Many people lose 1 to 2 kg (2 to 4 lb) in the first week of a diet and get super excited. In week two, the pace drops a lot, and the doubt arrives: "has it stopped working?". It hasn't. The beginning is just different.
What goes first
Your body stores carbs in the liver and muscles, always together with water. When you start eating less, that store is used first, and the water leaves with it. That makes the scale drop fast, faster than fat is actually leaving.
Eating less salt and fewer processed foods in the first days also helps, because it reduces fluid retention.
After the first week
Once that store settles, the scale starts following the real pace of fat loss, which is slower and steadier. For most people, something between 0.4 and 0.8 kg (about 1 to 2 lb) a week is a healthy pace.
Sometimes the first week goes up
If you start working out at the same time, the scale may go up a little in the first week, because new muscle work holds water to recover. That's normal too, and it passes.
The first week gives you the motivation. The slower weeks after it are the ones that change your body.
This content is for information only and doesn't replace advice from a doctor or dietitian.
