I'm worried. I have been since I started. Some may wonder why I'm worried, but I am.

I am losing weight super fast. I'm not starving myself--I get cranky when I don't eat according to schedule, and I don't stay on a strict plan. But I've lost at least a pound every day this week, for instance. I know that when you're heavier like me, you drop loads of water weight almost immediately when you start, but I started six months ago, how am I still able to do things like this? I'm not starving, nor am I killing myself with exercise, nor am I throwing up my food, etc. I shoot for around 1200 calories a day on an "on plan" day...

The only thing I can possibly think of is the metformin I take for PCOS. It didn't do this before, though. I don't think I've read about this sort of thing happening with metformin.

On the flip side, if I don't get in my 8 to 12 cups of water a day and don't exercise a while, I'll balloon up freakishly fast. Like, gain 2 lbs in a day. I just read a post about someone that went off plan for 10 days and pretty much didn't gain anything. I'd have gained 15 lbs in that time.

Has anyone heard of something like this?

EDIT: I wasn't sure where to post this, so I tried the PCOS/IR forum first.

You sound pretty normal.

If I don't drink enough water, my body retains water too, thinking I'm going to die of dehydration.

As for exercise, well, I do that for fun. You might be exercising enough to offset any extra calories, which you will eat, but not burn off when you are exercising.

I think you sound pretty normal, actually.

When it comes to weight loss, with or without metformin, it's perfectly normal to lose fast. It's also perfectly normal to lose slow. Some people lose very fast. Some people lose very slow. And many people fall in between the extremes, or alternate between them.

It's ALL normal. If you're not feeling sick or weak, or experiencing strange symptoms like massive hair loss, and you're eating a wide variety of foods, there's probably not a lot to worry about, but you should be seeing your doctor if at all possible. Whether you're losing fast or slow, you should be seeing your doctor at least once or twice a year (or whatever schedule your doctor wants you on).

Unfortunately we aren't' really taught what "normal" looks like when it comes to weight loss, so most of us end up worried that we're losing too fast, or losing too slow, just because we don't know what normal looks like.

My doctor told me that I might lose weight a little more rapidly with metformin, and that I might not. For me, it wasn't nearly as rapid as for you, but I did lose about 20 lbs in a much shorter period of time than I did before the metformin.

I still do find that if I eat offplan (especially high carb foods) I also gain very rapidly. I don't think it's only the metformin, I think much of it is the insulin resistance itself (I'm diagnosed with IR but not PCOS).

That's odd. I haven't heard of this at all.

Really!? When I was prescribed metformin, extra weight loss was one of the first of possible symptoms my doctor mentioned.

He did say that for most people it was a modest or a temporary side effect. For me it wasn't this rapid, but I did lose about 20 lbs that I attribute to the metformin's affect (I lost those 20 lbs much faster than before I'd been prescribed the metformin).

Oh, whew, I've been worrying about this for months, I really have. Thanks for your posts, they really helped!