Best speed of weight loss

[Bongo4]

Over the last 5 weeks I have gone down 6 belt notches and clothes are generally looser, but when I went to weigh myself I had only gone down about 4 or 5 kilos.

What I do is I don't eat after 6pm, exercise for an hour or so a day, half of it jogging, slowly, and I have adapted my recipes to exclude almost all fat, swapping most of the cheddar for feta cheese. Have cut out sugar almost completely.

There seems to be a mismatch between size loss and weight loss, is it mainly due to increased exercise, and if so am I risking getting skin flaps from overdoing things?

I haven't changed what I eat very much, still well nourished and rarely hungry.

[TheHud]

You are obviously doing well. Maybe you have excluded something that was previously making your middle bloated and that with the loss of 5kg of belly fat is working for you. Also muscle is heavier and more dense. I lose from my peripheries first, already face, hands and feet are showing, 2 inches from my waist which I think is purely down to no bloating from carbs. My first week is a fast loss and don't expect further weeks to be anywhere close to the nearly 3.5kg loss.

Good luck

[Bongo4 in reply to TheHud]

you may be right about the bloating, I gave up bread to avoid the spreads, but yesterday I had a kind of scone with a pile of wholemeal flour in it and not much else and now a couple of belt notches back the other way!

[TheHud in reply to Bongo4]

I have IBD and have been truly shocked at the effect it has had, cutting out all the simple carbs has been an eye opener. Long may it last. Pastry and bread , mashed potato etc have always caused problems but I did like my pasta and rice. Not craving them at all

[Hidden]

Hi,

I lost 5 kg and that equated to 3 or 4 inches of loss round my belly ... I don't really know how that equates to belt notches but it doesn't sound like there is too much mismatch going on to me if that's of any help?

H706

[Andyt2120]

Sounds like you are doing everything right. Measurements are a better way to gauge fat loss than the scales. You should be having rest days from the excercise though.

[AngelaMVF]

Your turning your fat into muscle, which is good keep up the exercise and increase as you can, muscle and fat weigh the same but muscle is more dense so smaller, hence you loosing inches not lbs, this is a really good way to monitor your losses rather than just your weight.

[Bongo4]

Thanks for your comments!

I'm enjoying feeling fit again more than I'm enjoying not being scared to look in the mirror, so I would need a lot of motivation to do any-thing differently!

It's actually easier for me to eat earlier in the day while I've still got the energy to cook and clear up. Evenings are free for more creative stuff which it's nice not to have to interrupt with feeds.

I was worried about loose skin but I suppose there would be warning signs and it doesn't just appear suddenly a few months after you are at target weight? It's hard to get info but it does happen to people. Maybe they go at it way too fast for common sense, but the last thing I want is an avoidable operation.

[Venusflytrap]

Sorry, I still work in old money! So you have lost more than 2lbs a week. That is perfect for giving your skin time to adjust. Doing the exercise will really help with the inch loss as well. As you say, it is going from the right places. Right at the beginning of my weight loss journey, I had to get fit for a holiday after a knee op. I went to the gym and trained heavily for a month. I lost no weight at all that month, but went down a couple of dress sizes, so about 4 inches round the middle. The trainer, who was a health specialist, told me that to lose lbs I would have to train every other day, to give my muscles a chance to recover and dump the water they retained. I preferred to keep going to get fit. So don't know if that story helps. And I never did train every other day, so I can't vouch for what he said, but you might want to try it. He suggested that I do a different exercise the other days, like swimming or walking. Hope that helps. So impressed with your great weight losses especially as you feel you could keep this up till you're at goal.

[Bongo4]

I'm glad it's normal. I do other things on two days. Like you, I'm more into the exercise now than any-thing else!

I'm going to stop worrying about shrinking with excessive speed, as it's obviously so usual that we would have heard if it was risky.

The goal is to get back to how I was in my twenties by the end of September. I have tried this the two previous years, but without the exercise I got nowhere.

[Rontgen]

That is a good weight loss in that time. You shouldn't lose it too fast. You are more likely to keep it off if you lose it slowly and adapt to a healthier lifestyle. I am impressed.

Good luck XXX