The weight is seemingly falling off me. Great. But should I be worried ?

[moonsmoonsmoons]

49 years old. Never really dieted before/made the effort to the extent I am currently. Not specifically counting calories:

Dinner/lunch is mostly chicken breast with veg/salad or veg stir fry.
Minimal carbs. Think pasta once every 2 weeks. No bread.
No cakes, crisps, ice cream what so ever
Occasional fun size choc bar
Significantly reduced alcohol
Running 50-60 mins several times a week. This is around 6-8k & 500-650 cals
Some swimming (breast stroke), usually around 40-50 lengths of an olympic size pool.

This weekend I had a curry takeway fri night (poppadums,, chicken tikka (starter size), no rice, spinach side) with a bottle white wine. Sat night was home made tacos (mince/low fat sour cream, minimal cheese & the taco shells. I had about 5 of these), 3 large glasses of wine. Nothing else in the day. Sunday was home made chicken salad and a biscuit. I ran 6k/500 cals and swam 30 lengths. I was fully prepared to have put on today after the wine/curry/tacos. Instead I have lost another pound. This is great but I am beginning to worry something is amiss.

I've recently had full bloods for something that was suspicious. Bloods were all clear.

SW 12stone 10lbs (Jan 31st)
CW 11 stone 9lbs
GW 10 stone 7 lbs

I have never lost weight to this extent but am doing quite a bit of running (gym).

[AmaryllisNightAndDay]

It just looks like you are in calorie deficit so you are losing weight. This weekend  may be an exception (and I'm not sure that it is if you only ate once during the day) but the effect from just a couple of days of over eating wouldn't be instant and might not show at all if you go back to what you were eating before.

Does your daily diet consists of more than just chicken and veg/salad? If that is all you are having twice a day and nothing else then yes you are likely to be losing weight fast. A stone in 6 weeks is about the maximum healthy rate, you could slow the weight loss down a bit (and keep it more sustainable) by eating a bit more substantially and eating more often but people vary.

[aodirjjd]

if you were really over eating and being very stationary before I don’t think a stone over a month is anything to worry about. It sounds like you are doing loads of exercise!

just make sure whatever you do feels sustainable to you.

[shearwater2]

It's great work, well done. But the thing is, do you plan to do this level of exercise forever, is it sustainable for you? And do you plan to never eat carbs, ice cream, crisps or chocolate again?

Running for an hour several times a week plus swimming and all my usual daily activity I'd be fucking ravenous, particularly with no bread or carbs at all, as I only find protein filling when it is combined with carbohydrates and fibre. If you don't have an appetite or find you can't eat much when significantly increasing exercise then there may be something amiss.

At 49 I would also advise doing weights or weight-bearing activity. And eating 25g to 30g of fibre for gut health and to avoid things like bowel cancer, which usually involves having some whole carbs.

[waistchallenge]

If you mean you drank a whole bottle of wine to yourself, that is concerning and harmful to health regardless of whether one is slim or overweight.

[shearwater2]

If it's a regular occurrence, sure.

I actually found when I did very low carb and low calorie (Very Fast 800) for eight weeks it made me go crazy for alcohol (while doing it- particularly Friday night which was my "night off" for a takeaway and wine) and white carbs and alcohol (when I stopped) in a way that I never had in my life before. I think if your blood sugar and insulin control etc is normally ok, if you do anything too drastic your blood sugar just gets too low generally and your body starts doing anything it can to get it.

[waistchallenge]

I disagree, it's unhealthy and harmful full stop.

[shearwater2]

Well, I'm sure we all do things which feel nice at the time but damage our health from time to time, we have free will and are at liberty to do this. While I don't drink very much at all regularly I can easily drink the equivalent of bottle of wine in an evening, with food and friends, just enjoying myself, chatting, only feeling pleasantly tipsy and with no hangover the the next and perfectly able to do normal activities.

The question here is not whether the OP's drinking habits are healthy or not but whether her weight loss is healthy and to be expected or a concern.

I simply added my experience that cutting carbs drastically actually made me want more alcohol in a way I never had before so wondered if that was a factor here.

[chatenoire]

With that much running, trust me, it's normal ;)

[Candleabra]

Your diet sounds very restrictive and strict so I’m not surprised you’ve lost a lot of weight. If you were losing weight with no dietary changes then that would be more concerning.

[pleasecallmeback]

I doubt if you will be able to keep up such a restrictive diet and intensive exercise regime long term. You're not eating enough carbs for energy. Are you taking calcium supplements for bone strength?

[moonsmoonsmoons]

Thanks for all the replies. I am not feeling particularly hungry at any point in the day. I used to eat a lot, a hell of a lot if left to it. I've lost interest in food generally at the moment. I don't particularly feel restricted food wise. I won't be doing the running into the summer/when the weather is warner, I will switch to light weights in the garden and lots of lake swimming.

The wine is only an issue if I open the bottle !

[moonsmoonsmoons]

@pleasecallmeback I'm not currently taking any supplements

[UnaOfStormhold]

The thing you need to watch for is whether you're losing muscle mass or fat mass - my worry would be that you're losing lots of muscle at that rate, which is bad for your long term health and risks putting you on a spiral where your muscle mass declines, you need less energy to maintain so you find you need to eat less to maintain weight, so you lose more muscle mass and so on down. Lifting heavy weights for low reps, fuelling before and after exercise and keeping a good level of slow release carbs and protein throughout the day is much more sustainable and will protect the muscles and bones you need to stay active and independent for as long as possible.

[easylikeasundaymorn]

@moonsmoonsmoons

Thanks for all the replies. I am not feeling particularly hungry at any point in the day. I used to eat a lot, a hell of a lot if left to it. I've lost interest in food generally at the moment. I don't particularly feel restricted food wise. I won't be doing the running into the summer/when the weather is warner, I will switch to light weights in the garden and lots of lake swimming.

The wine is only an issue if I open the bottle !

Is it worth buying a few smaller bottles so if you get the urge to have a drink you can have 1 without feeling like you may as well have another, and then have to finish the bottle before it goes off (which is my thinking!)
Or switch to something else like g and t or rum and Coke where you can control the measures?
Nothing wrong with having a drink on the weekend but a whole bottle of wine is a lot

[waistchallenge]

OK, I retract my comment regarding alcohol as I must admit I'm "against" it for various complicated reasons which I won't go into here, but which cloud my judgement about it.

It does sound as though this is something you should be keeping an eye on and revert to GP if there's doubt at all. A doctor is always happy to investigate weight loss if there's concern over it. Sorry to not be more informative than that. My only other thought is to possibly do a bit of very strict calorie counting (not restricting) and observe whether the figures add up when compared with your energy expenditure.

[genesis92]

I'd just to like to say having a bottle of wine to yourself occasionally is absolutely fine. Many people do this, including myself.

People are so ridiculous on here

[TheMildManneredMilitant]

I'm 42 and doing similar to you - being careful about what I eat, lower carb, less sugar and alcohol, smaller portions. I haven't lost as much but I'm also not doing as much exercise or restricting quite as much. So it sounds plausible but obviously if worried speak to GP etc etc.

(As an aside I'm also amazed after trying various failed 'diets' over the years that eating less and moving more actually works😂).

[Bluegray2]

@waistchallenge

once in a while it isn’t going to do that much, doing it regularly it would be bad for your health

[fleurneige]

Just get your blood sugar checked, just in case.

[HeadNorth]

I don't see that it is worth troubling the GP as there is no mystery here. The OP is restricting her diet and exercising a lot, therefore she has lost weight. What can a GP add that isn't blindingly obvious?

[Loubilou23]

You've lost 15lbs in 7 weeks which is just over 2lb a week, which isn't particularly alarming if you are in a decent calorie deficit. I am 54 and have lost 11.5lbs in just over 5 weeks by having a calorie deficit - I have eaten approximately 1500 calories a day and I exercise/move 1.5-3 hours a day.

I wouldn't be overly worried by this.

[Loubilou23]

Even with a bottle of wine at 500 calories, chicken tikka and poppodoms is probably only about 300-400 calories so 900 in total and if you had chicken salad for lunch at 300 cals that's still a huge deficit at a total of 1200 calories in the day.

[Loubilou23]

@HeadNorth

I don't see that it is worth troubling the GP as there is no mystery here. The OP is restricting her diet and exercising a lot, therefore she has lost weight. What can a GP add that isn't blindingly obvious?

This

[bleughgreen]

It depends on what you ate previously. If you over ate every day and ate shit of course you're going to sustain a good weight loss if you overhaul your diet and are consistent.

[shearwater2]

On the back of this thread I'm going to try and increase my running as it gets lighter and the weather gets better to have a bit of a push with the weight loss and my fitness. In recent years I've been a bit careful with high impact exercise as at one point it was just making me more knackered and stressed, and I was picking up every cold going - as it can just increase cortisol. Then it was just totally counterproductive to weight loss.

I seem to be ok with it though, running half an hour on the treadmill indoors and up to 50 minutes outdoors at the moment, so I could fit in a bit more. My fitness has improved a lot.

I wish I could lose (a bit) of interest in food though. I eat 1700 calories a day, <150g carbs, 30g fibre, 90g+ protein, loads of veg, a bit of fruit. Not many crisps and biscuits but a few, within calories. My TDEE is supposed to be at least 2200 a day and I can eat 2500+ if I'm not careful and still not feel overfull. I have to record everything.