Obese, large weekly deficit??
6brewers
Posts: 11 Member
37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
Is this unhealthy????
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Replies
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How did you come up with going from maintenance at 3600 to 1600 a day?1
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37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
The more aggressive your goal, the more of it is likely to be muscle loss. I would choose a more reasonable goal. Your current goal has you eating only 100 calories above the minimum recommended for a man.5 -
with weight training, am I not avoiding muscle loss?0
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Two pounds a week loss puts you at 2600. You have "room" to go a little lower, but I definitely wouldn't do 1600. You want this to be sustainable. I'd say 2100 (personal opinion). That's three pounds per week and should still give you enough food to be sustainable.4
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Also, are you eating back any of your exercise calories, or is that creating an even larger deficit?2
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51 yrs old. Started last Sept at ~330 lbs. Yes, what you are doing is unhealthy. My biggest fear is gallstones. Please read this.
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/weight-control/dieting_gallstones/Pages/dieting-and-gallstones.aspx#f
Eat more. You want to plan to lose ~ 2lbs per week. I lost more but in hindsight should not have. I wasn't eating back my exercise calories. I'm ~ 260 now and going down ~1.5 - 2 lbs per week (except this last week).
Put 2 lbs per week into MFP, see what it gives you and eat back at least 50% of your exercise calories.6 -
with weight training, am I not avoiding muscle loss?
Weight training helps preserve muscle mass assuming one is eating enough. All the weight training the world isn't going to help you retain muscle if you don't eat enough to hold on to it.
If you're burning calories (like you are with your daily life and your exercise), the energy has to come from somewhere. You want some of it to come from your body -- we all do when we're losing weight! But if you're eating very little, like your current plan, a *lot* of it is going to come from your body. Once your body has taken as much fat as it can for the day, it's going to turn to your muscle and burn that for energy.
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Net calories are 1600 per day...just eat more on training days1
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I saw no need to go to 2#/week loss when I started (313#). I kept my calorie goal for 1#/week loss until I had around 40# left, then I changed it to half-pound loss.
I understand wanting the weight off NOW, but you're going to be better off setting your goal at 2#/week (I'd go with 1, but that's me because I like eating). It's not good to start off rock-bottom because where do you go from there when loss stalls?3 -
I sit at a desk all day...so my exercise is most of my calorie burn0
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janejellyroll wrote: »37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
The more aggressive your goal, the more of it is likely to be muscle loss. I would choose a more reasonable goal. Your current goal has you eating only 100 calories above the minimum recommended for a man.
This^
Another problem with an extreme cut in calories is you are likely leaving yourself little room for many of your usual foods. Because you are just 100 calories above the bare minimum you are most likely (can't see your diary) eating the most nutritious foods.....but nothing "fun." Learning portion control for ALL foods is going to be key for maintenance. You want establish lifestyle changes....right now you are just on a "diet."2 -
To maintain weight almost 3,600 calories a day.0
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I feel good, not tired or any other noticeable side effects at this point after 2 weeks. I'm still eating just better foods.1
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So, for "healthy" weight loss - you should only lose 1% of your body weight a week. 4lbs is about a pound too much and not sustainable over the long run. You don't want to starve yourself - yes you'll lose weight but you'll also lose muscle and impair organ function at a certain point.
For your weight some might argue that 4lbs is fine, however if this is to be a healthy life change for the long term, slower is *usually* better.1 -
janejellyroll wrote: »37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
The more aggressive your goal, the more of it is likely to be muscle loss. I would choose a more reasonable goal. Your current goal has you eating only 100 calories above the minimum recommended for a man.
This^
Another problem with an extreme cut in calories is you are likely leaving yourself little room for many of your usual foods. Because you are just 100 calories above the bare minimum you are most likely (can't see your diary) eating the most nutritious foods.....but nothing "fun." Learning portion control for ALL foods is going to be key for maintenance. You want establish lifestyle changes....right now you are just on a "diet."
I'm starting to think we've got a bit of crossed up info here. I'm 6' and ~260. My MFP (to lose 2 lbs per week) is 1580. I'm running daily so I'm eating about 2000, but netting on track with what MFP and my tracker allow for me. If he is netting 1600, then it may not be as bad as I first thought.0 -
I sit at a desk all day...so my exercise is most of my calorie burn
Sedentary people burn fewer calories, but you're still burning calories sitting at a desk, sleeping, walking to your car, etc. Your exercise probably *isn't* most of your calorie burn (if you're anything like me). We all need calories to keep ourselves alive.
Example: my sedentary calorie needs are about 1,460 calories a day to maintain my weight. My exercise gives me another 200-400 calories on an average day, but that's still small compared to what I need to just live.1 -
I've gone between 1500 and 1200 cals per day while losing over 100 lbs since October 2015. Started out losing 2lbs per week, but at this stage, closer to goal, I am at 1lb per week. Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with rather big kidney stones right now, and am looking at surgery - my specialist gave me the stink eye when I told him about the weight loss and the amount of time it took to lose it, as apparently rapid weight loss is a contributor to stones. I gave him the stink eye back, and told him that he better not blame the weight loss for the kidney stones, because that crap just happens, and its better for me to NOT weigh that additional 100 lbs than it to have never lost it. He had to agree.2
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Yes.
The generally accepted guideline for max loss is 2 pounds OR 1% of bodyweight. So rounding off, you could aim for ~1500 deficit for now.37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
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Nailed it.janejellyroll wrote: »...The more aggressive your goal, the more of it is likely to be muscle loss. I would choose a more reasonable goal. Your current goal has you eating only 100 calories above the minimum recommended for a man.
What people forget when trying to lose weight is you need to permanently change your habits so you don't wind up doing this again.
Make your weight loss slow and most importantly sustainable. The less pain it causes you the more likely your gonna stick to it.4 -
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@6brewers...I started at 298 last February. I have eaten 2000 calories a day and lost about a pound a week on average for most of the last year, except during a stretch where I also quit smoking. I started exercising in November. My advice to you is to not push too hard in the beginning. Just get your eating under control, which means finding the sweet spot between a low enough deficit to sustain a loss and a high enough intake to prevent hunger and cravings, and sustain a good energy level. You'll find it.
Also, jumping full tilt, head first into an extensive exercise program can be a set up for injury, unless properly managed. Go slow. In the beginning, more is not necessarily better.
Good luck!0 -
I'm not drink any soda, no potatoes chips or French fries....but that's really the only things I took off the table. Have pasta and rice and even cookies occasionally.0
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I started 2 years ago eating 1800ish calories and I have stayed at the same calories the entire time. I may be under some days but I try my best to stay within 1800 daily. I exercise daily,but I do not eat back exercise calories. If I feel I need to eat more I do. If I feel that I do not that many calories then I do not eat them. The lowest I eat on any given day is between 1560-1750.0
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Also, many of the negative effects of eating much less than you need are going to take longer than a week or two to manifest. It's not that much of a challenge to feel good in the short term.0 -
Tacklewasher wrote: »janejellyroll wrote: »37 yrs old male...Jan 15 = 300lbs. I didn't figure out calorie deficit til started using app 2 weeks ago was at 297 then. Now at 286. My intake to maintain is almost 3600 calories...so I cut down to around 1600 total per day. I'm walking 30 min per day, gym for elliptical 25 min and weight training 25 min...4 times a week. I'm trying to maintain muscle while losing goal of 4 lbs per week.
Is this unhealthy????
The more aggressive your goal, the more of it is likely to be muscle loss. I would choose a more reasonable goal. Your current goal has you eating only 100 calories above the minimum recommended for a man.
This^
Another problem with an extreme cut in calories is you are likely leaving yourself little room for many of your usual foods. Because you are just 100 calories above the bare minimum you are most likely (can't see your diary) eating the most nutritious foods.....but nothing "fun." Learning portion control for ALL foods is going to be key for maintenance. You want establish lifestyle changes....right now you are just on a "diet."
I'm starting to think we've got a bit of crossed up info here. I'm 6' and ~260. My MFP (to lose 2 lbs per week) is 1580. I'm running daily so I'm eating about 2000, but netting on track with what MFP and my tracker allow for me. If he is netting 1600, then it may not be as bad as I first thought.
Could be......4 pounds a week just sounds crazy high. I don't know.0 -
Also i have a big vacation coming up I may...thats what gave me the motivation to get this rev'd up. After that in plan to go as little slower.0
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What's your average gross?
Many people think they feel great to begin with. Until...........either the health problems start showing up or they go a spectacular binge.
You also have nowhere to go really as your calorie needs reduce the smaller you get. You will also experience more down regulation of your calorie requirements as the body limits non-essential processes with such an aggressive deficit. The there's the gallstones risk.
I feel what you want here is validation but if you don't get it you're going to carry on regardless.5 -
I'm a 5'3 female. Lost 70 pounds originally and have put 50 back on. Finally saw a dietitian last week and had my metabolism tested. She upped me from 1200 calories to 1600. I've been dropping weight without hunger since. I think a visit to a dietitian might be in order. I wish I would have gone sooner. If I'm a 5'3 female eating 1600, I can't imagine that's enough for you. It will probably work for a while, but you'll be hungry and have strong cravings...if you're like me, anyway.
Edited to say: MFP recommended my 1200 goal. That was in line with what I was eating on Weight Watchers also years ago...experts are good tools. Don't be afraid to use them. My insurance covered my dietitian visit. The metabolism test was $115 and took 10 minutes. Wish I would have done it years ago.0
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