Week One

[whole.30.first.timer]

I started Whole30 on April 30, and today, May 7, I weighed in at 10 pounds lighter than when I had started. I've been eating a lot, don't feel like I'm depriving myself from food, and my energy is higher. I just can't imagine losing 10 pounds in a week is healthy. Help please! Need some advice

 

For reference:

I'm 5 foot 6, started at 172.6, and am now 162.6

I walk 3-4 miles a day

[jmcbn]

First off ten pounds in a week will not all be fat - there'll be a lot of fluid and/or inflammation at play there and things will likely start to settle down as time goes on, your body adjusts, and your hormones level out... And since weight loss is not linear, and naturally weight fluctuates from day to day you may well have seen a different result yesterday, or tomorrow if you decided to weigh again.

Secondly, no weighing is as much of a rule as not eating grains, or not drinking alcohol for the reasons I've stated above.

As for offering you help, we'd really need some indication of what you've been eating over the past 3-4 days to see what tweaks need to be made, so if you could list ou your food/drink intake along with activity levels we can start from there.

As an aside: Generally we'd edit this type of post to remove your reference to your weightloss but I'm opting to leave this one as is for reference purposes.

[whole.30.first.timer]

I know you aren't supposed to weigh in, but my clothes just felt different so I weighed in just to know. I didn't drink alcohol before but was eating a lot of carbs. 

Wednesday:
Breakfast: 2 bananas, pistachios

Lunch: grilled chicken breast

Dinner: hamburger patty, 1/2 baked potato

Thursday:

Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, pistachios

Lunch: 2 hamburger patties

Snack: larabar, grapes

Dinner: baked potato

Friday:

Breakfast: turkey and grapes

Lunch: 2 hamburger patties

Dinner: beef fajita meat, grapes, 4 pieces of sliced turkey

I am a VERY picky eater so it is difficult for me to find things that I like, but when I do I eat a lot of it. Thank you for your help!

[ShannonM816]

Have you seen the meal template? You'll have the best results if you make your meals match the template. All your meals, even breakfast. You're hardly eating any vegetables at all, and really, you should be eating more vegetables than anything else. You're not adding fat to most of your meals, and you need fat, plus it's the easiest way to bump up the calories in your meals.

Make sure you have 1-2 palm-sized portions of protein in every meal, that's the length, width, and height of your palm, or if eggs are your only protein, have as many whole eggs as you can hold in one hand, which is probably three or four.

Have 1-2 thumb-sized portions of fat at each meal, in addition to whatever you cook in, as much of that stays in the pan and isn't consumed, or have a half to a whole avocado, or a heaping handful or two of olives or coconut flakes, or 1/3 to 1/2 of a can of full fat coconut milk, or a closed handful of nuts or seeds. 

Then, fill your plate up with vegetables. Any vegetables you like -- we usually tell people to start out with one fist-sized serving of starchy vegetable per day, but since you're concerned about losing weight too quickly, you might want to start with a couple of servings a day, as they're some of the most calorie dense vegetables you can choose. If there's only two or three vegetables you know you like, have those at each meal (and also maybe start trying some new ones every week, and keep trying new ones over and over, cooked in different ways, and see if you can find ways that you like them). 

Occasionally, have some fruit if you want to, but you don't ever have to. Don't eat fruit on its own, always make it part of a meal, so it has less impact on blood sugar. Try to limit it to not more than two servings a day, where a serving is about the size of your closed fist.

Larabars should be for emergencies only. If you know you're going to be out and about and think you may need food between meals, take pouches of tuna or olives, carrots or celery, hard boiled eggs, individual containers of premade guacamole. 

[whole.30.first.timer]

Thank you so much! That is great advice! It is clear I'm new at this :/