Why am I losing weight so fast? I should be happy but I'm concerned

Thanks for your response.

I don't mean to argue, so please forgive me if it comes across as such. I don't believe I will bounce back to my original weight after I've reached my target weight as this is more of a lifestyle change. I used to eat junk all the time- pizzas, burgers, fried chicken, coca-cola. Used to have alcohol atleast thrice a week. While I'm not going to continue the same diet once I reach my target weight, I am going to eat much healthier, maybe have a dessert yes but just once a week. Other than the weight loss, I find myself feeling much healthier and happier so I would like to maintain that.

Oh, and yes, I will be joining the gym next month so I'm sure that would help as well.

Your thoughts?

Not at all! You know yourself best and you're the one who makes the decision at the end of the day. I ipartly responding to others on this thread too who mentioned Calories in vs calories out.

All of those changes are definitely healthy and I believe you won't regain the weight even if you 'loosen up' your diet a bit. I was just pointing out that metabolism is a bit reactionary so if you were to return to your old habits after a fad diet, then you'd probably be worse off.

Congratulations on your progress! It's really really great that you are focused on diet as opposed to exercising first and that you're reaping all the other benefits of this lifestyle. This should keep you motivated much better than a target number.

Of course, exercise has massive benefits, but it's best not to focus on weight loss because that can often trip people up. Exercise is not a very efficient way of losing weight; what it is great at is making you feel good, confident, fit, motivated and perform better in all aspects of life. I don't know about you, but that sounds a heck of a lot better than simply shedding a couple of pounds?

"Calories in vs calories out" is 98% BS. It's a poor application of physics to biology. Whilst, strictly speaking, if you take in less energy than your metabolic base rate then you will technically lose weight. However, the body is very flipping efficient and you would have to restrict your diet to a stupid amount of calories to do that.

Sorry if I'm being stupid, I've just had a few confidence issues with my weight and am so encouraged at the weight loss I've had this month, also very proud of my self-control.

What if I reduce my calorie intake even further to say 800 calories? That should help to maintain the rate of weight loss right, because then my body will have to re-adjust itself again

Ok lets imagine that paragraph made any sense

How exactly do people lose weight, if it's not because of a calorific deficit

Yep I understand what you mean but I think they mean that people restrict to crazy amounts in order to keep the caloric deficit going.

Because the body slows the metabolism so much in order to reduce the need for calories (say if someone is consuming around 1000 a day) so the body will only need around 1000 - by sacrificing other functions e.g menstrual cycle in females. But then the person sees that the weight LOSS has stopped because their body has adjusted to living on 1000 cals so they restrict more to trigger weight loss again. Then their body has to figure out an even slower metabolism and smaller body mass to survive on this new amount. So both of you are right, I believe :3

Yep I understand what you mean but I think they mean that people restrict to crazy amounts in order to keep the caloric deficit going.

Because the body slows the metabolism so much in order to reduce the need for calories (say if someone is consuming around 1000 a day) so the body will only need around 1000 - by sacrificing other functions e.g menstrual cycle in females. But then the person sees that the weight LOSS has stopped because their body has adjusted to living on 1000 cals so they restrict more to trigger weight loss again. Then their body has to figure out an even slower metabolism and smaller body mass to survive on this new amount. So both of you are right, I believe :3

Ok say I was to lose 10kg of my bodyweight, so that I'd be ~80kg, my maintenance calories would drop from ~3000, to around 2500 as I have less metabolically active cells in my body to maintain and I'm lighter, so I'm easier to move and hence require less calories overall. Than in effect is how that works, the smaller you are, the less you need to eat.

If I was to lose a further 15kg and become 65kg, I'd be drastically underweight and that is when the phenomenon you're referring to as starvation mode occurs, when the body has few no fat stores left and there is still a calorific deficit, that is when the body starts shutting down key cycles as seen in starvation mode. This phenomenon is also seen in people who are really ill and professional athletes - people don't have enough energy to do key things

So yes what you've said is correct, but only at the extremes

This isn't quite right. Weight loss slows down over time because of the weight lost! A lighter body requires less energy to move and maintain - people often do not progressively reduce their energy intake to compensate for this decrease in energy expenditure and thus their weight loss begins to plateau. Maintaining muscle mass can keep energy expenditure high, but excessive weight training during energy restriction can actually lead to muscle loss, rather than maintenance, as there is insufficient energy to repair the microtrauma caused by training, let alone increase muscle mass.

Ok say I was to lose 10kg of my bodyweight, so that I'd be ~80kg, my maintenance calories would drop from ~3000, to around 2500 as I have less metabolically active cells in my body to maintain and I'm lighter, so I'm easier to move and hence require less calories overall. Than in effect is how that works, the smaller you are, the less you need to eat.

If I was to lose a further 15kg and become 65kg, I'd be drastically underweight and that is when the phenomenon you're referring to as starvation mode occurs, when the body has few no fat stores left and there is still a calorific deficit, that is when the body starts shutting down key cycles as seen in starvation mode. This phenomenon is also seen in people who are really ill and professional athletes - people don't have enough energy to do key things

So yes what you've said is correct, but only at the extremes

Ok lets imagine that paragraph made any sense

How exactly do people lose weight, if it's not because of a calorific deficit

89.0 kg today! First time in 2 years that I've gone under 90, I think I've earned a pizza this weekend :P