How quickly can you begin to notice weight loss?

[g84]

I have been eating pretty healthy (no junk food, and paying more attention to calories) for the past 2-3 weeks, and also exercising everyday (although probably not as much as i should be). According the the scale, i may have lost 2 or 3 pounds (although the numbers on the scale go up and down a lot for me, so i don't know how reliable it is), and physically, i can notice that my arms look slightly thinner, and my stomach is a little more tucked in than before. I can see my body looking much more like it used to when i was at my ideal weight, but still not completely at that point yet.

 

I am just wondering if i am imagining this lol. I sometimes think that i become so excited that i am seeing things that aren't there. I asked my mom if she can see some changes, but she doesn't seem sure...i don't think that she considers herself very detail-oriented lol.

I was wondering, realistically, how soon can a person begin to see physical changes when they're eating healthier and exercising?

I guess this may vary from person to person, but what are your experiences?

 

I hope i'm not just seeing what i want to see = P. I know how weird that must sound..

[sweet_blue]

I had been trying to loose weight for about 5 years and nothing would happen....if anything I would gain more. But I finally went to the doctor about it and found out I have PCOS. Which is an Ovarian Disease. (please forgive my spelling) and the doc said that is why I could loose the weight because my body was holding onto it. But she finally put me on Phentromine which is a diet pill. And when I first started taking it which was in December I weighed 312lbs.....Yea GROSS.....But now I am down to 272lbs....Now I have been watching what I eat and have been walking almost everyday for atleast an hour. Now I am not saying you might have the PCOS but I do know how you feel I did go through that for 5 years.....

[Samedy]

It will probably be difficult for you to see the changes taking place. Just because you see yourself in the mirror everyday, and you quickly get used to any gradual changes that are occurring.

 

Pay attention to how your clothes feel. You will start to feel them get looser.

 

Congrat's on living healthier.

[WickedSunrise]

2-3 pounds in 2-3 weeks is perfect. The healthiest way to lose weight, though maybe not ideal, is losing 1 pound a week. That can also depend, I think the more overweight you are the faster you can lose it initially. If you're a healthy weight, but just want to lose some 1 lb per week is what you're looking at. If you try to lose weight faster your body is going to rebound and some point and you'll gain it back. It's great you're trying to just be healthier. That will do it for you in the long term.

 

I like to use a program called CalorieKing (link removed keep track of my eating. It works best if you're not eating out, then keeping track gets hard. At college with the dining halls its impossible to keep up with it, but I used it last summer at home and I liked it a lot. You can track your weight over time, and it has lots of foods in the program, and you can add your own. There is a free trial on their website.

 

Also, for weighing yourself so you don't get fluctuations: You should only weight yourself first thing when you wake up in the morning, before breakfast. That is your true weight. During the day your body is in the process of eating/digesting whereas when you wake up its resting.

 

For example, you go eat a pound of strawberries (or a pound of pizza) for breakfast. At that moment you have added a pound to your body and would weigh 1 pound more on the scale. But you have not GAINED a pound, because the strawberries don't have that many calories per pound and aren't going to stick as much as the pound of pizza would. That is why you want to weigh only in the morning. The weight of the food itself in your digestive tract does not count as weight until its been taken care of, being burned or stored.

[g84]

thanks everyone = )

 

just a random note: right now i weigh about 12 pounds more than i'd like to, but my BMI is still within a healthy range (although close to going over the healthy range).

[diabolik]

Since it's only been 2-3 weeks and 2-3 pounds, it probably won't be noticeable to anyone but yourself. And day to day and even week to week fluctuations could easily be unrelated to real fat loss, though stargirl08's suggestions can help minimize those effects.

 

But since losing 1lb/week is a healthy way to lose, you'll figure out over time if your diet/exercise is working. If you want to know sooner, get a bodyfat caliper. After all, I assume what you really want to lose is fat, not necessarily weight. And depending on the exercise you're doing, you may be gaining a little muscle, which if you only weigh yourself, might make you think that your diet/exercise isn't working.

[sidehop]

I'd give it at least 12 weeks but you should really see a difference especially if you take a picture of yourself from the time you started exercising, etc. The mirror/scale is very deceiving...

[waveseer]

I drop a size for every 5 lbs, so that's the easiest way to tell.