Harbingers of spring — birds singing, trees blossoming, hope in the air and for many people, the desire to lose weight and get fit. Once you kick off a healthy weight-loss plan, physical and mental changes soon begin, and it’s not just about numbers on a scale. Here’s what to expect during the first month of your diet, and expert tips to keep momentum going strong into summer — and beyond.
[See: 15 Best Weight-Loss Diets at a Glance.]
First Comes the Honeymoon
It’s actually easiest to lose weight at the start of your diet, so the early phase can offer the most obvious reinforcement. “There’s a certain amount of pride and excitement that comes along with making healthy changes,” says Graham Thomas, a co-investigator at the National Weight Control Registry. “That’s something that folks can feel very good about, making improvements to diet and physical activity — assuming folks are using healthy strategies for losing the weight in the first place.” Choosing a sustainable eating plan that’s compatible with your lifestyle is key, he says.
A weekly weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds is considered safe and realistic for people, although that depends on their personal baseline. “If you’re focusing on the first four weeks, for the heaviest individuals, weight loss can be much faster than that,” Thomas says. “You can see as much as 5 pounds per week in the first couple of weeks, and that can be completely normal.”
While a minority of people don’t respond to significant changes in their diets, most should start seeing results. “If you’re not seeing at least a pound [weekly] of weight loss in those early weeks, it’s simply information telling you that bigger changes are needed in order to meet your weight-loss goals,” says Thomas, who is an associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University.
You may also reap immediate bonus benefits to your well-being. Sleep, activity, mood and energy all tend to improve as you exercise and eat in a healthier way, says Dr. Angela Fitch, an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
Men have the edge for early weight loss (unfair but true). Hormonal differences drive this gender gap, explains Fitch, who is a trustee on the board of the Obesity Medicine Association. If a man and a woman both adjust their lifestyles, she says, the male’s combination of higher testosterone levels, greater muscle mass and faster metabolism gives him the advantage.
Early Tweaks
Your body will tell you if you’re taking weight loss too fast, or not going about it in the healthiest way. For instance, fad or crash diets won’t bring about the results you want, Fitch says: “If you go on a very restrictive eating plan, you’re going to see more radical effects, like people getting dizzy or having some issues because they’re not getting enough electrolytes and their diet isn’t balanced enough to provide all the nutrients they need for that level of dietary change.”
Even healthy changes might cause minor physical reactions as you adjust to new habits. For example, Thomas says, if you’re used to drinking sugar-sweetened caffeinated beverages such as soda or coffee drinks throughout the day, making dramatic cuts to reduce your sugar intake will lead to caffeine withdrawal and you’ll feel tired at first. And craving foods you’ve always loved is one of the challenges of a new diet.
A word of caution: “The biggest side effect the first month from making some changes is gastrointestinal,” Fitch says. “The more you’re increasing your intake of vegetables and fruit in particular — which is a successful way to lose weight — you’re eating more fiber now and less processed sugar. And when you do that, you see sometimes more gas and gastrointestinal bloating, if you will.”
[See: 8 Food Trends Nutrition Experts Pray Will Never Return.]
An early hurdle is the body’s tendency to push back against dieting efforts. “People make rather drastic changes to their physical activity and/or dietary changes — and then get discouraged after a couple weeks when they don’t see results,” Fitch says. Someone who loses 2 to 3 weekly pounds at first, but only 1 pound or less the following weeks, might see this as diminishing returns. However, she says, that’s just a normal physiological response to weight loss.
“The fact of the matter is our bodies aren’t designed to lose weight,” Fitch explains. “They’re designed to gain weight.” Even as you attempt to take off pounds, she says, “a whole cascade of physiological responses take over to try to stop that process from happening.”
Hunger-related hormones kick in when the body registers weight loss. Leptin, which cuts appetite by letting the brain know you’re full, decreases. Meanwhile, the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger, increases — prompting you to eat more to boost fat storage in your body. “If you can understand it, you can try to work to overcome it,” Fitch says.
Self-Monitoring for Success
Want to start an argument at the [smoothie] bar? Tell people how often they should step on the scale. Many experts recommend daily weighing at home, although weekly weigh-ins are OK for people who are more reluctant. But years of weight-loss research show that self-monitoring is key to sustained weight loss, Thomas says.
[See: How to Weigh Yourself the Right Way.]
Self-monitoring tools can be as simple as a hardcover diary and paperback calorie reference book, or they can extend to online tools and apps. Whatever approach you choose, Thomas says, sticking with it is what matters. However, he adds, electronic tools can make monitoring easier and more interesting.
“You can scan barcodes on packaged food and get feedback on the proportion of carbs, fat, protein in your diet,” Thomas says. “You can track all sorts of micronutrients, if that’s something you’re interested in. You can get progress across the day toward specific goals [like sticking to a 1,200-calorie diet.]” The trick is entering the foods you eat in real time or as soon as possible, he says, rather than waiting until the end of the day and relying on memory. That way you can self-adjust throughout the day.
More Good Signs
Don’t expect belly fat to fade immediately. “Usually the last thing to go is your stomach, which is the part that you want to go first,” Fitch says. “It takes perseverance.” A pleasant surprise could be in store for some people, however. “Excess body fat is inflammatory,” she explains. Chemicals released may cause joint and muscle pain. Losing weight can help ease that pain, she says.
Look up from the scale early and often. You might see a trimmer waistline, better physique and a gain in muscle mass, Fitch says. If you’ve gained 2 pounds of muscle but lost 2 pounds of fat, she points out, that won’t show up on the scale but you’ve still come out ahead.
More from U.S. News
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1-Month Mark: How to Safely, Healthfully Reach Your Weight-Loss Goal originally appeared on usnews.com
