Losing more than MFP says to lose.

kam3190

So I keep hearing the more weight you lose per week the more likely you will lose lean muscle mass,so on that note I've put my profile to lose 1 lb a week. It set me up with 1950 cals per day. I'm averaging about 1750 a day though.I'm still average a 3 lb a week loss. Why? Advise?

goldthistime

Just doing the math: consuming 200 cal less than your goal calories means 1400 calories, or not even half a pound extra weight loss, so either it's a temporary water weight loss (which often happens in the beginning of a diet) or 1950 is too low for your activity level.

daniip_la

Are you exercising? If so, are you eating those calories back? Is the 3lbs/week consistent, and how long have you been losing at that rate?

kathrynjean_

How long have you been at it and how much do you have to lose? A 3lb loss at the beginning isn't unheard of - or anything to be concerned about - because it's water weight.

If after a couple of weeks you're still averaging 3 lbs a week, then definitely bump your cals.

malibu927

daniip_la wrote: »

Are you exercising? If so, are you eating those calories back? Is the 3lbs/week consistent, and how long have you been losing at that rate?

This, as you don't have any exercise logged.

kam3190

No real exercise per say but I work ten hour days at a pretty manual job as well as having 3 little ones so cooking and cleaning and chasing etc. I probably spend less than 2 hours a day sitting and that includes my lunch hour. I do stioo breastfeed but havent marjed it hecause its only once before bed. Ive lost 33.5 lbs in 9 weeks averaging 2.5 to 3.5 lbs per week. At almost 10 weeks I'm still staying steady at that rate of loss. I started out set at 1550 cals day (2lb loss) and gradually over about 6 weeks upped it to 1950(1 lb per week loss)

maidengirl_

Please put your stats up (eg: height, SW, CW, and GW) and the type/duration of your exercises.

kam3190

Sw 252
Cw 218
Lose goal weight 160

kam3190

Oh I'm 5 for 6 in and 26 years old if that helps as well

cee134

If you are healthy and have talked to a doctor to make sure you can be on a calorie deficit diet. Then enjoy the journey, and figure out how you can keep that up after you get to your goal. You will probably lose weight faster and easier at the beginning, since you have over 100 lbs to lose then when you get closer. That's what I found out was the case for me.

Although I do need to point out it is possible that you may not be logging correctly. But if you are, and are losing weight, stay with the 1950 and readjust every 5-10 lbs until you are closer to your goal. What I see people recommend on MFP is about 25-35 lbs away from goal weight reduce weight lose to 0.5lbs a week to help preserve muscle mass.

I've also read if you work out, that helps prevent lose of muscle mass.

janejellyroll

cee134 wrote: »

If you are healthy and have talked to a doctor to make sure you can be on a calorie deficit diet. Then enjoy the journey, and figure out how you can keep that up after you get to your goal. You will probably lose weight faster and easier at the beginning, since you have over 100 lbs to lose then when you get closer. That's what I found out was the case for me.

Although I do need to point out it is possible that you may not be logging correctly. But if you are, and are losing weight, stay with the 1950 and readjust every 5-10 lbs until you are closer to your goal. What I see people recommend on MFP is about 25-35 lbs away from goal weight reduce weight lose to 0.5lbs a week to help preserve muscle mass.

I've also read if you work out, that helps prevent lose of muscle mass.

Resistance training will help prevent the loss of muscle mass. Extra cardio won't really help with this.

daniip_la

What's your activity level set to? You should probably have it set to Active, or Very Active.

Sheks41191

I started at 253 - I lost 55 pounds in 12 weeks to begin with so just over 4 pounds a week.

Not good although nice to get smaller - as people have said factor in your activity and readjust.

kshama2001

kam3190 wrote: »

No real exercise per say but I work ten hour days at a pretty manual job as well as having 3 little ones so cooking and cleaning and chasing etc. I probably spend less than 2 hours a day sitting and that includes my lunch hour. I do stioo breastfeed but havent marjed it hecause its only once before bed. Ive lost 33.5 lbs in 9 weeks averaging 2.5 to 3.5 lbs per week. At almost 10 weeks I'm still staying steady at that rate of loss. I started out set at 1550 cals day (2lb loss) and gradually over about 6 weeks upped it to 1950(1 lb per week loss)

I am also guessing your Activity Level is set too low and so you need more calories.

kam3190

I have it set at slightly active.exercise 1or 2 a week. I wasn't sure how active I would be considered

daniip_la

kam3190 wrote: »

I have it set at slightly active.exercise 1or 2 a week. I wasn't sure how active I would be considered

If you work 10 hours of manual labour, and only sit for two hours out of the day, you're much more than slightly active. I'd suggest upping it.

Aaron_K123

kam3190 wrote: »

So I keep hearing the more weight you lose per week the more likely you will lose lean muscle mass,so on that note I've put my profile to lose 1 lb a week. It set me up with 1950 cals per day. I'm averaging about 1750 a day though.I'm still average a 3 lb a week loss. Why? Advise?

Averaging 3 pounds a week loss for how long? How long have you been logging?

kam3190

Aaron, not sure how to do that copy/ tag thing.... Almost 10 weeks.I lost 8 the first week. Then it has steadied out to around 3 a week for last 9 weeks

SusanMFindlay

You're more than "lightly active". I'm having a similar issue (and also set myself as "lightly active") that I will likely resolve by upping my settings to "moderately active". You're more active than I am, so you may well be "very active". The suggested professions for "very active" are bike messenger and carpenter. Sounds like you're at least as active as those.

JeromeBarry1

What's your activity level set to? From your description I'm confident it should be "slightly active".

Bearbo27

Your starting weight probably has more to do with it. The more you have to lose, the faster you will lose at first. You say your goal weight is 160 so that would mean you had 92 lbs to lose to start. I started at 258, my current is 227, and my goal is 130 (5'3"). I had 128 lbs to lose and so I set mine for 2lbs per week and eat to my goal, or within 50 calories of it. I have lost 31 lbs in the past 9 weeks which averages out to 3.44 lbs per week. I did not underestimate my activity level either. I'm sure over the next month it will slow down to the 2 lbs per week loss. If you were eating a couple hundred below the 1 lb per week goal, you were probably eating around the goal for you to lose 2 lbs per week, which would have been perfectly fine at the beginning for the amount of weight you had to lose.

Aaron_K123

kam3190 wrote: »

Aaron, not sure how to do that copy/ tag thing.... Almost 10 weeks.I lost 8 the first week. Then it has steadied out to around 3 a week for last 9 weeks

copy-tag thing start with the "@" symbol and type the persons name after it. @kam3190

That 8 the first week was likely loss of water perhaps from switching suddenly from a high sodium diet to a low sodium diet so I would just discount that entirely from calculating your average weight loss.

So your starting weight was 252 and your current is 218 so you lost 34 pounds over 10 weeks but minus that initial 8 pounds which probably didn't count is 26 pounds over 10 weeks. Yeah, 2.6 pound loss a week is still very fast and if you have dropped from 252 to 218 that is hard to argue that isn't genuine weight loss.

You might want to slow it down a bit, try to hit 2 pounds a week until like 180 and then if you are keep going slow further to like 1 pound a week.

Its pretty impossible to go from 252 to 160 without losing a good amount of your muscle, lean mass but you can counter that to some degree by getting a good amount of protein (0.8-1g per pound lean mass) and doing some weight lifting along with your weight loss.

perkymommy

kam3190 wrote: »

So I keep hearing the more weight you lose per week the more likely you will lose lean muscle mass,so on that note I've put my profile to lose 1 lb a week. It set me up with 1950 cals per day. I'm averaging about 1750 a day though.I'm still average a 3 lb a week loss. Why? Advise?

You are fine. I wouldn't sweat it.

Psychgrrl

kam3190 wrote: »

Aaron, not sure how to do that copy/ tag thing.... Almost 10 weeks.I lost 8 the first week. Then it has steadied out to around 3 a week for last 9 weeks

In the post you want to quote, hit the "quote" button at the bottom of the post you want to quote.

To tag someone type the "@" sign and then type their user name. MFP will start filling it in for you as you type the name.

You can also use BBCode in your post for bold, italics, whatever. The "help" box for that is below the response post to the left.

It takes a while to get used to everything. I find it much easier to use the diary on my phone (unless I'm using the recipe calculator), but forum posts are much easier for me on a computer.

PAV8888

Respectfully you are **more** than very active as far as MFP goes around calculating things.

Just breastfeeding is usually a 200-500 Cal a day activity, and is almost a full activity level for most people by itself.

I would suggest you change to very active. It will give you more food to eat and will slow down your weight loss.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. I am not a great believer in super rapid weight loss.

While you might be able to afford the losses now... it will start affecting you more when you're no longer obese.

Also leaving yourself with the ability to come down in calories in the future is not necessarily a bad thing...

jdwils14

here are the two questions: are you left hungry on any days? Are you getting enough protein?