Hi, i'm 5'10 and was 230 lbs on Dec 27th, when i started my healthy eating. I used to eat basically all crap all day pizza, fast food etc. Yesterday, the 7th I weighed myself and had dropped 12 points in 10 days.

I know the "healthy" range is from 1-2 pounds a week, which obviously did not happen. Now first glance at this most would assume water weight/muscle loss and very little fat loss.

However, this is what confuses me. I used a Bio-impedance body fat calculator on the 27th and was at 26.5% body fat.
I had my fat % measured again the same way, from the same trainer at the 24 hour fitness I go to. It was down to 24.2% So A lot of it had to come from fat.

I don't know how this happened as I have been eating till I am full 5 times a day. I did drastically change my diet to strictly healthy proteins, tuna etc. Fruits & veggies, and whole grain foods. I eat 5 times I day so I don't think my body is in starvation mode, i'm rarely hungry. I have been drinking about a gallon of water a day as well so I am well hydrated.

Is this accidental 12 lbs in 10 day loss going to have health repurcussions later on? I am going to make this healthy eating/exercise a lifestyle.

Thanks

edit: also I suppose I should throw this in, I lift weights 4 times a week, doing splits. Lower body/upper body day off then repeat. I don't do a lot of cardio as I'm trying to save muscle and lose fat

Depending on what your diet was like before you changed your eating habits -that could explain the big drop -like water weight etc... I wouldn't' expect drops like that on regular basis though...

Just stay within a reasonable calorie range and you'l be fine..

Hi there!

Your new eating pattern seems to be very healthy, so I wouldn't worry.

Agreeing with Maleficent, I would say water weight - my guess is that your former diet caused one or both of these:
1) Water retention caused by a very salty diet (1 pizza typically have all the salt you need for 2 days).
2) Water retention caused by your blood ph - digesting fat and proteins has acid as a waste product. On top of that, sodas will ad carbonic acid.

I have seen people losing more than 5 pounds in one day, if they took an all fruit day (a common cleansing diet) instead of their normal fast food diet, so what you experienced is not abnormal - it's just your body being cleaned out after your unhealthy living. Your next ten days will be much slower.

Bio-impedance is not an exact science, so you probably didn't lose 8 pounds of fat, as the numbers seems to indicate, but still - with your new lifestyle, you WILL lose a lot of weight and become much healthier.

Keep it up - you are doing fine!

I lost 4 pounds between yesterday morning and this morning.

I don't expect to see those same 4 pounds gone tomorrow...for some reason I just dumped a bunch of water overnight or something. I'll be happy if 1 of those pounds is still gone tomorrow. I've learned that my weight can really bounce around. It's not until the weight has been off for a week that I really believe it's gone. But it's fun to see the low number, even if it's only temporary.

Thanks for the responses, I agree a lot is probably water weight. However the protein shakes I drink contain creatine, which encourages water retention if I remember right. Wouldn't that minimize amount of water weight lost?

and as far as staying within the calorie range, I probably dropped the calories I was eating by a good 1500-2000. I just simply cant enough enough calories to make it just a 500 calorie deficit. I'm going to estimate I used to eat 3000ish calories a day at least and i was maintaining my weight doing that. I am eating I'd say 1000-1500 calories. And I'm full all day.

my normal day of eating:
Meal 1: bowl of cheerios with minimal milk
Meal 2: turkey sandwhich with lettuce and on whole whead bread.
Meal 3: Mix of vegetables- carrots/celery/broccoli/cucumber and a canof tuna, salmon, or something along those lines
Meal 4: A Salad with light dressing
Meal 5: after work out - Protein shake, some fruit.

I am pretty much full all day and thats probly only about 1000 calories or so.

I want to keep my body out of starvation mode, I'm trying to drop body fat% not too worried about weight. I would be completely happy where I am if my body fat% was around 15 or 14%

My Goal here is too drop down to about 12% body fat or less, which involves me mainting as much muscle as possible. SO i am just worried about being in that starvation mode and losing muscle on accident even though I feel full all day

Sause47....I'm guessing you are a guy based upon your body fat percentage goal. Am I correct? If so, I don't think dropping that much weight your first week is at all surprising. Men just lose weight faster than women and based upon the fact that you were maintaining your weight while eating approximately 3000 calories, you must have a lot of muscle mass and an active lifestyle.

I am a guy, yes.

Whey Protein - Six Star Muscle - Professional Strength Whey Protein

That is the protein powder I make my shakes with, any opinions on that based on ingredients, good, bad?

i should include the grams of fat i used to eat compared to the grams of fat I eat now has been cut down to 1/3 or 1/4 of the old amount.

I'm just worried about not eating enough calories as I'm only eating 1200ish a day which falls into the "unhealthy diet" I believe.

however I'm not hungry during the day so I don't want to add more calories just because. opinions?

Hey, your sister here.

first 2 weeks of everyones dieting usually shows the biggest losses.. dont be discouraged when u get into the groove and its only 1-2 lbs a week

Bio-impedance, if you are retaining water, is going to make it look like you have more body fat than you do (by the numbers alone). So, when you lost the water you were retaining, the bio-impedance is going to think some of the water lost was fat.

Your instincts are correct. You're losing too fast, and your instincts about not eating enough are also correct. I think you should add some calories so you avoid eventual binge eating and a relapse to poor eating habits. I started out with too few calories a month ago, had a great first 10+ days and then stopped tracking and didn't work out as much. Your body will likely self-regulate if you don't add calories back. Or, you will hurt your ability to keep it off for good (and that's the goal, right?)

I'd say add a chicken breast and 13 unsalted almonds (you can eat the almonds straight instead of on your salad if you want) to your salad in Meal 4. That would add about 250 calories. Banana or apple with Meal 1, +100 calories. Maybe 1/2 an avocado with the turkey sandwich, +100 calories.

Congrats on the fast start, now it's time to add some calories so you can do it for the long haul.

alright so I decided to add a few 100 more calories by throwing an extra orange in, some nuts which I have been eating I just totally forgot to mention, and an extra protein shake in the morning to start off the day, should bring my daily avg to about 1500.

As far as binging, that is simply not going to happen. I've tried numerous diet plans and have binged, mainly because I was starving all day, and my "binging" always happened in the first week. It will be 2 weeks tomorrow, and havent had to the urge to binge yet.

Also this is not a "diet" per say this is a lifestyle change. Even when i hit my goal I am not going to alter my current eating patters. This is more a lifestyle change, not a diet to lose some lbs and then forget about.

Thanks for all the input. any thoughts about the protein mix though?

Also I would like to add this BMI crap is BS. I calculated it out, with 24% body fat at 218 lbs which calculates to about 52-53 lbs of fat. If I lost every lb of fat I have I would weigh in at about 167, which according to BMI charts is borderline overweight. BS considering I would have a 0% body fat which is not possible.

I never said the "D" word in my reply...

As far as protein, one thing you could do is swap out the cheerios & minimal milk FOR 2 slices of high fiber toast with 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter (whole wheat does not equal high fiber). =300 calories (dunno if you are currently having 1.5 cups of cheerios or not, that with milk would be about 300 calories).

Also, you could change the turkey slices and either eat more of them (I would go at least 140 calories of meat), or go with a turkey burger or chicken breast.

I agree the BMI is silly. At 5'7" if I get to my ideal "greek god" or "roman statue" weight, I would be 156 pounds which is just under overweight. What I am going to do is when I get to about 166 pounds is have a semi-expensive body fat test to see what body fat % I would be at.