Originally Posted by
Rootman
Having lost over 170 pounds in the last 2 years I am familiar with this. As you start a diet and limit your caloric intake to the level that it proper - typically consuming as many calories or a bit less than it takes to support your desired body weigh, you will lose a lot of weight very fast, as you approach your desired weight the weight loss slows and then stops.
The following is over simplified but is generally correct. Let's say your 100 pounds over weight and you've been eating 4000 calories a day, you diet and reduce your caloric intake to 2000 calories a day. The reduction is 50% and since a pound of fat is about 3000 calories you should be losing about 4 pounds a week - 2000 calories X 7 days = 14000 calories divided by 3000 is over 4. As your weight drops so does the need for calories to maintain your weight - the more you weigh the MORE calories you need just to maintain that weight. So as your weight drops the percentage of caloric shortfall decreases. So you've lost enough weight that you now need 2500 calories a day to stay at that weight, you are still eating 2000 calories so the shortfall is now only 500 calories a day, using the same math - 500 X 7 = 3500 calories you would now only be losing a little over a pound a week.
You can accelerate weight loss by increasing caloric use - exercising. As vesteroid pointed out above it is VERY difficult to build a pound of muscle. It takes a lot of time and the right type of exercise to gain muscle mass fast. And since you are exercising you are more than likely gaining SOME muscle but since it's most aerobic exercise you aren't building it very fast, you are TONING the muscle that's there though, that is improving it's shape and tightening it up - hence the shrinking size. It's REAL easy to gain a pound of fat, and pretty easy to lose a pound of fat, to exchange a pound of fat for a pound of muscle is very hard.
Water retention is some of it, you're drinking more water and possibly eating just a bit more as you are working up an appetite.
Regardless, you're on the right track. Don't get caught up in the fine detail that will get you discouraged. Just eat less, eat right and exercise more and you will get to where you want to be.
Appreciate the answer but it's not applicable to my situation. Weight Watchers is designed a little differently than the diet you describe: your caloric intake (on the WW plan) is a certain level below what it would take to maintain weight. Then, as you lose weight, the caloric "requirement" lowers at the same rate of weight loss, therefore, if followed correctly, weight loss (especially for someone not exercising) is at the same rate throughout the program. To draw it into your example, if it took 4000 calories per day to maintain weight, Weight Watchers would require you to eat about 3000, instead of the 2000 in your example. Then, as you lose weight, the caloric requirement lowers. If it takes you 3800 calories to maintain weight, then the plan would lower to 2800, etc.
Your method of losing weight is just as valid as what we experiencing on WW, but it is not applicable to my question.
