Water Weight

How can I lose water weight? I've been dieting & excercising since mid April & have only managed to lose 17.4lbs. I have not been able to lose more than 2.8lbs p/wk & I was only able to pull that off twice.

Here's the shocker.. I'm 4'11" & now weigh 187.2 but had started at 204.6lbs. lol! Yes I know I'm huge. hehe!

Thanks in advance!

 

17.4 lbs in two months is awesome!  I don't think you should lose any faster than that, honestly.  Anyway, if it's just water weight you're interested in dropping, try swimming or adding some low-carb days during your week (just make sure you don't overdo it on days you do eat carbs).

Again, you're doing great!

Curious - why do you care about losing water weight? When people talk about water weight, they are describing the weight that comes and goes, regardless of fat lost or gained - it's usually based on the food and drink intake from yesterday, as opposed to actual "real" weight lost.  So losing it is kinda meaningless, because it can just come back. Whereas, if you are at a calorie deficit, the fat should keep coming off.

Also, 1-2 pounds per week is the recommended "safe" weight loss, because the body can only metabolize so much fat in a certain time period, so don't worry about speeding it up - you are doing great so far!

Thanks for the replies... To be honest I'm in a weightloss competition at work. I am a fulltime working mother of 5 & really need the $. That was my motivation but now that I feel so great & am looking quite nice I have made myself mini goals till I've lost my 100lbs. I know I've been losing a good amount to ensure I don't gain it back & then some but for now I would like to lose more p/wk. I know everyone's body is different & size does matter but some people have lost 6-8lbs per week & I have no idea how it's being done. I know that is not healthy but that $ could have really come in handy for the family.

If you are up against 300+ pound men, you don't have a very good chance no matter what you do.  Remember that everyone looses much more in the first couple of weeks of a diet than they will after that, so if this is just starting off, the numbers don't mean a lot. 

You have to make a decision here.  You can only burn about 1% of your body weight in fat a week.  That works out to less than two pounds a week for you.  If you losemore, it will come from muscle.  Muscle burns calories, fat does not.  So if you lose a bunch of muscle, you will be far more likely to gain the weight you lose back and then some because you won't need as many calories to survive as you did.  You can prevent a lot of the muscle loss by weight training, but then you don't lose as much weight.  So, the decision you have to make is, is it more important to win or be healthy?  It is possible that many of the big losers will lose motivation and fall by the wayside allowing the tortoise to beat out the hares, but there is no guarantee.  The rebound weight gain after the contest if you go about this in an unhealthy manner is pretty much guaranteed though.

Thank you clharr! With what you said my tortoise booty will keep plugging away as I have continued to do. There are a few men in that are about 290-250 & yes have lost significant weight which I expected & there are also a few females from 250-220 that have done the same. What I don't understand is we're 2½mos into this & they continue to lose 4-8lbs per week.   I have huge goals & competition or not I will meet them. I'm determined. I did feel like not doing anything this morning but I got my lazy butt up & did my Biggest Loser workout. I was beat afterwards but felt great that I got up & did it. Thanks again!

 

That is great.  There are other benefits to loosing slowly too.  People who lose a lot of weight fast get saggy skin all over their bodies.  Loosing slowly allows the skin to shrink along with the rest of the body and you will look a lot better.  Exercise also helps your shape improve as you lose.

Good work on keeping up your workouts.  It will get easier as it becomes more of a habit.  Be sure to get several videos to keep your workout varied so you don't become bored.  Focus on building healthy eating habits.  You will probably take almost a year to reach your goal.  You can't eat unhealthy that long.  And after you reach your goal, you have to keep those habits going or you will gain it back.  Your old habits are what got you to 204 and they will get you there again if you go back to them.  And remember, no matter who wins the contest at your work, YOU will win the contest of life if you come out of this with better health.

Hey... I thought i would check in on ur water weight question....

DRINK WATER!!!!

I know.. it sounds wierd, but the best way to retain less water is to drink more water! If you retain an extreme amount, you might want to bring it up at ur next dr. visit because there are pills that help you retain less. Try upping your water intake first! About losing lbs per week... ur at a healthy rate.... Again if you drink more water this may help. Just wondering... whats ur calorie intake per day?

This is gonna sound kinda mean...but maybe your competition is cutting calories too far and they'll get frustrated and give up and lose in the end! Ha! That happened during a weight loss contest at the office I used to work at. This one guy was eating like, an egg for breakfast and a can of tuna for lunch and skipping dinner. He lost like, 30 lbs in a week and gained it all back and more by the time the contest was over.

Azmami, I have the same program where I work. It's called the Tangerine program and you get paid for loosing weight. We weight in on July 18th and I'm determined to loose 7 more pounds because we need the money too! So I figure out how much I need to loose to get the amount of money that we need. It pushes me to work harder at it even though it is a very bad way to look at it. I am not starving myself or anything like that; I am trying to do it the healthy way.

It sounds like you are doing a great job already! I would just keep doing what you are doing.

Kwudell- My calorie intake @ sedentary level is 1200 cals. With light activity I should be consuming 1450 cals. I did both because from 8-5 i'm at a desk, when I get home It's cleaning up, laundry, spending time with kids & making dinner. I try to excercise in the morning & if I can't, I do it in the evening. There are days that "something" comes up & I don't get any excercise in. On the good days I work out or walk for 1hr in the am & do 1hr cardio in the evening. I also have bad days like today. I worked out this morn till about 7:15 & I had to shower & get ready for work to be here by 8. Needless to say I was almost running late so I grabbed a banana before running out the door. I also did not prepare anything for lunch because I was supposed to go home for lunch but my DD has some kind of eye infection & now my lunch hr is going to be spent taking her to the doc but not till 330. So I ate my banana for breakfast & thank God I had 1 piece of oven roasted turkey in the fridge & bread left over from yesterday. With that I've only eaten 271cals today.  I will have to work extra hard at making my meals & packaging them the night before. I know the low cal intake is hurting me more than helping. So wish me luck on preparing ahead of time.

Nautrallyd-Not mean at all. I completely understand what you mean. I heard a few comments where someone was saying to another "I bet you'll be glad when you're able to eat solid food again huh?" Of course that person didn't aprreciate that at all.. Yikes, I stayed away from that storm hehe!

Kekri84-Good luck on the program, sounds like you're doing great!!! We've gone this far & we can do a heck of alot more  Push it out girl!!! Get that money! hehe... Thank you for all your responses!!!

Two pounds a week is a fairly HIGH weight-loss weight! You really don't need to worry about your progress - you're doing fantastically. The best way to make sure you don't have extra water-weight is to drink a LOT of water so that you're well-hydrated, and to watch your salt intake. Keep it under the RDI and you should be fine.

Thank You!! I'm taking all of your advice & will keep drinking my water like a mad woman.

i cant believe no one has said this yet- but cut out as much sodium as you can.

sodium makes your body retain water- try to eat fresh- produce and so on and stay away from anything boxed or processed of rozen dinners, anything like that.

also- yes- you must drink alot of water to flush out your system. you should be able to see your real wight aside the water weight in a day or so

Is your weight loss challenge based on percentage of weight lost or actual pounds?  I was on a weight loss challenge sponsored by our wellness team at work and it was based on percentage.  That meant that someone such as you had a fighting chance agains someone who was more then 100 pounds overweight.

As many have stated, your current weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week is awesome and healthy!  Morbidly obese people can lose 5+ pounds per week because of the massive amounts of water their bodies are storing.

I started out at 400+ pounds and it wasn't unusual for me to have weeks, in the beginning, when I'd lose 10 or 12 pounds.  Now that I'm down to my last 30 pounds, while still maintaining my 1,200 calories per day and my daily workouts, I'm lucky to lose a half pound per week.

Keep up the good work and check with whomever is running your competition to see if they are going by percentage or actual weight.  You could very well be in the top percentage.

Good luck!  With five kids you could use it!!!

 

With the weight loss program, you get paid $3 for every pound lost, $15 for maintaining your weight, and zero if you gain. Then you are on a team. 1=$50 per person, 2=$30 per person, 3=$20 per person, and 4=$10 per person if your team places in any of these. So the pay outs are very good! It doesn't cost anything to join it.

I do try to watch my sodium intake but I have to admit, in the beginning of the competition I wasn't. I was too busy watching my calorie & water intake & nothing else.. This past month½ is when I really started to crack down on everything. WOW! With that confession I think I scrued myself over in the beginning...

Kaufmkk- 1st off I would like to say a BIG CONGRATS to you on your weightloss!!! Our competition is based on % lost & I'm in 7th place with a loss of 8.5%. 6th place is 8.71%.. The top 3 are 2@13.% & 1@12%. Plus I'm starting to get cramps right now so I don't think this weigh-in is going to be a good one  nnnnnooooooo!!!!!!! For our competition each person paid $60 bringing the pot to about $1300, well when the owner found out what we were doing he was so impressed that he said he would match dollar for dollar. He also spread it out to make 10place winners so that when a few people pulled ahead the others (like me) wouln't get discouraged. Isnt that great??!!!

p.s. I have 4 kids not 5 loL! I went back to my original post & saw that I put 5. YIKES!!! I have 4 all under the age of 9...Pretty swell huh? hahaha!!!

Try adding fresh lemon to your water,  lemon is a natural diuretic so it helps your body purge the excess fluids more quickly and it adds a great fresh burst to your drink.   And I have found that it worked as well as the pills that the Dr. gave me. The only change that I made to my diet was increasing my water intake to 64 oz per day with half a lemon in each 32 oz bottle and I am loosing 3 to 4 pounds per week steadily.

From what I've read the suggestions about drinking a lot of water is very very important to flush the fat and toxins out as you loose.  My daughter did a weight lose program too through a reputable source.  When she worked really hard doing faux finishing her weight loss slowed and they upped her calories so she would loose.  The body will hold on to the weight if you cut back too much and then horde the extra you eat to store up for that next starvation round.  So as is suggested loose a couple of pounds a week.  You'll be happier for it. 

Emmiec-I will definitely put lemon in my water. As a matter of fact I have a bag of them that I hadn't used. Monday is my weigh-in & I will let you all know how I did.

Soontobegrandma-Thanks for the info. Through out the whole competition I have not gained weight. The worst I did was staying the same from one week to the next. My best losses have been 2.8lbs p/wk but that has only been a few times inlcuding last week. Other than that I lose 1.4-2.4lbs p/wk. So I know I'm doing ok, I just wanted to see if I could lose more like everyone else that puts up big #'s.. hehe!

Thank you all for your support, suggestion & comments!!! My puter at home is on the fritz so I will let you all know Monday morning how I did... Good luck to you all & WORK IT! WORK IT! WORK IT!!

 

If you appear to have a lot of fluid, it may be that you are experiencing the result of food allergies. I was not able to lose weight until I got rid of my food allergies and I eat 6 - 300 cal meals per day. I now go for a 1/2-1 hr walk per day with my dogs, eat foods that don't give me allergy reactions, and I typically lose upwards of 2.5-3 lbs per week. Before that, I could work out and diet something fierce and absolutely nothing would happen. Make sure to get more than one opinion on the potential for food allergies. The allergist that was closer to right for me used the actual foods and other items themselves instead of derivatives.