Back in control of my food after a month long binge. With this being my first week back in the saddle. I have always heard, the first couple of weeks of weight loss are "water weight". If I just change my eating and exercise, and I do not really change my sodium, why does water account for the majority of the scales change, in the first week or two? Why does restricting calories make a difference with how much water your retaining? Like i said, assuming sodium is not a factor. I just dont get how eating less makes me lose water?
You can't really count it but usually the first couple weeks include water weight loss (body getting used to new diet) and also fat.
Your body will basically flush some water out of itself when you change up your diet. Even without sodium being a factor. It is usually why you would probably notice a major slow down in the 3rd week or even no loss in the 3rd and 4th week.
I know about the TOM water weight, but i am refering to those first few pounds that are lost in the first week of "dieting". I have always heard, the first couple of weeks, when we lose the most pounds the quiestest is contributed mostly to losing water, not fat. Why is this?
This has been used to explain why you tend to lose a little faster in the beginning, but the science behind it is a little sketchy. Heavier people tend to retain more water than thinner people, so the idea that more of your weight is water, and more of what you lose is water, might have truth to it, but what does it matter. How much any weight loss is water, muscle, and fat isn't something you can easily determine. I wouldn't spend much time worrying about it, because every weight loss is what it is, and all of the elements were taking up space on your body, so it all "counts."
I agree with kaplods--what does it matter? Pounds gone are pounds gone, regardless of how those pounds were taking up space in your body originally.
But if you really want an explanation, I can try. When you're eating too much and eating junk, your body does not run as efficiently. Typically, when you're eating in such a way, you're also not getting enough water in your diet and, even though you're trying to ignore sodium as a factor, if you're eating MORE food and/or JUNK food, you'll naturally have more sodium than if you eat less and eat better.
So, sodium aside, even if you're just not getting enough water in your diet (and by "water," I don't mean just glasses of water, but also the water that comes from eating things like lots of fruits and veggies, which an unhealthy or calorically dense diet often minimizes or leaves out all together), your body will begin to store water. It sounds counterintuitive, but drinking MORE water (or eating more, as with fruits and veggies) helps to flush out this retention, so having a healthier diet helps to get rid of some of that water retention.
And EXERCISE--I don't know about you, but I can't exercise without sweating, which is just further expelling of water from your body that you weren't doing before.
Once your body adjusts to the changes made in diet and exercise routines, the water weight will not continue to drop since you'll get rid of most of what you had been retaining in the first couple of weeks.
I'm not sure why you want to ignore sodium, but if you cange your diet, then you ARE changing your sodium intake. Healthier whole foods contain little sodium as compared to processed junk, and even if your diet change is simply to eat less but still eat junk, then you're still taking in less sodium.
well i know it doesnt really matter WHY you lose water the first week, but i am one of those people that just likes for things to make sense.
I dont really agree that exercising in the first week has anything to do with it, it mean i sweat just as much the first week as i do the 30th week of exercise, but the first week i will lose 5 pounds and 30th i will lose half a pound. I know you lose some water during exercise, but not 4 pounds worth on week one and half a pound on week 30.
I dont really concern myself with the sodium aspect because i try to stay on a plan i can stay on for life. For me, sodium doesnt matter, as far as fat loss, although i know about high blood pressure, blah blah blah, but i mean, whether i eat a lot of sodium or a little, it has nothing to do with actual FAT loss, so it is not something i keep track of, at least while my blood pressure and what not is at a good level. I dont want to lose just pounds and be happy if i lose fat OR water...i want to lose fat. Losing water, seems like cheating, i dont care about losing pounds, i care about losing fat. To me it is not what the scales say at the end of the day, but what the fat around my liver says at the end of the day. I want to avoid the "fat associated diseases", like diabetes, heart disease, etc. Sodium is not my problem, fat is my problem, ha ha. But we all have our own battles, drives, and goals.
Well, we're all different. I know that personally, if I start exercising without changing my diet, I WILL lose some weight in the first week or 2, but from there on, I will have to change my diet to see further results. I'm not sure my body adjusts to exercise so quickly that I would lose fat those first 2 weeks, so I assume it has more to do with water and my body adjusting to the losing/restoring water cycle.
And I don't think it's ANYTHING like cheating--I mean, you HAVE to get through this step of shedding water to reach your goal, so even just losing water is progress. And it's not ONLY water you lose--there will surely be some fat loss even in the first week by eating less/healthier and exercising.
And I know sodium is not everyone's "problem" per se, but that doesn't mean it's not afactor, especially when you're talking about water weight
In any case, a few pounds of water weight will come and go throughout your entire weight loss journey. Best to focus on the overall picture because, like kaplods already mentioned, there really is no way to determine, even in Week 30 on plan, WHAT you're losing when you see a loss on the scale--while much will be fat, some will be water, some will be muscle, and some will be other bodily fluids/tissues you no longer need since you're not so big (i.e., even fat stores have a steady blood supply, so as you lose fat, your body needs less blood, so while you won't see it leaving, you'll lose weird things like that gradually along the way as well ).
Yup Jill is right. All throughout your weight loss, you will lose some water weight, some muscle weight, some fat weight and other bodily fluids/tissues. I was curious about why when I started my lean body mass was nearly 180 lbs and last time I checked, it was in the 160s. I've also done weight training all throughout my weight loss to help preserve the muscle I do have. After looking into it, I found out that the lean body mass loss could be muscle but even more likely it is other bodily tissues that my body has shed because it no longer needs them to support my large body weight.
Well of course we'd all like to lose FAT. That is certainly the main goal. But when going a weightloss journey it is totally and completely unavoidable to lose water and like has been mentioned muscle. It's all part and parcel. And perfectly normal. The best that we can do is eat as nutritionally sound as possible, drink lots of water and exercise, including strength training. If you do all those things - oh yeah, the dreaded FAT will come off.
OMG Nellie and Jill, that is crazy about the wasted tissue that you flush, i have never even thought about the fact that as you get smaller, you flush out the stuff that your smaller body doesnt need. That is a gross thought for some reason, but still, it just blew my mind, ha ha ha.
Water loss in 1st week
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