does weight loss slow down

Am at day 18 of the diet & it seems, after weighing this am, that I have only lost 1lb this week after dropping 8 lbs in the previous 12 days.Am alternating 1 day pp with 1 day pv. Any suggestions?

As you move from losing water weight to losing lbs of fat - the weight loss will slow down.

3500 kcal = 1lb of fat

If your body needs, let's say, 2200 kcal to neither lose or gain weight, and you only eat 1200 kcal then you will require 1000 kcal thant you need which your body with find in its fat stores. Do this every day for a week and you will have taken 7000 kcal from your fat stores - or in other words 2 lbs of fat. That is, you will have lost 2lbs that week. If you cut down by 500 kcal a day, by the end of the week you will have taken 3500 kcal or 1lb of fat.

Just for arguments sake, lets say you only eat 200 kcal a day. You will have to find 2000 kcal from your fat stores a day, which is 14000 kcal a week or 4lbs of fat. It doesn't actually work this way, though. Your body would go into 'emergency mode' and stop non-vital functions to prevent such a loss.

Basically, if you are talking about losing fat you can only expect to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

However, for a while when you first start a diet you lose a lot of water weight. This is especially so with a diet like the Dukan diet. 1 litre of water weighs 2lbs. If you retain that water you will be 2lbs heavier. If you lose that water, you will be 2lbs lighter.

If you were losing say 3 lbs of water and 2lbs of fat in the first week you would see on the scales a loss of 5lbs. If you did the same the following week you would see another 5lbs loss, a total loss on the diet of 10lbs. However, when you stop losing water weight (because thanks to the diet you are no longer retaining water) you will only see the loss in fat - which will be normally around 1-2lbs a week.

I have heard people say that the majority of weight lost on any diet in the first 6 weeks is mostly water weight. Since you have only been on the diet for less than 3 weeks, the most likely reason for seeing a reduction in lbs lost is because you are retaining water. If you are sticking to the diet, things will regulate and you will consistantly lose weight. You might notice some ups and downs along the way but you will still reach your goal in the anticipated time.

Thanks Simon for your comprehensive reply I had come to the same conclusion but did not know the way fat is lost. My weight loss has slowed but is this week 1lbs 10ozs, so I am happy again.regards. David a.