Losing Weight Too Fast?

Right Turn Clyde

Hi. I'm worried that I'm losing weight too fast. I've been losing around 7-8 pounds a week for the past 3 weeks. I've read that losing weight at that speed is unhealthy. I'm currently just under 17 stone. Obviously I'd been eating a lot of crap to maintain a heavy weight. So I guess I'm losing it so fast because I'm consuming a lot less calories. I think I'm eating well, and I'm not at all hungry. So I feel like I'm doing the right things. I'm just a bit concerned that it's happening too fast. I'm not doing any set form of exercise yet, but I'm cycling around during the day instead of driving. Perhaps 15km a day.

Here's a two-day sample menu:

Day 1

Breakfast: Porridge with skimmed milk, blueberries and walnuts.

Lunch: Mixed-bean salad with feta, tomatoes, spinach, olive oil and pitta bread.

Dinner: Chicken breast stir-fry with broccoli, bell peppers, cashews and rice (jasmine or brown).

Snacks: Two or three pieces of fruit, typically nectarines, grapes, and apples.

Day 2

Breakfast: Two boiled eggs with two slices of wholegrain bread. No butter.

Lunch: Chickpea salad with avocado and green salad.

Dinner: Baked salmon with roasted root vegetables and cous cous.

Snack: Handful of nuts (walnuts, cashews, almonds) and a piece of fruit

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I'm consuming between 3-4 litres of water per day. I don't drink tea or coffee.

I also use soy sauce, stock and other bits and pieces when I'm cooking, but I try keep my dishes as simple as possible.

Any advice would be a huge help. Cheers.

Konata

It's not unusual for weight loss to be quite rapid when you start a new regime. It's usually mainly water weight that's coming off. However, you're right to be concerned if you're still losing a large amount of weight after the 3 week-ish mark. Your menus look great but it's possible you might be eating too little. A steady weight loss of 1-2lbs a week is what you're aiming for.

Have you calculated your daily calorie needs? There are calculators in the stickies in the Nutrition forum to help you with this. They're not exact but they give you a good starting point. The next important thing is to weigh all your food and log in using something like My Fitness Pal to see exactly how close/far away you are from your calorie goal. If you're way under it then you need to eat more. If you're fairly close to it I wouldn't change anything just yet and keep an eye on the weight - if it doesn't stabilize to a slower loss in another week or 2 then try upping the calories.

I think if you're 17 stone, 3 weeks of rapid loss sounds ok but it should start stablising then. If you're really not feeling ill effects of it maybe keep going another week or two? After that you maybe should up the calorie intake a little bit if it's still that rapid... check the TDEE calcs and stuff

Right Turn Clyde

Thanks for your advice. I'll calculate my daily calorie needs so, and I've heard about the My Fitness Pal app, so I'll get on top of that as well. If I'm not eating enough I could add another evening meal. Thanks again!