CoG Weight Loss Club

[Shieldmaiden]

A couple of weeks ago we started a midweek viking training session, which coincided nicely with my finishing basic training. I'm now doing two solid hours of fighting, twice a week. It's an amazing workout and I need very little willpower to keep it up because all the guys I work with go as well, so I've got support/peer pressure out the wazoo.

[PathMaster]

Down around 20 pounds since the Spring. Feels awesome, people are noticing frequently. But, the new clothes I bought for work in the spring/winter no longer fit. My shorts can be pulled right off me even with the belt cinched as tight as it can go.

[bstiff]

Originally Posted by PathMaster

Down around 20 pounds since the Spring. Feels awesome, people are noticing frequently. But, the new clothes I bought for work in the spring/winter no longer fit. My shorts can be pulled right off me even with the belt cinched as tight as it can go.

Same problem here. I was around 210 at the beginning of March and just weighed myself today and Im 168. I need to donate all my old pants. I tried wearing them with a belt and they're so big now it looks like they have pleats.

[PathMaster]

Originally Posted by bstiff

Same problem here. I was around 210 at the beginning of March and just weighed myself today and Im 168. I need to donate all my old pants. I tried wearing them with a belt and they're so big now it looks like they have pleats.

Congrats! I am not at that point yet.

Was in a huge 5k on Saturday. 900+ racers, I came in 609th, but 21st in my age group. 30:38.

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by PathMaster

Down around 20 pounds since the Spring. Feels awesome, people are noticing frequently. But, the new clothes I bought for work in the spring/winter no longer fit. My shorts can be pulled right off me even with the belt cinched as tight as it can go.

So, I see you haven't had to introduce new holes yet. (I've added two to my belts.)

[PathMaster]

Originally Posted by TheKeck

So, I see you haven't had to introduce new holes yet. (I've added two to my belts.)

I really should do that instead of buying a new belt. That does make more economical sense.

[Shieldmaiden]

I've been using MyFitnessPal.com for about a week and a half now and I've been under my target every day. I'm already feeling the benefits of eating a lot more fresh foods and less processed crap. The only slightly disheartening thing is that today was the first day I was able to weigh myself and I'm thirteen pounds heavier than I thought I was in the first place. It sucks because I have no idea how well I've done so far. On the other hand, I must have put on a shit load more muscle mass, because I'm certainly no bigger than I was when I was about 25 pounds lighter.

[PathMaster]

I had a similar issue when I started out. I was using an old scale that would constantly put me around 240. I knew it was off, but I figured it was only a few pounds. So I grabbed a new scale and it was off by like ten pounds, and apparently would hit 240 and stay there even if I was 260. I knew I had lost weight already, so my starting weight was definitely off.

[Suave Peanut]

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to attempting a healthy lifestyle so I'm wondering: what rate of weight loss is normal?

I've been on a strict diet and exercise regimen (and recording my weight a few times daily) and I've been losing on average about a pound a day for the past week. Is this OK or do I need to slow down for my health's sake?

[Matthias]

Originally Posted by Suave Peanut

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to attempting a healthy lifestyle so I'm wondering: what rate of weight loss is normal?

I've been on a strict diet and exercise regimen (and recording my weight a few times daily) and I've been losing on average about a pound a day for the past week. Is this OK or do I need to slow down for my health's sake?

That seems pretty normal for the first week or so as your body dumps water weight and, if you're eating less, dumping the last bit of waste from your old diet, but almost certainly not as you round out a month--most experts seem to say that 2-2.5 lb/week is the maximum safe loss.

[PathMaster]

I went the exercise route and it started off real slow, a pound or two a week if that. Some diet changes helped increase that eventually as well. I am down around 30 pounds or so since the end of March. I am sitting between 220 and 225 currently. Doing a challenge with the gf and her friends, so I am sure this will spur me on more. My goal was originally 225, but I think I will aim for 210, knowing I can go lower than that. I know I need to start exercising my mid-section soon to, otherwise my body will be toned everywhere except the gut!

[Suave Peanut]

Originally Posted by Matthias

That seems pretty normal for the first week or so as your body dumps water weight and, if you're eating less, dumping the last bit of waste from your old diet, but almost certainly not as you round out a month--most experts seem to say that 2-2.5 lb/week is the maximum safe loss.

Thanks. If it gives a better idea: on Saturday I weighed in at 217.8, this morning I was down to 211.6.

My first milestone will be 200 (where I was a year ago) but I'm eventually aiming get back to my 2006-era weight of 180. I want to make sure I'm doing everything in the healthiest way I can.

[Slack3r78]

Originally Posted by Suave Peanut

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to attempting a healthy lifestyle so I'm wondering: what rate of weight loss is normal?

I've been on a strict diet and exercise regimen (and recording my weight a few times daily) and I've been losing on average about a pound a day for the past week. Is this OK or do I need to slow down for my health's sake?

At that rate you're losing mostly water weight. Unless you're really huge, that'll slow down fairly considerably after the first week or so.

A pound of fat is contains roughly 3500 calories. So to lose a pound per week, you'd need to maintain a roughly 500 cal/day deficit.

Keep in mind that this isn't exact and metabolisms vary. Knowing your ballpark basal metabolic rate can be useful in helping to get an idea of what you need to be aiming for and what your expectations should realistically be.

Basic rules of thumb: you generally don't want to dip much below 1200 cal/day, and the bigger you are, the faster the weight can come off.

[Suave Peanut]

Thanks for the advice. I mainly want to be sure I'm not damaging myself.

[Vanthar]

Originally Posted by Suave Peanut

Thanks for the advice. I mainly want to be sure I'm not damaging myself.

While this doesn't help you get a good starting weight now...

Be sure to weigh yourself everyday at approximately the same time. For example, I tend to weigh myself before I shower every morning after my morning void/deuce. Your weight fluctuates throughout the day and is heavily dependent on hydration status.

I suspect your first measurement was something of a 'high' weight for you. So.. food in bowels + water in bladder can contribute to a few pounds. Now that you have cut back you are probably losing some weight, but 6 lbs of tissue loss in 3 days would be unlikely. As others have advised, 2lbs/wk is a fairly healthy weight loss goal. If you are very heavy, you can probably lose a little more each week and it will still be a healthy weightloss.

One of the major issues with rapid weight loss is that these folks tend to rebound back to higher weights much more often. If you were very heavy (and you are not), things like gallstones are pretty common in rapid weight loss.

[civil_dead]

Just saw this.

That does sound mostly like water weight, Ryan. Honestly if you were losing that much weight after the initial stuff I'd say that was alarming and setting yourself up for a rebound. Rapid weight loss, IME, doesn't "take". I know before I was finally able to shed the 100 lbs I had gone on diets where I was losing an extreme amount in a short amount of time. That tended to come back at a much faster pace as it wasn't so much a lifestyle change (which is what it really takes) as much as a temporary starvation.

Shit, just saw Slacker said the same thing. Damn you Southern Types.

Double shit. Just saw Vanthar said the same thing as well.

I am the sucky one.

[Suave Peanut]

Thanks again to everyone. Further details: I have been weighing myself approximately every 6 hours under as similar conditions as I could maintain (empty stomach, post-toilet, undressed) and taking the daily average to account for whatever fluctuations still exist. Saturday's average was 216.8, today it's at 211.7. Hearing that this isn't terribly extreme is comforting.

And I assure you: this absolutely is part of an overall lifestyle change. I'm bringing doctors in on this one.

[Matthias]

I would say measuring more than once a day is probably not worth the effort. I've found that even on IF, my weight is extremely variable when I get home at 6PM, while it's generally steady with easily recognizable patterns before I get ready in the morning. I do think keeping an exponentially smoothed average of daily weigh-ins is very useful (I'd tweak the coefficient to iron out your own personal fluctuations--I've found that a 10 to 14-day average is best for me, for instance).

[Purple Santa]

Originally Posted by Suave Peanut

And I assure you: this absolutely is part of an overall lifestyle change. I'm bringing doctors in on this one.

Voluntary life style change or a medical mandatory lifestyle change?

[Suave Peanut]

Originally Posted by Purple Santa

Voluntary life style change or a medical mandatory lifestyle change?

It is voluntary. I have been struggling with chronic pain and depression/anxiety for over a year and I refuse to let it continue conquering me and negatively impacting every area of my life.