be right! To the professionals out there... Does that seem normal?

 

[Dilla]

Nothing yet huh? lol

 

[basilbaddog]

the Devil is in the details.
Hi Dilla,
My advice is if you have just started......don't become obsessed with weighing your self.
Pick one day a week as your 'weigh in day' and ONLY weigh yourself that day.
For comparing your weight week to week, you need to make the weigh in's under similar conditions.
That is.... same day each week, first thing when you get up in the morning (but after you have been to the toilet )
before you have eaten.
The amount of weight you have lost seems abnormally high. A slow steady loss (2-2.5 lbs/week) has a better chance of staying off, than huge amounts quickly. We don't wake up one morning to find we became Fat overnight. More likely it happened over a longer period. If you can maintain your current regime indefinately, then of course you will achieve your goal.
I would suggest a moderated programme which includes 30 minutes of exercise most days could be benificial.

 

[MysticRealm]

If you ate really high sodium meals before your first weigh in you could have weighed 3-5 pounds more than you actually truly weigh due to water retention, plus you lose water weight when you start to 'diet', plus maybe a pound of actual fat maybe.

 

[Dilla]

the Devil is in the details. More likely it happened over a longer period. If you can maintain your current regime indefinately, then of course you will achieve your goal.
I would suggest a moderated programme which includes 30 minutes of exercise most days could be benificial.

My program includes daily activity and a Monday, Wednesday and Friday workout as well. My weight drop has slowed and when I asked a Dr. Friend she assured me that it was normal with in the first week of a dramatic diet change to loose around 10 lbs but that it should steady out to 1-2 lbs a week. I got impatient waiting for a response here.

But thank you for the weigh in advice. I will be doing morning weigh is

 

[Dilla]

If you ate really high sodium meals before your first weigh in you could have weighed 3-5 pounds more than you actually truly weigh due to water retention, plus you lose water weight when you start to 'diet', plus maybe a pound of actual fat maybe.

Thanks Mystic! I hadn't though about the sodium side effects.... Good looking out!

 

[Dilla]

If you ate really high sodium meals before your first weigh in you could have weighed 3-5 pounds more than you actually truly weigh due to water retention, plus you lose water weight when you start to 'diet', plus maybe a pound of actual fat maybe.

Thanks Mystic! I hadn't though about the sodium side effects.... Good looking out!

 

[Omega]

Our weight fluctuates for a number of reasons.

When we get on the scales we weigh our fat - but also the rest of us too.

That means that we can see big changes up and down for a number of reasons.

As identified - water retention due to sodium is one of these things.

When we eat more than 2300mg sodium per day we go high sodium and often get a weight gain because of it. This is very easily done if we add salt to the cooking or the plate or indeed we eat a lot of packaged foods.

Quite a lot of people count the sodium in their food in order to try to control this (much as some people count calories). When I count - I use a free account from which gives a full nutritional breakdown of your food.

Drinking more water helps to reduce our water retention. The general recommendation that many of us follow is to have 1 ounce per 2 pounds that we weigh.

Many women find that they also retain water around the time of their period.

When I was doing my big weight loss project (when I was very focused on my weight) I used to complain that I often felt that my weight was raised for something like 10 days of the month and I would need to get any weight loss that I would see over the rest of the monthly cycle...

When we get on the scales we also see what you can generally term "food weight". Things like toilet activity and portion size all come into play. When people start to diet they may drink more water or eat more fibre and they may exercise more (which all directly impact constipation or throughput) which can have an impact on how much food is inside you when you hop on the scales... Similarly - people can suddenly start to exercise portion control and put less food on their plate which is going to mean that less food is inside you...

Never ignore the impact of sodium though... I once (during my big project) had an emergency operation and ate nothing ("nil by mouth") for two days followed by very little food in the third day. I suffered about an 8 pound gain for my pains during this period as they had insisted that I had a saline drip...