Ok, so I joined a gym about a month ago now. I used to have a really sedated lifestyle and I'd only eat one meal a day. Anyway, now that i'm more active and having 4 small meals a day (as directed by my PT), in one month I've lost enough weight around my waist that my pants are loose. I have about an inch between my waist and my pants.

So my question is, "Is it normal to have lost that much body fat in one month"? I'm freaking out a little because I thought it would take longer to lose any fat. I do go to the gym 5 days a week for an hour to an hour and a half each day.

Solehite : well most people dont lose that much but must people dont go to the gym as much as 5 days a week, if youre eating the 4 meals a day and not feeling tired all the time, then its fine i would think.if this is quite a big change in your lifestly then a month can do wonders for you.

Well I don't feel tired with the way i'm doing things now. I get tired on the weekends if I don't do some squats/situps/etc. Otherwise I haven't noticed that I have more or less energy.

I think it is a big change in lifestyle, I would pretty much be lazing around the house all the time. Also that one meal a day was normally junk food and a lot of it. Now I eat a small bowl of porridge or musli in skim milk (breakfast), salad and tuna (lunch), a weight watchers musli bar or other snack (afternoon tea) and a veggie stir fry or soup (dinner and its winter here). Also all my snacks are gluten free, so they have no sugar.

I forgot to mention, on the weekend when the gym isn't open I go for a 40 minute walk or do squats/situps/etc for 40 mins.

I still thought that I wouldn't see any difference, all I was expecting was to weigh a bit more in the first month because my muscles would be toning up.

Solehite : now youve told me what youre eating and the extent of your exercise im really not surprised, the foods your eating pretty much have zero fat content and are immensly high in nutrients, if youre not feeling tired then youre health sounds like its significantly improving.porridge and musli particularly are very good meals to start the day, they dont have much taste but theyre packed with nutrients, they help with digestion too so ironically eating that every day is probably significant to your weight loss, fish oils are meant to be very good too so the tuna is a nice touch.keep it up and im sure you'll be feeling the benefits very soon.

Don't feel surprised to lose that much weight in a month. As you've said, you've really changed your lifestyle by switching to exercise and much healthier eating habits. And unless you're doing a lot of exercise with really heavy weights you wouldn't gain muscle mass when you first start out. If you're using light weights or even your body weight what you're doing is simply burning calories. And depending how large someone is suddenly hitting the gym for that long each day is going to cause a great visible improvement.

Congrats so far.

Don't be afraid that you lost that much weight in a month if I did .. I would be stoked.. but like you said you changed your lifestyle eat 4 small meals a day and go to the gym 5 times a week .. that is really great in my opioion

If you are making tremendous changes and working very hard, you can lose a lot of weight in a month. A healthy amount is about 1-3 lbs per week if you're making small lifestyle changes and little adjustments.

You sound like you're hard-charging at the gym and you're working hard and changing your diet to be more healthy. Human bodies are meant to be slim and athletic and that's what we strive for. If you provide the right things (good food + not sitting around) you will shed weight.

Is it unhealthy? No. You'll find a natural plateau where you don't lose much more weight and that's where you belong. Don't go overboard and starve yourself or kill yourself at the gym because of the success you're seeing right now. Rest is as important as work to get healthy. Your body recovers and grows stronger when you rest.

Keep at it!

* I Pull out a white doctor's coat and stuff a mess of tools in the pockets, then I slap a red cross on hat! then turn around in dramatic movement as you see a Streak of white light come from my eyes*

WEELLLLLLLL... I'd prefer if you told me how much you lost in pounds, but one inch from the waist shouldn't be all that bad, HOWEVER!!! you shouldn't do 5 days a week a the gym forgetting that you walk on weekends, because you gain muscle by putting strain on them and then throughout the next day or 2 it recovers from the strain and becomes stronger in case more strain comes. so since it doesn't get that much time to heal up, you're just putting more and more strain on it if I'm correct.

you should wait at least 3 days before going to the gym again, and at that, don't cut back on your eating as much if you're going to the gym. because you need carbohydrates to burn when you work out!

and make sure you're eating RIGHT because you might be getting EMPTY carbs (Which is bad) so check the ingredients before you buy something, don't worry! it's pretty easy, if there's a long word on the ingredient list and you don't know what it means, PUT IT DOWN! that means that it's artificial WHICH IS BAD! the only exception is "Palm Kernal Oil" which is the only saturated fat that stays liquid at room tempature, (if it's saturated, it's bad)
and don't buy "Enriched" flour, because flour has plenty of nutrients as it is, if they had to "Enrich" it, that means they took something out! and other than cauliflower, avoid foods that look White because that means that it's mainly starch, rather than nutrients,
another thing, the meat industry is doing tests on Soy to advertise something that meat has that soy doesn't, after a ton of tests, Soy came out triumphant!

also, I don't want to give doctors a bad name, but the drug industry is giving them extended vacations (because they made a law that they can't enhance their payment for this) to prescribe certain drugs mainly because they're more expensive meaning they make more money, they made a law about extended vacations too, but then they kept them and called 'em Classes to make sure that their education keeps up, ignoring the fact that they take place in vacation attractions... keep that in mind!

and maybe even go vegetarian, because if you're doing weight loss because of worries of health rather than looks, there was a recent study showing that excess amounts of protein can turn "On" quite a lot of diseases and "Off" by taking it away, they where doing that with animal protein, when they tried it with vegetable protein, they couldn't turn it "On"! so going vegetarian would be very beneficial (also keeping the price of meat in mind)

one last thing: cooking your OWN meals out of your OWN ingredients is WAAAAAY healthier than microwaving frozen entrees... just so you know...

This has been Andrew, Your Local Health Nut! if you have any more questions, contact me through this thread, or Private messaging!

and NO, I am not some dude who doesn't know anything about health and thinks he can just wing it, I have done a lot of research into healthy living, and I am 100% Vegetarian!
------EDIT------

I ALMOST FORGOT! O:

when you eat, make sure that you stop WHEN YOU'RE FULL, and when you think you're full, just push the plate out of reach, if you keep eating, you may lose the ability to "Feel Full", that's how most people get fat, from their mothers telling them not to leave the table until they've finished their dinner >.<

sonicandrew21 : I live in Australia, we use the metric system, so I said it in kilos, i could have said "I've lost 2.5cm from my waist", but I knew that 2.5cm is an inch.
I have a Personal Trainer and he's approved my diet and the walking on the weekends, only if its light exercise and not hard out running like I do at the gym (even then he suggested I rest on sundays).
I pretty much only eat fish (i'm an islander, its compulsory for our diets ) and veggies. I can' digest red meat that well because i haven't eaten it often enough, i just replace it with silverside (I think its called spinach in the usa?).
Lastly I never really feel hungry or full, so i keep the meals to a small bowl, i just eat around the times its meant to be breakfast, lunch etc.

Cyro Xero : Aww, thanks :3

I do light weights mondays, wed and friday and cardio the other days. Maybe I should rest on the sundays though
I want to lose weight, but I don't want to look like a body builder.
Also thank you to everyone for giving me advice on being healthier