Is losing 5 Pounds Noticeable (Guide) 2023
Taking that first step on your fitness journey can be hard. But it’s even harder to keep on going when there is little to no movement in your fat cells. When you don’t feel those jeans loosening up or that shirt you wanted to wear so badly slide off your waist easily even after losing 5 pounds, nothing seems to be worth it.
And in those moments, you are often tempted to give up on your weight loss journey. But it’s this phase that you must overcome. Even if you are not seeing any significant outer changes in your body, those 5 pounds that you lost are making big progress on the inside.
It’s up to you now to keep that progress going because it’s a moment to rejoice after all! The fact that you lost 5 pounds means that you are on the right track. That whatever you are doing, it’s working in the right direction. And you should celebrate that.
Still, to motivate you even further, today we’ll look at changes that happen inside your body when you lose 5 pounds. But before that, let’s answer the question you opened this link for in the first place.
Is losing 5 pounds noticeable?
Yes, ad no. Yes, losing 5 pounds is noticeable if you carry a little to moderate amount of fat on your body. But if you are significantly overweight or even obese, just losing 5 pounds isn’t going to cut it.
Why is that?
Well, for a person on the lighter side of the scale, it’s easier to notice the difference, even if they lose just a single pound because there aren’t layers and layers of fat covering their bodies. But for someone who is obese, losing the first 5 pounds is not noticeable at all. It doesn’t make that big a difference.
But that doesn’t mean that things aren’t changing inside, as we will see in the next part of this article.
5 ways losing 5 pounds affect your body
We know that more often than not, we decide to lose weight for the aesthetic benefits that a leaner body brings. And while you may already be reaping those benefits as well, depending on your base fat content, we would like to enlighten you about the various ways that your internal system is prospering because of the lost weight.
So, let’s dig in and find out how losing 5 pounds affects your body.
Shrinking Fat Cells
Congratulations, fellow fitness freak! Because your efforts have paid off. Hitting the 5-pound weight loss mark means that your body has successfully begun shrinking the fat cells. You may be seeing it on the outside or you may not. It might also be that the changes are subtle and visible to you but not to others.
Even THAT doesn’t matter because the shrinking fat cells mean that you are on the right path. Your accumulated efforts towards eating healthy and working out regularly have begun paying off. And it’s at this stage that you must continue with your efforts if you want to lose all that unattractive and unhealthy extra fat once and for all.
Your Blood Sugar Levels are Returning to Normal
There are a very simple formula for weight loss – calories in vs calories out. The calories you consume must be less than the number of calories you burn during the day and while working out. So, if you have begun losing weight, this means that your body has successfully entered the caloric deficit.
And eating moderately and healthily stabilizes the blood sugar levels by increasing your body’s insulin sensitivity. This reduces your risk of developing Type-2 diabetes. Or if you are already suffering from the disease, it controls the symptoms and makes it far more manageable.
Your hunger levels may begin to rise.
Now that’s a very expected change, isn’t it? When you stay in a caloric deficit for a long time, your body takes the energy from the existing fat cells first. But after it gets used to that source, your body begins demanding more food in general.
So losing 5 pounds might also mean an increased number of hunger pangs. But beware. Don’t give in to all of them and increase your caloric intake because that would defeat the purpose and render all your past progress to waste.
Also, remember that sometimes we tend to confuse the thirst signals and hunger pangs. So always make it a habit of drinking a glass of water whenever you feel hungry. This way you’ll be able to listen to your body better.
You’ll enjoy an increased metabolic rate.
Losing weight can also bring with it a change in your metabolism. The levels of metabolic activity inside your body are what determine how fast or slow your body will burn the fat.
And once you begin losing weight, your body will need to burn fewer calories to keep the system running. This might lead to a decreased metabolic rate. But don’t be frightened with this knowledge because this change will be temporary.
As you move forward in your journey and increase your physical activity, your metabolic rate will increase again and this time, it’ll stay amped up, provided that you keep adding more and more intensity to your workouts and avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
Your Bones will thank you!
It’s common knowledge – the heavier you are, the more you risk injuring your bones (sometimes even permanently) and hurting your joints beyond repair. That’s because those little (but strong) joints have to take so much pressure on them. As a 150-pound person, your joints have to bear a lot more stress than a 100-pound person would.
So it makes sense to assume that even with a couple of decreased pounds, the pressure on your joints will reduce significantly, lowering your risk of an injury and promoting better bone health.
Now that we have covered the ways losing 5 pounds begins changing your body for good, let’s take a look at how a 5-pound weight loss changed the looks of a couple of women, as they shared their journey and honest pictures with us.
5-pound Weight Loss: Before and After
- First up is Mia. Aged 30, you can clearly see that a 5-pound weight loss didn’t create that significant a difference on the outside. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It could also be that the weight that she lost was all fat content, as opposed to the water weight that we lose at the beginning of our weight loss journey.
- Now let’s take a look at the striking difference the 5-pound weight loss created in 38-year-old Abigail. It’s truly marvelous to see the difference in the way weight loss occurred in these two women.
Now a question might arise, why did Mia lose so little weight and Abigail looked positively and significantly changed even though both lose 5 pounds?
It might be because, in Abigail’s case, she might have lost a large amount of water weight as well. And because water retention makes you look puffed up, losing all that water weight shrunk her body to such a great degree.
To Conclude
As you can see, there is no one answer to the question ”Is losing 5 pounds noticeable?” because the changes that occur in your body when you lose weight depend largely on your existing fat content, your level of activity, your approach to weight loss, and your diet. So, all we can say is this – if you keep going with your healthy routine of a proper junk-less diet and a good amount of workout, you’ll soon see changes in the mirror. That’s a promise.
