I don't want to lose the weight so fast its unhealthy, but im losing quite a bit real fast. I know in the beginning I might be like this.... but I have quite a bit to go still. I started cutting out all sweets monday, eating 3 balanced meals and no junk in between and nothing at bed time. I used to eat a whole pizza a day, fudge, cookies, Mcdonalds etc.... probably 4000-7000 calories a day easily if not more. I now eat between 1400-2000 calories a day, work out an hour a day on the treadmill (4 miles) and eat really good. I weighed 225.2 or so Wednesday and I now weigh 213.4.... so 12lbs so far, is this normal? Im really happy tho and feel great!!

It's not abnormal, but it's not something that's going to continue, if you know what I mean.

A 1% of body weight per week average is a good pace to aim for; for you, that's about 2 pounds a week, or a 1,000 calorie per day deficit.

In the next week or two, you may slow down to 2 pounds a week, or you may not lose for a few weeks before you start seeing movement on the scale again. Or you may see another few weeks of rapid loss before your loss stablizes at a more reasonable pace.

Over the short-term, the rate that you see scale losses doesn't matter much. Going by the scale, I lost 3.2% of my body weight in 5 days in late December. The two weeks following that, I lost absolutely nothing according to the scale, while doing exactly the same things. It's the long-term that matters.

Is it possible I can get to 250 by summer in June or July you think?

Ah, your initial post says you weigh 213 - any chance that's 313?

In that case, you could probably lose 2.5 to 3 pounds a week.

If you average 1% of body weight a week, and start today at 313, you'd hit 250 at the end of June. So I vote for doable.

The changes you've already made will keep you losing weight for awhile (a couple of months, I'd guess) if you stick with them. When your loss slows down, tweak the plan - add calorie counting, or macronutrient goals, or more exercise, or different exercise, or something.

Yeah Im sorry.... I weigh 315 not 215....

I have lost 23 pounds in the last 17 days. It happens really fats in the beginning. Part of that is losing water weight you might have been storing.
I was at 3500 - 5000 alories per day and now i am down to between 1500-2000 on the south beach diet which is a high protien low carb low sugar diet.
I have been walking the tread mill also.
The way I am thinking going to into this change is that this is how I will eat for the rest of my life. I am never going to back to the way I ate prior.

Like was stated before you will lose alot early on but eventually you will get down to the 1-2 pounds per week.
My goal for 2008 is to lose 2 pounds per week. So far it is falling off but once it slows down I do not want to set myself up to get discouraged.

I say keep doing what you are doing and as long as you know your going about it the right way and you are not feeling hungry all of the time then you are doing it right.

One thing also that helps me is drinking at least 3 liters of water a day.

Good luck and keep up the good work!