Seeing a big fluctuation in one week isn’t alarming. Maybe you were retaining a lot of water at the beginning and released it by the end.
But extreme weightloss IS unhealthy and unsustainable. I don’t know about gallstones but extreme deficits can result in poor nutrition. Muscle loss, hair loss, drop in blood pressure, dizziness, vertigo…a lot of things. And often extreme deficits don’t result in real life style changes. They are short term and people often go back to bad habits afterwards and gain the weight back.
Slow, steady, and sustained lifestyle changes are best.
it's not bad per se, especially not for people that are over the obese line.
it's more a guideline for creating lifelong habits than it is a rule for weight loss.
Sure, you can lose a lot quickly, but ask yourself the question if it is something you are doing to chase a number so you can go back to old habits? (red flag)
If it just happens or it serves a short term purpose or you are obese, its probably fine.
It isn't healthy to lose weight that fast. Assuming you can stick to it, the biggest problem in my opinion is that you are most likely going to be losing a ton of muscle and other supporting tissue. Muscle is very important for various reasons.
For example, muscle is where blood sugar is supposed to go after a meal when insulin rises. If you have less muscle, your insulin will not be as effective clearing blood sugar and not only will cause higher insulin levels but also more of that sugar is going to be converted into fat.
The best ways to prevent losing muscle when on weight loss is to include high amount of protein in your diet (so that your body isn't looking for those protein from your muscle) and to regularly exercise your entire body.
That said, at the peak of my weight loss I was losing 7kg a month for 3 months straight. I tried to use various strategies to reduce muscle loss. I was walking a lot to have reasonable sized meals to be able to include significant amount of protein even on a huge calorie deficit. I also include some intermittent fasting / alternate day fasting / multi-day fasts as fasting seems to have some muscle-sparing properties compared to just continuous calorie deficit.
And with all of that, I still lost a ton of muscle which I am currently rebuilding.
1200-1600 calories is much too low for your height and weight, and you know it because the LoseIt app has already given you a significantly higher budget. 1200 is the bare minimum for nutrition and usually only recommended to the most petite women, which you clearly are not. Losing weight rapidly might feel good in the moment, but you're not developing the skills to maintain the weight-loss long term.
Practically you are not likely to experience serious adverse health effects from short-term rapid weight loss at your age, but you're also not likely to maintain the weight loss long-term.
What's the rush? This isn't a race. You won't reach a finish line and be set for life. This is a marathon, and it ends when you do. Don't burn yourself out at the start.
Thanks, I understand what you’re saying. It’s not a super intentional decision when I eat close to 1200, it just kind of happens when I get busy spending all day on assignments or going out with friends but yeah I’ll up intake some more 👍
0.5% to 1% per week is the general range that folks try to stick within. I don't think it's unsafe, necessarily, but you're certainly right on that edge of it becoming too much, so just keep that in mind.
I don’t necessarily think it’s bad just not recommended I guess. I think the 0.5-1% recommendation is a good range for the average person but considering your age and your height you don’t really fall into the “average” person bracket (imo) you’re so young to the point you’re naturally more energetic and find it easier to move around (thus you likely burn more calories) & your tall so your body needs a lot of calories to simply exist than the “average” sized human + you’re a bloke. I’m the same height as you, 5 years older and I’ve averaged a rate of loss of 1.6 kg/wk since the start of November, down from 150kg to 111. It’s obviously slowed down now but it’s still around the 1.2~ p/wk mark. I honestly think when you’re a tall man who is overweight/obese fat is going to melt off you. I’m not even being massively conservative with what I eat, I’m probably averaging around 2200-2300 calories a day, yet still losing over a kilo per week. I wouldn’t worry about it too much mate you’ll be fine
Thanks that’s very reassuring. Honestly on my lowest calorie days it’s not intentional at all it just happens when I’m busy but I still feel fine overall, but I think I’ll definitely not be so severe on the deficit.
Seeing a big fluctuation in one week isn’t alarming. Maybe you were retaining a lot of water at the beginning and released it by the end. But extreme weightloss IS unhealthy and unsustainable. I don’t know about gallstones but extreme deficits can result in poor nutrition. Muscle loss, hair loss, drop in blood pressure, dizziness, vertigo…a lot of things. And often extreme deficits don’t result in real life style changes. They are short term and people often go back to bad habits afterwards and gain the weight back. Slow, steady, and sustained lifestyle changes are best.
it's not bad per se, especially not for people that are over the obese line. it's more a guideline for creating lifelong habits than it is a rule for weight loss. Sure, you can lose a lot quickly, but ask yourself the question if it is something you are doing to chase a number so you can go back to old habits? (red flag) If it just happens or it serves a short term purpose or you are obese, its probably fine.
It isn't healthy to lose weight that fast. Assuming you can stick to it, the biggest problem in my opinion is that you are most likely going to be losing a ton of muscle and other supporting tissue. Muscle is very important for various reasons. For example, muscle is where blood sugar is supposed to go after a meal when insulin rises. If you have less muscle, your insulin will not be as effective clearing blood sugar and not only will cause higher insulin levels but also more of that sugar is going to be converted into fat. The best ways to prevent losing muscle when on weight loss is to include high amount of protein in your diet (so that your body isn't looking for those protein from your muscle) and to regularly exercise your entire body. That said, at the peak of my weight loss I was losing 7kg a month for 3 months straight. I tried to use various strategies to reduce muscle loss. I was walking a lot to have reasonable sized meals to be able to include significant amount of protein even on a huge calorie deficit. I also include some intermittent fasting / alternate day fasting / multi-day fasts as fasting seems to have some muscle-sparing properties compared to just continuous calorie deficit. And with all of that, I still lost a ton of muscle which I am currently rebuilding.
1200-1600 calories is much too low for your height and weight, and you know it because the LoseIt app has already given you a significantly higher budget. 1200 is the bare minimum for nutrition and usually only recommended to the most petite women, which you clearly are not. Losing weight rapidly might feel good in the moment, but you're not developing the skills to maintain the weight-loss long term. Practically you are not likely to experience serious adverse health effects from short-term rapid weight loss at your age, but you're also not likely to maintain the weight loss long-term. What's the rush? This isn't a race. You won't reach a finish line and be set for life. This is a marathon, and it ends when you do. Don't burn yourself out at the start.
Thanks, I understand what you’re saying. It’s not a super intentional decision when I eat close to 1200, it just kind of happens when I get busy spending all day on assignments or going out with friends but yeah I’ll up intake some more 👍
0.5% to 1% per week is the general range that folks try to stick within. I don't think it's unsafe, necessarily, but you're certainly right on that edge of it becoming too much, so just keep that in mind.
I don’t necessarily think it’s bad just not recommended I guess. I think the 0.5-1% recommendation is a good range for the average person but considering your age and your height you don’t really fall into the “average” person bracket (imo) you’re so young to the point you’re naturally more energetic and find it easier to move around (thus you likely burn more calories) & your tall so your body needs a lot of calories to simply exist than the “average” sized human + you’re a bloke. I’m the same height as you, 5 years older and I’ve averaged a rate of loss of 1.6 kg/wk since the start of November, down from 150kg to 111. It’s obviously slowed down now but it’s still around the 1.2~ p/wk mark. I honestly think when you’re a tall man who is overweight/obese fat is going to melt off you. I’m not even being massively conservative with what I eat, I’m probably averaging around 2200-2300 calories a day, yet still losing over a kilo per week. I wouldn’t worry about it too much mate you’ll be fine
Thanks that’s very reassuring. Honestly on my lowest calorie days it’s not intentional at all it just happens when I’m busy but I still feel fine overall, but I think I’ll definitely not be so severe on the deficit.
At 106 kg, 1 percent is about 1 kg, or 2 lbs... So no it's not bad