Possibly a dumb question...but here goes.
arobey11
Posts: 87 Member
I've been at this since August 2016 and have lost 43 pounds so far, at a general/overall rate of 1+/- pound per week. I was averaging probably around 5-6 pounds most months. However, in the past month I've lost 9 pounds. I joined a gym and started exercising frequently, nothing too strenuous as I tend to have exercise-induced anxiety, so I started with just walking on a moderate incline around 3.5 - 4 mph for about 40-50 minutes at a time. Easing my way back to running, so to speak. I also do bodyweight exercises for strength training 3-4 times a week at home, which I've been doing for several months. I weigh and log every single thing I eat and am extremely meticulous about it, except on those days where I make the conscious decision to not log for one reason or another. I work from home, at a computer all day long, so other than intentional exercise I am extremely sedentary (writing this with my feet up on the couch, laptop on my lap, during the workday, for example).
Anyway, I have been eating back most of my exercise calories, either the same day or sometimes banking them for extra indulgence on the weekend. And a couple weekends back was my birthday, so I basically didn't even bother worrying about calories that weekend (hit my goal of 40 pounds down right before that, so I was ok with letting loose for three days and dealing with it afterwards). I ate a TON of food that weekend, to the point that I didn't feel well all last week while my body got back into its normal routine. (side note: that was a great learning experience, I NEVER want to go back to the way I used to eat, no wonder I felt like crap all the time!!)
Long story short, I realize that losing faster than you expect obviously means that you've created more of a deficit than you thought, so clearly I need to eat more. However, I'm just curious about a couple of things: A.) Should I be concerned about losing too fast right now? Maybe 9 pounds in a month isn't as extreme/concerning as I'm thinking, and I should just keep trucking along? B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
A little bit more data:
30 year old woman
5'6" (although at a recent doctor's appointment they suddenly said I was 5'7"?!)
CW: 179
First GW: 155
Daily calorie goal without exercise calories factored in: 1450/day
Thank you for any input you might have!
I want to lose and then focus on building muscle, so I'm really worried I'm going to lose too fast and the fancy muscles I'm starting to be able to see will disappear.
Anyway, I have been eating back most of my exercise calories, either the same day or sometimes banking them for extra indulgence on the weekend. And a couple weekends back was my birthday, so I basically didn't even bother worrying about calories that weekend (hit my goal of 40 pounds down right before that, so I was ok with letting loose for three days and dealing with it afterwards). I ate a TON of food that weekend, to the point that I didn't feel well all last week while my body got back into its normal routine. (side note: that was a great learning experience, I NEVER want to go back to the way I used to eat, no wonder I felt like crap all the time!!)
Long story short, I realize that losing faster than you expect obviously means that you've created more of a deficit than you thought, so clearly I need to eat more. However, I'm just curious about a couple of things: A.) Should I be concerned about losing too fast right now? Maybe 9 pounds in a month isn't as extreme/concerning as I'm thinking, and I should just keep trucking along? B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
A little bit more data:
30 year old woman
5'6" (although at a recent doctor's appointment they suddenly said I was 5'7"?!)
CW: 179
First GW: 155
Daily calorie goal without exercise calories factored in: 1450/day
Thank you for any input you might have!
I want to lose and then focus on building muscle, so I'm really worried I'm going to lose too fast and the fancy muscles I'm starting to be able to see will disappear. 1
Replies
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Given your current stats, 9lb/month is pretty extreme, as you put it. But since you recently started exercising frequently, I suspect a portion of your large loss this past month was water weight.1
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CafeRacer808 wrote: »Given your current stats, 9lb/month is pretty extreme, as you put it. But since you recently started exercising frequently, I suspect a portion of your large loss this past month was water weight.
Thanks! That's what I'm hoping, I think I just needed to hear it from someone else. 0 -
Take it and run with it, lol. As long as you weren't killing yourself trying to lose weight, you're not hurting yourself. Sometimes I have a really big loss followed up by barely anything. And vice versa.1
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CafeRacer808 wrote: »Given your current stats, 9lb/month is pretty extreme, as you put it. But since you recently started exercising frequently, I suspect a portion of your large loss this past month was water weight.
Thanks! That's what I'm hoping, I think I just needed to hear it from someone else.
Wait to hear from others as well. Sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about!
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Long story short, I realize that losing faster than you expect obviously means that you've created more of a deficit than you thought, so clearly I need to eat more.
Only if you want to slow down the weight loss.However, I'm just curious about a couple of things: A.) Should I be concerned about losing too fast right now? Maybe 9 pounds in a month isn't as extreme/concerning as I'm thinking, and I should just keep trucking along?
Within reason and in general, losing weight is a trade off - you want to lose fat, but will also lose some muscle mass and you don't want loose skin. How fast you lose will, in general, determine how much muscle you lose and how loose the resulting skin will be. There are other considerations to make, but I simply watch my muscle mass and slow down when I feel like I am losing muscle quicker than I would like. For a 179lb female, losing at a rate of about 2 lbs/wk is probably not unhealthy fast - especially if you watch your nutrition to make sure you are eating right.B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
A little bit more data:
30 year old woman
5'6" (although at a recent doctor's appointment they suddenly said I was 5'7"?!)
CW: 179
First GW: 155
Daily calorie goal without exercise calories factored in: 1450/day
There are a lot of variables to consider, but if you are logging accurately, MFP is usually in the ball park. The increase is probably the change in activity level - you used to not exercise, now you do. That just added yet another variable into the mix to estimate.
As for the 500 calories off, I'm not really sure about the question. If you are netting 1450/day and losing 9 lb/mo, that implies that your TDEE is around 2488 cal/day. That doesn't sound unreasonable.1 -
B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
No, MFP is never "right" and I log with extreme accuracy. Usually when users trying to lose weight find that MFP is right for awhile and then wrong, it is the other direction. This happens because they didn't re-calculate calorie goals as they lost weight. If you weigh less, you generally burn fewer calories. In your case, that explanation doesn't fit.
Regardless, my suggestion is to go in and calculate a new daily calorie goal based on your current weight. Then try that for a few weeks and see what happens.1 -
GauchoMark wrote: »Long story short, I realize that losing faster than you expect obviously means that you've created more of a deficit than you thought, so clearly I need to eat more.
Only if you want to slow down the weight loss.However, I'm just curious about a couple of things: A.) Should I be concerned about losing too fast right now? Maybe 9 pounds in a month isn't as extreme/concerning as I'm thinking, and I should just keep trucking along?
Within reason and in general, losing weight is a trade off - you want to lose fat, but will also lose some muscle mass and you don't want loose skin. How fast you lose will, in general, determine how much muscle you lose and how loose the resulting skin will be. There are other considerations to make, but I simply watch my muscle mass and slow down when I feel like I am losing muscle quicker than I would like. For a 179lb female, losing at a rate of about 2 lbs/wk is probably not unhealthy fast - especially if you watch your nutrition to make sure you are eating right.B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
A little bit more data:
30 year old woman
5'6" (although at a recent doctor's appointment they suddenly said I was 5'7"?!)
CW: 179
First GW: 155
Daily calorie goal without exercise calories factored in: 1450/day
There are a lot of variables to consider, but if you are logging accurately, MFP is usually in the ball park. The increase is probably the change in activity level - you used to not exercise, now you do. That just added yet another variable into the mix to estimate.
As for the 500 calories off, I'm not really sure about the question. If you are netting 1450/day and losing 9 lb/mo, that implies that your TDEE is around 2488 cal/day. That doesn't sound unreasonable.
Thanks for your input! I already have a bunch of loose skin on my lower stomach (that's where I retained water during my pregnancy, what a JOY that was) and I'm really trying to minimize the amount I get from losing all the weight, so that's why I've had MFP set to lose a pound a week since I started.
I work hard to hit my protein goals every day, although sometimes I'm under by a few grams (not usually more than 10 under). I use the MFP defaults for the carbs/fats/protein breakdown. Generally fat is very close as well, although I don't hit the goal as consistently. I've been focusing a lot on protein and doing the strength training since I do actually have a good amount of muscle under all the fat and I'd like to keep as much as possible so I don't have to work as hard when I'm done losing and start trying to recomp.
I guess I'm just surprised that my TDEE would be that high considering how sedentary I am - other than my walks, and strength stuff, I really just sit on my butt most of the time, either at the computer, or watching TV in the evenings, or meditating...etc. Of course I do housework and on the weekends I take my son to the park, stuff like that, but I'm not what I would consider to be even lightly active, based on the number of steps I take (generally 3,000-4,000 during the course of a normal day without factoring in exercise, sometimes much fewer). That seems like a lot of calories for my body to be burning to just sit on the couch
When you say you watch your muscle mass, how do you do that? I can see the muscles starting to emerge from the fat (haha) especially in my legs, arms, and butt, but I can't really tell much of a difference since I don't have a good starting point (couldn't see too much behind all the fat before).0 -
One month I think, for a female, isn't time to worry too much. Give it another 2-4 weeks and see where you are at then. You might have had a water whoosh and fat whoosh all at once. If you're still losing at what is quite an alarming rate for your current size then up your intake a bit.2
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Thanks, everyone! I feel a lot better! 1
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GauchoMark wrote: »Long story short, I realize that losing faster than you expect obviously means that you've created more of a deficit than you thought, so clearly I need to eat more.
Only if you want to slow down the weight loss.However, I'm just curious about a couple of things: A.) Should I be concerned about losing too fast right now? Maybe 9 pounds in a month isn't as extreme/concerning as I'm thinking, and I should just keep trucking along?
Within reason and in general, losing weight is a trade off - you want to lose fat, but will also lose some muscle mass and you don't want loose skin. How fast you lose will, in general, determine how much muscle you lose and how loose the resulting skin will be. There are other considerations to make, but I simply watch my muscle mass and slow down when I feel like I am losing muscle quicker than I would like. For a 179lb female, losing at a rate of about 2 lbs/wk is probably not unhealthy fast - especially if you watch your nutrition to make sure you are eating right.B.) Has anyone had MFP be "right on" with their calories for months, and then suddenly not right anymore? Is it possible that my TDEE has mysteriously gone up so much that I'm burning 500+ more calories a day than I expected?
A little bit more data:
30 year old woman
5'6" (although at a recent doctor's appointment they suddenly said I was 5'7"?!)
CW: 179
First GW: 155
Daily calorie goal without exercise calories factored in: 1450/day
There are a lot of variables to consider, but if you are logging accurately, MFP is usually in the ball park. The increase is probably the change in activity level - you used to not exercise, now you do. That just added yet another variable into the mix to estimate.
As for the 500 calories off, I'm not really sure about the question. If you are netting 1450/day and losing 9 lb/mo, that implies that your TDEE is around 2488 cal/day. That doesn't sound unreasonable.
Thanks for your input! I already have a bunch of loose skin on my lower stomach (that's where I retained water during my pregnancy, what a JOY that was) and I'm really trying to minimize the amount I get from losing all the weight, so that's why I've had MFP set to lose a pound a week since I started.
I work hard to hit my protein goals every day, although sometimes I'm under by a few grams (not usually more than 10 under). I use the MFP defaults for the carbs/fats/protein breakdown. Generally fat is very close as well, although I don't hit the goal as consistently. I've been focusing a lot on protein and doing the strength training since I do actually have a good amount of muscle under all the fat and I'd like to keep as much as possible so I don't have to work as hard when I'm done losing and start trying to recomp.
I guess I'm just surprised that my TDEE would be that high considering how sedentary I am - other than my walks, and strength stuff, I really just sit on my butt most of the time, either at the computer, or watching TV in the evenings, or meditating...etc. Of course I do housework and on the weekends I take my son to the park, stuff like that, but I'm not what I would consider to be even lightly active, based on the number of steps I take (generally 3,000-4,000 during the course of a normal day without factoring in exercise, sometimes much fewer). That seems like a lot of calories for my body to be burning to just sit on the couch
When you say you watch your muscle mass, how do you do that? I can see the muscles starting to emerge from the fat (haha) especially in my legs, arms, and butt, but I can't really tell much of a difference since I don't have a good starting point (couldn't see too much behind all the fat before).
The default protein macro that MFP sets is really too low for most people in a deficit. It is based on the minimum needed for 97.5% of the population to get the minimum amounts of amino acids necessary - it isn't based on age, size, weight, activity level, caloric intake (deficit), etc.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234922/
For someone that is exercising and in a caloric deficit, I would highly recommend increasing that. For basic exercise while in a caloric deficit, I use about 1g protein/lb lean body mass.
That brings me to your next question - how do I "keep and eye on LBM"? The most convenient way is to get a bathroom scale that will tell you your % body fat. These are notoriously inaccurate, but they are convenient and better than nothing. If you weigh daily and trend your results (or let www.trendweight.com do it for you) the variation averages out over time and you can get a decent idea of your progress.
Other ways - hand held bio impedance analysis (~$25-$50 on amazon), calipers (really cheap and accurate if you know how to use them, but most people don't), bodpod (if you have one close by - my local health shop charges ~$20/measurement), dexa scan (if you have one close - $100/scan). There are other ways, but those are the main ones.
Once you know %BF, you can calculate your LBM and see muscle mass go up or down.0 -
one other thing - if you decide to increase calories to slow down, don't do it in one big 500 calorie chunk. Increase it by a smaller increment over a few weeks until you see the weight loss rate you want. Otherwise, it is really easy to overshoot and stall out or even gain weight.0
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Thank you! I was eating slightly more over the past few days (just adding around 120-130 calories per day) so I will see what happens after a few weeks of that. This is great information, thanks so much!0
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