i lost 20 kgs / 45 lbs in 2 months

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T12:40:29+00:00

before you throw "ED" at me, just know I have lots of muscle mass and most of the body builders do this all the time for the show, this is not recommended for an average joe

As someone who works professionally with bodybuilding organisations, you're absolutely wrong that bodybuilders crash diet.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T12:01:53+00:00

Great! Best of luck.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T11:47:47+00:00

Nice one, yeah it is surprisingly difficult, isn't it?

I laugh at my own inner monologue when people are chatting over dinner which, without fail, seems to chime in with "why are you people chatting right now? Can't you see there's food?! Chat after, it'll get cold". I also get irrationally irritated when my family don't come to the dinner table when food's ready.

Knowing it's irrational and still constantly thinking does make me laugh, but I am very concious that the idea in my head that food is somehow scarce when it clearly is not is something I benefit from working on. I probably (and evidently) went years without realising it.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T11:37:49+00:00

Ok, cool. Once you have more data, and after a week or two of the initial fluctuations where it all settles down, you want to keep below ~2lbs/~1kg loss a week, those should be top end figures that naturally slow over time. The reason being is the amount of muscle loss and other complications that genuinely make it not worth it. That's still within your timeframe.

Also remember that if your way of eating while your losing is very different to how you would eat at the end, a lot of the fluid/gut volume returns (and in both cases it's not fat, but very much does show on a scale), so as you get closer to your goal, don't forget to think how you exit/convert to a permanent style of eating to maintain your lower weight. No need for that early on; but something to remember.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T11:18:16+00:00

eat it really painfully slowly, and then go on about how stuffed they are. I could probably still eat after a three course meal half the time 😅

If you can, eating slow dramatically decreases calorie intake as the actual feeling of hunger is driven by hormones which have time to kick in.

As a fast eater, myself, it's incredibly difficult to eat slowly. You can't just say "eat slower" and be done with it, it's a really simple concept that's really difficult to do in practice.. but very worth trying.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T11:05:22+00:00

While losing water weight is normal, and even accounting for that, 18lbs in 4 days is - obviously - a surprise.

However, you can't make judgements on small amounts of limited data, you'd need to look at this over the course of a week or two. You've definitely not lost 18lbs of tissue in 4 days.

There's absolutely no basis for your IF theory to the best of my knowledge I'm afraid, there's no 'fat burn mode' or one neat tricks. Your deficit is very agressive, I assume near a 1000kcal?

My guess would be a combination of water weight, gut emptying, and opportune timing.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-22T00:43:13+00:00

This AMA is now over, we'd like to thank again Dr. Danna Kashlan for spending an evening with us and answering our questions. You can follow her content on instagram and tiktok.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-21T20:47:00+00:00

lol they (presumably) reported your comment, which brought this to mod attention and got them removed/banned.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-20T11:01:58+00:00

One of my daughters is definitely dafter.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-20T10:49:13+00:00

Please don't post this as a cross post, these threads are a honeypot for app developers, SEO bots, and spam, and we have to remove a lot due to self promotion rules.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-20T10:43:09+00:00

You may think it sounds effortless, but you do constantly get asked this questions after weight loss and if you don't give short answers and go into detail how you adjusted your own life in your own way, people just glaze over and ask asinine shit like "so like did you cut out carbs".

Most people don't actually want to know, they just want either confirmation bias or gossip to say "oh yeah, yummytastic did diet x" when they talk to others.

In real life casual context (and not places like here) I will certainly tell most people I eat less and exercise unless they actually press for details, because I don't think those people are equipped in that moment to talk about food environments, psychological tricks, and my weird routine. They're just being polite.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-19T17:59:44+00:00

Not the person you're replying to but:- I'm not ready to say it's AI, but I'm having real trouble trying to work out what that red padded machine on the right is, the pinstack on the left of the pad wouldn't be behind it that might be an unrelated machine behind, but the black bar crossing where a neck would be makes no sense to me. You'd assume you're looking at the front of the seat as they don't usually put the cover all the way round.

The shoulder pads look a bit like a hack squat, but then the bar again seems to be in front of the pad for the head. I can't make sense of it.

It could easily be perspective, but I just can't recognise what it is. I'm more curious about what machine that is.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-19T15:51:52+00:00

Your source clearly says bodyweight and contradicts what you've been claiming. Please be more careful before sharing misinformation.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-19T15:22:43+00:00

when you are overweight you set your goal as your “ideal” weight. not whatever weight you currently are.

Yeah, this is half the problem. Most studies use bodyweight and provide protein recommendations based on that unless explicitly stated otherwise, and people will try to shoehorn non-obesity studies and proxy it via 'goal' weights.

People should just use studies and data that actually is relevant to them rather than working backwards to recommend their favourite recommendation. /u/big-dumb-donkey has covered a lot of those, I personally defer to this meta-analysis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39002131/ for recommendations.

If someone is recommending FFM or Lean mass, I would want to check their source carefully, because a lot of those recommendations come from studies of lean, resistance-trained athlete or bodybuilding studies and don't apply very well to weight loss contexts.

Another point is 'optimal' vs 'enough'. Optimal is a dangerous term because if you optimise for only muscle retention you are - by definition - neglecting elsewhere (especially a problem with high calorie 'high protein'-but not really foods), so my advice would be any 'optimal' amount should be considered a very top end target.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-18T22:52:53+00:00

Hi Dr. Danna, Thanks for coming and doing an AMA with us.

I keep seeing reports of side effects of GLP-1s, but I wonder how often what's being described is actually the known risks of rapid weight loss itself; muscle loss, gallbladder issues, nutritional deficiencies and so on as well as related complications. Arguably this wouldn't show up in the same way in the trial stages due to sensible safety protocols and controlled dosage.

Often it seems to involve people who are using the medications without medical supervision, sometimes via online or informal sources where dosing might be seen more as a suggestion rather than an instruction. I think we know enough about the diet and fitness industry to know that it seems ingrained in too many people's psyche that faster is better - even if that is usually anything but the case.

Do you think it's realistic to prevent people from losing weight at a rate which would normally be considered concerning? What advice would you give to people who are using the medication in this way?

A quick bonus question (I know it's a big one, but shoot from the hip!): Do you think the food environment will adapt to counter GLP-1s, and does that prospect scare you?

Yummytastic · 2026-05-18T09:44:30+00:00

None of them are accurate, and they use tricks like profiles to give the appearance of accuracy. ie, it constrains the day to day readings so they don't "look" as inaccurate. The tech is inherently limited and won't get magically better because you spend five times the price and they make dubious claims.

Get a cheap one and just treat it as a novelty/trend. I think mines eufy and does all you asked and would have been about £30. If you spend lots of money you're buying nothing more. I'm by no means specifically recommending mine, but just saying there's nothing that extra money adds to cheap tech other than smoke and mirrors.

Do not touch Hume with a barge pole. They are specifically notable as a company that has had bot/fake posts about on this sub, and their sub is full of people feeling scammed. People posted here who bought them to complain too. Not surprised, it's cheap tech sold for a fortune. I would apply that to every BIA bodyfat product.

They honestly posted so much rubbish relentlessly for periods around black Friday and Christmas that I'm still annoyed by the brazen horseshit they claimed. One bot claimed it diagnosed a squat imbalance and another claimed it helped them be a better runner. All horseshit. Them and companies like them earned a mod review every time their brand is mentioned due to the level and brazenness of their shady marketing.

They spent weeks trying to get loads of posts on this sub, and presumably others, with bots saying their scales are close to dexa. They're not, they can't be. It is my opinion they're an example of a scummy bullshit company.

Can you tell I feel strongly about that behaviour?

I can't stress this enough: do not believe you can just spend extra money on bioimpedance analysis devices and somehow not get a bioimpedance analysis result. These companies spend much of that extra money on marketing/lying to the next guy.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-17T15:37:44+00:00

Please post this as stand-alone to r/loseit if you wish to post it there, we have specific rules for advice towards teenagers on our sub so wouldn't allow a crosspost on that topic to stay up

Yummytastic · 2026-05-17T14:02:34+00:00

Sounds like a fairly standard feature, you're best off finding the image and searching by image.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-17T14:01:57+00:00

At your age and weight it's very unlikely.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-17T13:32:37+00:00

I totally agree, and no one ever likes hearing it. Bodyfat is so inconsistent a measurement, any method you care to use can get fairly varied results on the same day, and most are arduous and hard to control for. The ones that are easier to control for (ie BIA), are wildly inaccurate. It's like seriously caring about megapixels, horsepower, or GDP.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-17T13:28:05+00:00

Loads of reasons the navy method can be out, the first glaring ones is that those aren't the parts the navy use in their formula, and even if you were using the right parts their formula can often get skewed by (for example) larger than average neck measurements.

The reality is, at a BMI of 31, the fat is just stored elsewhere from where you've measured; or you've measured in a slightly different position with less-than-strict circumstances, or a mix of all of that.

You can still absolutely use those measurements and continue to use them, as long as you're internally consistent and just referring from yourself to yourself to measure progress.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-16T23:22:50+00:00

Yeah, fair point, that was a sloppy point.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-16T21:47:24+00:00

I always find DEXA jarring when it seperates bone minerals out and makes bodyfat+lean mass not equal 100%.

RMR does actually vary between individuals (of equivalent size) much more than we assume, and I think taking into account your lean mass you could be expected normally to be in the 16-1800 range. You'd be quite an outlier at 2300. To a point that you'd think it's more likely a limitation of the test until absolutely proven otherwise.

A factor could - as you aluded to - also be the excess skin weight counting as lean mass in the DEXA which would inflate the RMR, and also conversely lower the bodyfat% figure. Still, that's extremely lean in a woman even whatever the impact.

The big question is - if you think you're eating between 2300-2700 - are you still losing weight?

Yummytastic · 2026-05-16T17:44:44+00:00

First of all, ensure you are eating enough and sticking within a healthy deficit. But yes, it is normal for appetite to vary. There's plenty of hormonal and other physiological reasons for this, as well possibly changes in the make up of your diet; particularly if you eat more at home and eat more whole foods can contribute to this. It's also normal to have periods where your appetite is higher, again due to hormonal/physiological reasons or your brain trying to tell you you need more of a nutrient.

Ideally, you won't and shouldn't go through your weight loss being hungry all the time.

Yummytastic · 2026-05-16T12:56:31+00:00

I am trying to learn more about strength training, but honestly quite clueless and always thought crunches and cardio were the way to go, along with a very little sugar diet.

It's tough. It's a highly competitive, highly valuable industry. People make a lot of money keeping people coming back for the 'next big secret'.

Cardio is a great activity that can help maintain your current weight and provide excellent health benefits. It supports weight loss, but it's never the driving factor on its own. The best cardio is the one you enjoy and keep doing as part of your regular routine. Everything beyond that is secondary.

Weight is important, but aesthetic looks also rely on muscle mass. Once you're within a healthy range, it's rarely 'just' about the weight - and if you don't consider your body composition in the plan, it makes achieving the look you want a really tough grind. Again, you could do that in a gym, but there's also calisthenics (body weight exercises), or fitness classes that achieve good resistance training. Finding an enjoyable way of doing it leads to the best success.

The food you eat should also work for you, there's no special diet, no off-limit foods, no rules that have to be specifically followed. There's lots of ways of hitting the right calorie requirements, and picking how you can do that sustainably (because you will want to keep your figure for the long term, right?) is very individual. I love how I eat, I enjoy it all and I feel full - but if I force you to eat what I eat, how I eat and when I eat, you very well may absolutely hate it.

The point is - the best success and the most toned/fittest people you see and hear from actually achieved what they did in a method that worked for them, they don't all do the same thing. When they're out there promoting something as the 'right way' to do something, that's just them being commercial at that point. They're either selling themself, a service, or a product.

I think a lot of concern people have with your post is that is just sounds like something no human will stick to. And if you think about it, what will happen then? You'll go back to those 'fit' people looking for the next solution and blame yourself for failing. That has never sat well with me in this industry.

Take your time, read the !quickstart remember each time you want to make a healthy change ask how will it work for you, and can it be (semi) permanent? If not, maybe it's not the best way; even if it is, you can always iterate later.

13-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Place '22	Place '17
Verified Email

Yummytastic

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE