Is losing weight too fast any sort of problem?

Question

It's been a month for me at the gym now and I lost 25 pounds already. I eat just fine. I eat my cheeses, my tuna, my chicken, beef, etc all on 100% whole wheat bread. I don't feel tired or fatigued and feel great and wake up early with ease.

I'm 26 Male 5'6 and started at 227 pounds. I'm now 201. Since I lost 25 pounds in the first month, do you think its possible to lose 15-20 in this next month? I hear it gets a lot slower as you lose more weight, but how much slower usually?

Anyway, my target weight is 165lb. I have not been at that weight in over 15 years. I want to reach it by end of November for Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!

Answer 1

Johnny, congrats bud! The reality of initial  weight loss is that you lost mostly water weight. The most fat the human body can burn off per week with perfect diet and exercise is about 2 lbs. Most people's bodies cannot even sustain that loss and slow to .5-1 lb per week.

The thing you have to watch for is muscle loss. Overly restrictive diets can actually eat muscle. This slows your metabolism and messes with the way your body processes sugar/insulin. This will make it very likely that the would be dieter gains all of their weight back plus some. The key to successful and sustainable weight loss is to build muscle while you are dieting. its a tricky balance and you have to be sure to be eating enough calories as well as enough healthy fat spread over six meals per day.

Answer 2

rapid weight loss isn't much more than water weight.  the human body does not readily deplete body fat stores, it goes completely against the reason why those stores are there to begin with.  did you get your body fat % analyzed before you started losing weight?  numbers on the scale are deceiving as it doesn't tell you how much of the weight lost or gained on the scale is water, muscle or fat.

Answer 3

I don't think it is.

I did something similar before and it didn't affect my health other than improving it!

As long as you don't feel too weak, dizzy or sick of any sort and get enough energy and food intake it's fine.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Cheer, take care.

Answer 4

no. usually people reach a plateau and it becomes harder to lose weight. that might happen in a month or two.

Answer 5

As long as you're eating healthy balanced meals and drinking at least 8 8-oz glasses of water a day, more if it's hot or you're exercising a lot, you should be fine.  Add in a lot of veggies and fruits to the diet you mention.

Don't go by the scale, because muscle weighs more than fat, so someone who is fat and dehydrated can weigh less than someone who has a lot of lean muscle and is well hydrated.  

Start keeping two running totals of measurements, measurements you would like to see decrease, like waist for example, and measurements you would like to see increase, like biceps.

This book has a lot of great information about how to lose weight and keep it off for life.

"Lean & Free 2000 Plus" you can get it on amazon.com used for under $5.

Good luck, and congratulations on losing weight!  It's not easy!  But it's even harder to lose it and then gain it all back plus more, so make sure you do it the "right way" to begin with.  The book could really help you.