When I started way back in 2011 I never had a big whoosh in the beginning. My start weight was 255.6 and after a month of exercise and eating right (around 1200-1500 a day), I lost 6.8 pounds in a month.

At the start of 2013 I joined a weight loss thing at the gym. I had been off plan over the holidays and had gone up 12 pounds. I expected a big whoosh when going back on plan and never got it... I forgot the exact amount I lost after a month of eating right and LOTS of exercise, but it was like 5 pounds.

This time, I started coming down from HUGE caloric intake. Like well over 3000 a day - probably closer to 4000. I was pumped full of carbs.

After a month, I dropped 8.6 pounds. Most days I eat around 1200-1300 calories, very low carb. My activity level is still pretty low, but I do walk about 2 miles 4 days a week (will up that as the weather has gotten better). And I'm eating for hunger. I tabulate what I eat every few days just out of curiosity. I'm not trying to eat super low calorie, just that I haven't been hungry for more - which is ODD as I was hungrier at 3000 calories a of high carb foods!

Why do I never get that "just started a diet" whoosh that I see so many people get?

Isn't it odd that some people can lose 10 pounds in a week from starting a diet and I lose the typical 1.5 with VERY mindful, very low carb eating?

I'm not complaining, I'm just trying to understand how that can vary SO MUCH. And I'm quite overweight, so it's not like I have just a little to lose either.

How many grams of carbs do you eat per day?

Isn't it odd that some people can lose 10 pounds in a week from starting a diet and I lose the typical 1.5 with VERY mindful, very low carb eating?

Sodium? Internal body inflammation/swelling? Metabolism?

I don't think there's much point to comparing myself to others. I have such a screwy metabolism thanks to PCOS?IR/thyroid issues -- the only compare is comparing Today Me against Yesterday Me and look at more variables like quality of sleep, energy, pain/no pain, etc. If I measure only the weight I'm not seeing the health progress elsewhere.

Dunno if that POV helps any.

A.

I found that activity levels made a huge difference when I was bigger. If I mowed the lawn at the weekend when I was over 200lbs, the weight would just drop off the next day. And I whooshed all the way down to about 180 at 4lb/week consistent losses (the brakes came on seriously after that though!).

To reap the benefits of faster losses at larger weights you have to move as much as you can because that movement combined with the extra weight is what really burns those calories and puts you way into deficit assuming a prudent diet of course.

It varies, but between 20-50. Closer to 20 most days, but sometimes as high as 50.

I'm not trying to be, "That's not fair!" But more, "Why is it so different from person to person?" To learn from it - for myself. for others... just to get a better understanding of how we all tick differently.

This time is the exception with being slower to hop on the fitness band wagon and that has to do with a. weather, b. fatigue (thyroid) and c. injuries.

The other two times I was GUNG HO with fitness. I did at minimum an hour a day. The Gym thing I joined last year? it was an hour a day 4 days a week and 2 hours a days 3 days a week. I did something every single day. And I wore a heart rate monitor or my bodyfit media gizmo and when I work out, I WORK OUT. Step Aerobics, fast walking (could walk 4.5 miles an hour or a bit faster) and I would walk for an hour at that pace - via garmin monitor., working with a trainer, doing NRoL for Life, etc. The weight still WAS SLOW to go down... I was super frustrated.

There sadly isn't a lot of research into why or even how people differ in regards to weight loss patterns.

Until we get more solid research asking those questions, and looking for patterns, I think we only have guesswork.

I've never had one more than a pound or two over my normal losing rate. When I go from maintaining to losing, except for immediately postpartum, I lose slowly. Oh well!

I keep hoping that I'll start with a BANG!!! I think I did once in college when I started a diet (a stupid whack-a-doodle diet). I dropped so much weight so fast! It was great.

But now at 44, I have to fight for every pound.

I know it's better that way, but it sure would help the head to get an unexpected WHOOSH!

And now... I have to work hard to take off the weight. I really do. There were a couple other times I took off 30-40 pounds by just a change of scenery... like walking more, moving and having to get the house in order and stopping eating in the cafeteria. I had no idea I was dropping weight, but discovered I had lost 30 or 40 without trying.

NOW??? No way. Last year, when I was starting to derail, I fought tooth an nail to drop from 195-185. So much working out. Watching every calorie and I moved BABY STEPS. Took me 3 months to move that far when in 2011 it took me 5-6 weeks and I exercised less! Oh, and at that time, my thyroid was regulated perfectly with synthroid.

I'm blaming perimenopause! It was around that time I started to have anovulatory cycles.

Often, the beginning of a diet means lower carbs, which can lead to the reduction of glycogen in the muscle, along with a lot of water. Very low carb diets can also reduce glycogen stored in the liver. I'm not saying that to scare anyone off or onto low carb diets, though. However, the reduction of glycogen stored in the muscle also causes the fatigue that many people feel when reducing calories/carbs. Naturally, the stores will replenish as well when more carbohydrates are consumed. Also, reducing sodium is also a common practice for the dieter, as they tend to avoid processed and fatty food. Reducing sodium lessens water retention, so more water weight is lost.

So, it is not necessarily fat that is the "whoosh" so I wouldn't worry about it. Slow and steady not only wins the race, but burns the fat . Still, if you have a high sodium, reducing that might help . Most of the time, a high fluctuation is at least some water.

I agree but sometimes they are educated guesses.

My guess Berry is that you are retaining some water because you're stressed.

Sometimes I get that big drop at the beginning and sometomes I don't.

I find that hard workouts tend to make me retain water and the whoosh comes after I've taken a day or two off. Very frustrating since I want that validation from the scale after a kick @ss session, but oh well. I can only do the right things and wait for my body to do what it will.

I'm in the same boat as you. I couldn't lose weight very fast and researched it to discover that high blood pressure medicine was probably the cause. That . . . and my age.

Huh.... I am on two blood pressure meds. Some of the first signs my Thyroid is out of whack is my BP. And it was WAY outnf whack. I'm taking two drugs. The one I was on for awhile the also time I was losing weight, but the other is new. And.... I do seem to be holding water every day (and that is a side effect of this BP med - kind of counter intuitive). I have major sock dents at the end of the day.

I agree that some guesses are likelier than others, but I'm not sure stress water-retention would be my first guess to explain "never" (or at least never in the last three years) experiencing a whoosh. Odds are that sometimes in those three years Berry would have had a low-stress week in there somewhere that would have therefore resulted in a woosh.

I've studied my patterns over the course of my 43 years of dieting and for me I've identified some of the variables that seem to be related to "whooshing."

First-week wooshing, in my experience is affected by

1. Carbohydrate intake. When you transition to a lower carbohydrate diet (even if it's not a low-carb diet, but just lower in carbohydrates than your pre-transition diet), you may lose a "whoosh" of water weight, simply because the body needs more water to digest carbs, and if your carb intake is reduced, so is the amount of water needed. This often results in a dramatic whoosh of water weight loss.

2. Sodium/potassium - like carb reduction, sodium decrease or potassium increases can cause water weight whooshes. "Healthier" diets often are lower in sodium and higher in potassium which is most likely to cause a whoosh.

3. Fiber and water intake changes. If your "new" way of eating is significantly higher in fiber AND water than your non-dieting WOE, you can experience whooshing simply because (tmi ahead) it can speed the movement of food along the digestive tract. The human intestines can contain several pounds of waste matter. As a result, the increase in fruits and veggies can literally whoosh out quite a lot of weight just in poop.


As a result of 1-3, if your weight loss eating is very similar (except in calorie) to your normal eating in carb, water, sodium, potassium, and fiber content, you'll likely experience less whooshing than those who are making more dramatic changes.

4. Exercise - exercise can help or hinder whooshing. Drastic exercise increases can cause whooshes or can cause temporary water weight gain. When you work muscles, you create microinjury to the muscles (this is good, because the body "heals" the injury by laying down new muscle and strengthening existing muscle). The process of doing so requires more water, so the body retains the extra water it needs.

5. Menstral cycle - this affects not only beginning whooshing, but also random whooshing as well. Some women notice a monthly whoosh or whoosh and gain pattern.

6. Age - Many men and women experience less wooshing as they age, perhaps due to a more sedentary (or even just more consistent) activity pattern. Menopause also tends to dampen whooshing.

I'm sure there are dozens, if not hundreds of other variables.

Maybe herein lies part of the answer? "... Then I made the cake..Super fun to make and it was soooo yummy. So much for the calorie count today, but at least it was GOOD!" It's easy to forget small deviations and they can exact a toll, especially on a low carb diet. Been there done that.