Dr.AddMedPHL said:

Mood changes on mental health: I want to be transparent — I went through a rough patch emotionally around month 3.

Anxiety increase on mental health: counterintuitive, but losing weight rapidly triggered anxiety for me. Change — even positive change — is stressful. I was anxious about regaining weight.

This is more common than people admit. A therapist who specializes in weight management has been invaluable. Don't neglect the mental health side of this journey.

Dr.AddMedPHL said:

Mood changes on mental health: I want to be transparent — I went through a rough patch emotionally around month 3.

Fair, and it stops being fair at the extremes. The middle of the range is well understood; the ends are where the honest answer is that nobody knows.

If somebody has the primary source to hand I would rather cite it than paraphrase it.

Dr.AddMedPHL said:

Mood changes on mental health: I want to be transparent — I went through a rough patch emotionally around month 3.

Thank you for spelling out the reasoning rather than just the conclusion. I will report back once I have actually tried it.

Adding the clinical framing, because it changes how the question reads. Start from the measurement rather than the conclusion. Almost every disagreement here turns out to be two people measuring different things and comparing the numbers anyway.

Worth separating that from training through weight loss, which this thread keeps folding into the same question. They behave differently and the advice does not transfer.

Dr.LeslieOBGYN said:

Start from the measurement rather than the conclusion.

This matches mine closely enough to be worth saying so out loud. Nothing to add that would improve it.