You can lose up to 20 pounds of water weight in one week after modifying your diet and starting an exercise routine. Trinh Le, MPH, RD, claims that up to five pounds of water may be shed in a single day.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), on average, water makes up 60% of an adult's body weight. One study suggests total body water can fluctuate by up to 5% daily. Anecdotal evidence suggests water weight can make a person's weight fluctuate by as much as 1–5 pounds in a single day.
Losing 20 pounds can noticeably alter your appearance. You may see reductions in body fat, a slimmer waistline, and a more toned physique. These changes are often first visible in areas like the face, waist, and thighs. As you lose weight, your clothes will start to fit differently.
It can take anywhere from one day to a week or so to completely lose excess water weight and return to normal. Healthy adults can expect to lose one to five pounds, Schnoll-Sussman notes. "I don't want to see people lose more than 5% of their body weight (in water), then we're pushing dehydration," says Badgett.
To lose weight effectively and safely, aiming to lose 1 to 2 pounds (lbs) per week may be best. This means that losing 20 lbs may take 10 to 20 weeks. To lose weight, people will likely need to follow a healthy diet and get regular exercise. Some popular diets are effective initially but challenging to maintain.
Many people want to lose weight, but before you do, you must know that losing water weight is different from losing fat. Both have the potential to make you look thinner, but they approach weight loss in different ways and have different effects on your health in the long run.
CDC further recommends that you need to lose around 5-10% of your total body weight to notice changes. For instance, if you weigh 170 pounds, you need to lose roughly 8.3-17 pounds to notice a difference.
As you add muscle mass and lose fat, the reading on your bathroom scale may not change much, but your pants will be looser. That's a better mark of progress. Measured around, your waistline should be less than 35 inches if you're a woman or less than 40 inches if you're a man to reduce heart and diabetes risks.
When we begin to lose fat, it doesn't just decrease in one area — fat all over the body begins to slowly melt away, so initially, even though you're losing weight and fat, you may not see or feel much change.
Regular Exercise and Fitness Routines
In addition to her dietary changes, Kelly incorporated regular exercise into her daily routine. Her workout regimen included a mix of cardio, strength training, and flexibility exercises, each of which contributed to her overall fitness and weight loss success.
The rule of thumb, Fernstrom says, is that losing 8 to 10 pounds translates to going down one size. Still, if you lose "up to 15 pounds, you may be OK in your old size," she says. But putting off buying new clothes until you really need them doesn't work for everyone.
Fluid retention, or edema, is when a lot of fluid builds up in the body. This can cause a sudden weight gain of 15 or more pounds.
These beverages include honey-infused lemon water, jeera water, buttermilk or chaas, cinnamon tea, and green tea. When paired with a balanced diet and regular exercise, they can accelerate weight loss effectively.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
While it's possible to drop a lot of weight in one month, we don't recommend it. Anything over 8 pounds is likely water weight that you'll gain back. Crash dieting leads to gaining more weight long-term and slows your metabolism.
If your weight has increased within a day or two, it's unlikely that it's fat. Weight gain caused by fat happens gradually when you consume more calories than you burn off. If the weight is mostly around your tummy, ankles and fingers, the chances are, it's down to water retention.
“Diuretics cause a temporary weight loss due to loss of water, not fat,” says Sheri Berger, RDN, CDCES, owner of Sheri The Plant Strong Dietitian. “In essence, you are losing body water and 'drying yourself out,' which may appear to be weight loss,” adds Andrews.
A good rule of thumb is that people tend to notice your weight loss when you've lost around 10% of your starting weight, so if you started at 250lbs, people will start to notice when you've lost 25lbs. Naturally, the same amount of weight loss can look different on different people.
Losing 5 pounds a week comes to reducing your food intake by 3500 calories over seven days. The value that represents the decrease in calorie intake is known as the calorie deficit. If you want to lose 5 pounds in a week, you will need to reduce your food intake by 17,500 calories, which is a huge calorie deficit.