I lost 1.6 pounds in one day by restricting my food

[alan_fra]

Hi, I lost this much weight since yesterday. In the morning I had a slice of bread with a little peanut butter. At 1 pm a medium donut with jam on the inside. Then at home at 5 pm a glass and a half of yogurt with a slice of bread. An hour later a glass of milk with 2 scoops of oatmeal and some raisins. I also exercised on the elliptical trainer at around 4 pm for 7 km and burned over 2100 kj. I'm curious how much of this weight loss was fat loss and how much was muscle loss ? I surely don't want to lose any muscle and this weight loss was faster than I had planned. Today I'm eating more calories to not loss the weight as fast as I'm concerned about losing muscle. I also didn't weightlift at all yesterday. And throughout the entire day yesterday I felt like I was starving and my energy felt at a low level

Edited May 23 by alan_fra

[DoctorOfCrush]

Daily weight shifts are typically more related to things like fluctuations in water weight as well as a depletion of muscle glycogen stores. You need to follow the trend over time. 

What you described above doesn’t sound sustainable long term, especially if you plan on maintaining any level of performance. The caloric restriction is just too great. In general, if you want to lose weight while maintaining muscle, the key is getting enough protein (1 gram per pound of BW per day is a common recommendation), timing more of your carbs around workouts, and keeping an eye on fat intake. The day you laid out above includes very little protein. 

As of late, I’ve been following a carb cycling diet, and I’ve dropped 6 pounds in two weeks while also feeling energized and hitting multiple PRs in the gym. 

[alan_fra]

6 minutes ago, DoctorOfCrush said:

Daily weight shifts are typically more related to things like fluctuations in water weight as well as a depletion of muscle glycogen stores. You need to follow the trend over time. 

What you described above doesn’t sound sustainable long term, especially if you plan on maintaining any level of performance. The caloric restriction is just too great. In general, if you want to lose weight while maintaining muscle, the key is getting enough protein (1 gram per pound of BW per day is a common recommendation), timing more of your carbs around workouts, and keeping an eye on fat intake. The day you laid out above includes very little protein. 

As of late, I’ve been following a carb cycling diet, and I’ve dropped 6 pounds in two weeks while also feeling energized and hitting multiple PRs in the gym. 

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I was feeling very weak and consequently my exercise on the elliptical trainer was erratic because I had to take twice as many breaks to recover as I simply didn't have as much energy to proceed with the usual vigorousness. I think I consumed 35 grams of protein yesterday which is should be about 194 grams since I weigh that much now in pounds. 

Great job on dropping weight and doing PRs. That's something that I want to do also  , very much

[DoctorOfCrush]

Yeah, having your protein that low while in a caloric deficit would result in muscle loss over time. 

For me, I focus on getting my protein in first and foremost, then sorting out my carbs, then dealing with fat. If something throws me off of the latter two, I still make every effort to make sure I have the first one sorted out for the day. 

[AllMight_]

Seems like less water retention. Our body can only hold on to as much water as certain amounts of food we eat. For example, if we are used to eating 3000kcal/day and we cut back to 2000kcal/day, then naturally, we start dropping weight quickly, because of water retention. like @DoctorOfCrush said, you'll need to follow trends over time, a minimum of a3-4 weeks, to really get accurate data. 

I eat low carb most of my week, and the days I don't, I jump up 3-5lbs because of the extra glycogen and water retention.
 
Hope this helps

[degradated]

1 hour ago, alan_fra said:

Hi, I lost this much weight since yesterday. In the morning I had a slice of bread with a little peanut butter. At 1 pm a medium donut with jam on the inside. Then at home at 5 pm a glass and a half of yogurt with a slice of bread. An hour later a glass of milk with 2 scoops of oatmeal and some raisins. I also exercised on the elliptical trainer at around 4 pm for 7 km and burned over 2100 kj. I'm curious how much of this weight loss was fat loss and how much was muscle loss ? I surely don't want to lose any muscle and this weight loss was faster than I had planned. Today I'm eating more calories to not loss the weight as fast as I'm concerned about losing muscle. I also didn't weightlift at all yesterday. And throughout the entire day yesterday I felt like I was starving and my energy felt at a low level

Like @DoctorOfCrush mentioned (who hit the nail on the head), it's likely water weight and other fluctuations. It would be best to measure your weight daily at the same time and chart out the data over a week or month. Carb cycling is sustainable but fasting the way you did probably isn't. Good luck!

[Climber028]

Your bodyweight will fluctuate 1% to 2% day to day and is mostly due to changes in retained water and undigested food. You can't actually lose 1.6lbs of fat or muscle in a day, the max fat loss per day is around 150 grams but even this is only in pretty extreme cases

[alan_fra]

2 hours ago, Climber028 said:

Your bodyweight will fluctuate 1% to 2% day to day and is mostly due to changes in retained water and undigested food. You can't actually lose 1.6lbs of fat or muscle in a day, the max fat loss per day is around 150 grams but even this is only in pretty extreme cases

That's a big relief that I can't actually lose that much muscle  

[Climber028]

17 minutes ago, alan_fra said:

That's a big relief that I can't actually lose that much muscle  

If you are concerned about muscle then you need to be eating a lot more protein and a lot less bread and sugar

[alan_fra]

Today I got concerned over my low protein intake yesterday so in an attempt to make up for it... Started the morning at 7 am with 60 gram whey protein , then 3 hours later for early lunch has two slice rye bread with 250 grams of ground pork patty. Then at 1 pm had a glass of milk with two scoops of oats and some raisins. At 4 pm it was another 60 grams whey. Then the elliptical trainer for over 10 km and 3000 kj. After that I weighed in at 193.4 , a whole.4 pounds less than morning weight so still lost weight despite the high protein intake. Then for dinner had a chicken thigh and leg , one scoop potato and salad. Earlier I did 3 sets of bench press but was weak in that the third set was only 50 reps but the first 2 75 and usually like 2 months ago I could do the full 75 on every set but then I took two months off bench press. I felt ok doing the cardio though and not weak. At least my stomach is flatter and has less fat layers

[dubyagrip]

Bro, your training baffles me.

3x75 bench press workout?

Why?

[DoctorOfCrush]

2 minutes ago, alan_fra said:

Today I got concerned over my low protein intake yesterday so in an attempt to make up for it... Started the morning at 7 am with 60 gram whey protein , then 3 hours later for early lunch has two slice rye bread with 250 grams of ground pork patty. Then at 1 pm had a glass of milk with two scoops of oats and some raisins. At 4 pm it was another 60 grams whey. Then the elliptical trainer for over 10 km and 3000 kj. After that I weighed in at 193.4 , a whole.4 pounds less than morning weight so still lost weight despite the high protein intake. Then for dinner had a chicken thigh and leg , one scoop potato and salad. Earlier I did 3 sets of bench press but was weak in that the third set was only 50 reps but the first 2 75 and usually like 2 months ago I could do the full 75 on every set but then I took two months off bench press. I felt ok doing the cardio though and not weak. At least my stomach is flatter and has less fat layers

I think you're going to have to shift your mindset a bit about how quickly you will see results or how much to read into certain changes. Again, quick shifts in weight, especially those from day-to-day or during the day, come from things like water or, heck, even a large dump to be honest. 

In order to get an idea of whether changes you are instituting are having an effect, you need to see a trend over a longer period of time. This means weighing yourself every day at the same time, preferably in the morning before you eat. That's just the best way to mitigate confounding factors. 

[Blacksmith513]

I can and do  put on 5lbs easy just binging on pizza and beer. But I lose it quick. It’s water weight mainly. I’m not a nutritionist but you want to focus more on body fat than actual weight.

 

when I’m focused on my weight I usually pick a day and weigh my self at the same time every week on that day. 

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, dubyagrip said:

3x75 bench press workout

Yeah, that's like doing sets of 75 with a Guide or Sport when you can close a 3.  I think most folks would recommend you do fewer reps, closer to your one-rep max.  You will be hard pressed (pun intended) to find people who recommend sets of 75 reps in almost anything.  I mean, that is more cardio than anything else.  You would probably get almost as much out of just doing the motion your hands and body would make 75 times without even bothering with the barbell at all.

Edited May 23 by Vinnie

[Jared P]

As others have stated, you'll want to track your weight over a period of multiple weeks or even indefinitely, in tandem with macro / calorie tracking, in order to determine what your weight fluctuation actually means. One day's weight measurement isn't a meaningful result.

I personally weigh myself at the same time every morning for consistency (first thing out of bed, in a fasted state), and keep a record of the daily result, calculating the 7-day average each week. I aim for around 1 lb per week (using the week's average) weight loss / gain during a cut / bulk respectively, as a general guideline - and make adjustments to the diet and training from there based on what my goals are.

Edited May 24 by Jared P

[alan_fra]

8 hours ago, dubyagrip said:

Bro, your training baffles me.

3x75 bench press workout?

Why?

This is mostly a warmup for the arms and chest to get the blood pumping. I was using 15kg dumbbells for 75 reps. Then I proceed usually to like 26 kg weights for around 3 sets of 25. Then to 30 kg or 33 kg for maybe 10 to 12 reps of 3 sets. That's a full workout but yesterday I quit prematurely because the strength was not all there. Lately though I've added 37 kg dumbbell bench for up to 7 reps 3 sets. I might change the initial 15 kg sets and just start with 26 kg weights. Keep in mind when I first started I only did 10 kg and 15kg bench sets for several months because I didn't have any other weights so it became a habit. At that period I would do like 1000 reps of 10 kg bench total. 

Edited May 24 by alan_fra