Upping Calories Closer to Goal Weight

jody664

I know that the closer I get to my goal weight, I need to start upping my calories (i.e., setting my profile goal to 0.5 lb/week instead of 1 lb/week). I have two questions about that.

1) Why is this advised? I'm not questioning it......I'm just curious physiologically why this works.

2) At what point do I need to reset my goal to 0.5 lb/week? I've lost 38 lb and have 20 more to go. I'm currently losing at a rate of about 5 lb/month. At what point do I need to slow that down? Is now too soon? Should I wait until I'm within 10 lb of my goal?

Thanks in advance!

GauchoMark

its advised because the less body fat you have, the more muscle you will lose at higher amounts of caloric deficit. The more muscle you lose, the less calories your body burns (since muscle mass burns calories - not fat).

As far as when yo add calories, I used a bathroom scale with a body fat reading to track my muscle mass and make sure that by percentage of weight lost from muscle didn't go up - if I was it was starting to increase, I added calories and protein. Do you know what your percent body fat is now and what your goal is?

jody664

its advised because the less body fat you have, the more muscle you will lose at higher amounts of caloric deficit. The more muscle you lose, the less calories your body burns (since muscle mass burns calories - not fat).

As far as when yo add calories, I used a bathroom scale with a body fat reading to track my muscle mass and make sure that by percentage of weight lost from muscle didn't go up - if I was it was starting to increase, I added calories and protein. Do you know what your percent body fat is now and what your goal is?

That makes sense.

Yes, my bf% is 44% currently (measured by the calipers at the gym and by my bathroom scale). I'm assuming since my bf% is so high, I can continue with the 1 lb/week setting for awhile, correct?.......I'd love to get it down to the 25-30% range, but I realize it's going to take a long time for that to happen.

jody664

**shameless bump**

djeffreys10

There is no reason for you to up your calories right now.

jody664

There is no reason for you to up your calories right now.

Thanks. I pretty much had concluded the same thing, but just need some confirmation. I have plenty of fat still to lose, so 1 lb a week seems reasonable to me.

djeffreys10

Yeah, I am still in the 1-1.5 lbs per week range myself.

Brad805

Question everything and go find the answers from a reputable source. There is no reason whatsoever to adjust the loss goal until it is time for maintenance. You will lose some muscle mass as you lose the fat. That is a given. Sorry. The trick is to do so in a manner that minimizes the lean mass loss. That is done with your nutrition plan and exercise. Your metabolism is going to slow down, but the majority of this is merely the reality that you weigh less and your body will use less energy as your fitness level improves. The law of depreciating returns does not play nice. There is also an adaptive component to the metabolism changes, but you have quite a bit of time before that will have a significant impact upon your goals so you can go read about that one.

Here is one article you might want to read:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html

If you are interested in learning about the so called starvation mode search for the Minnesota Study on that topic. It is very well regarded and will not be repeated anytime soon.

The BIA are not hugely accurate for many people, but they will show a trend over time. I can get mine to swing 5-10% and it is a well respected brand. They are quite sensitive to the water on board. Keep in mind all that data you entered (age, height, activity level) is being used with the impedance values to come up with a quasi estimate of your BF. Accurate tests do not require that kind of data because they simply measure the amount and report the value. Your age, height and activity levels make zero difference in reality since your BF is what it is.

People seem to be a bit confused how quickly one can build muscle. It is not nearly as fast as we would like. Many researchers suggest a male can add approximately 0.5lb/wk in the early stages of training with great nutrition. Those same studies suggest women can gain approximately 0.25lb/wk. These are just estimates based on test subjects, so sure you could build it a little faster, but I think it is helpful to have a basic understanding how hard one must work to build a small amount of muscle.

The loss goal is a personal choice. Learn to use MFP as a simple tracking tool and find what works for you with trial and error using the customized settings.

Keep at it, you are doing great.

kellijauch

You do not need to up your calories right now. If you stall out completely, then you could consider it, but right now you are doing fine.