i lost 3 pounds in my first week of dieting and going to the gym....

i was just curious whats a "good" amount to lose in a week? i had friends who are on CRAZY diets and they're losing 7-10 lbs their first week.

It all depends.

If you have a great amount of weight to lose, you can stand to lose more fat when compared to someone who doesn't have too much extra weight.

1-2 lbs is generally a good rule of thumb.

1 percent of your body weight a week is a reasonable expectation..

I've heard 1-2 lbs is the safe way to go. Now I have just started my diet as well 5 days ago, and have already lost 5 lbs, but I believe its water retention and the fact that I stopped drinking soda as well.

Stay at your own pace and don't worry about others. Just remember, slow and steady wins the race.

Yea, it should settle to a more reasonable number, unless you have your calories set ridiculously low, which would not be a good thing.

1-2lbs, I honestly wouldn't push for 3lbs even, it's a danger when it comes to loose skin etc.

I'm with everybody else here and say 2 lbs per week is a good loss. Since gradually losing weight it's been about that every week. Well, except the last few weeks and that's why I've joined the site.

1-2 lbs you say, huh?...
With the new lifestyle I have now, I couldn't lose that much (or little) even if I tried. Last week I lost the lowest amount of weight (4 lbs) since I started but this week it seems I'll lose alot more because it's just Thursday and I already lost 6.5 lbs.
But I do know I'm risking to expose myself to loose skin so, in a couple of weeks, I'll join a gym to lift weights and build some muscle, maybe that way I'll manage to avoid it.

How many calories are you eating? If you don't know that, what are you eating each day?

Male or female?

I'm a male (21yr) and I have absolutely no idea how many calories nor do I want to start measuring that. I have a food problem, i.e. once I start eating I find it very difficult to stop, therefore in the past few weeks I kinda ate small amounts of food in 3-4 'sessions' during the day. I can't really give some examples because there are so various and it would take me a while. So you could probably say I don't eat enough, but as I said, I have two options: eat too little or too much, so having chosen the 2nd option all my life I decided to switch now and maybe try in time to reach the balance.

I've been losing 4 pounds per week continuously for about five weeks now. There was one week were I lost seven pounds, but just that one time. I do about 2200-2500 calories per day and do cardio/weight training six days a week.