How fast is too fast?

Jabbarwocky

Weighed in this morning and I've lost 3.5 pounds since Sunday. Granted, this was also after having gained a pound or so after a "relaxation day". Half a pound to go to hit the 20 pounds down mark and I started back on the journey as of January 20th. I'm maintaining a decent weekly net calorie average, between 1600 to 1800 and am eating back most of my exercise cals, the ones that MFP acknowledges anyway.

I'm staying full, not binging, feel pretty good, but my wife is worried that I'm doing too much and may be hurting myself. My MFP activity level is set at inactive which for my height/weight/age gives me just under 1900 calories per day and I'm set to lose 1.5 pounds per week. I'm exercising 5 days per week. Every morning I spend 20 minutes on the elliptical and do three one minute planks. Then, during lunch I walk for 20 minutes on M,W,F and 40 minutes T and T. I do a small amount of weight training, only 15 minutes or so, on M, W, F. I track all of this on MFP but it only gives calories for the cardio, not the weight training. During the week I'm averaging, including my cardio, about 15K steps. 22K plus when I work overtime which isn't all that often.

So are my wife's concerns legit or am I on a reasonable path? I cant give much more on data as my first month wasn't the most dedicated one for tracking and have only had the fitbit for a few weeks and just FINALLY got it tracking with MFP today.

jemhh

20 pounds in 10 weeks is likely fine. 1% of bodyweight is a good weekly max average but that doesn't include the big initial water weight loss that most people have when dieting.

annacole94

Losing fast leads to muscle loss and flappy skin. It also increases your odds of regain, as it requires a more extreme change in habits that you may abandon when you get tired of following them. I'd say your wife has legitimate concerns, but it's up to you if you want to change course or not.

Jabbarwocky

@annacole94 I haven't really done anything extreme as far as habit changes other than the exercise and that's becoming less of a burden and more enjoyable. The muscle loss due to my age is why I've started doing strength training. Should have mentioned in the original post, I started off at about 285 pounds.

I guess there is another kind of extreme change but its necessary one way or the other. I've drastically cut back on sweets. Not eliminated them, but cut back. Had a slice of coconut cream pie last night. But my numbers have crept up from firmly pre-diabetic to the point that I have a doctors appointment in a few weeks to find out if I will get the official diagnosis or just a firm talking too. My new doctor, just started seeing her last month, is very much into the holistic before meds approach. Not that she's anti medication, she feels that all options should be explored. I thought she was going to have a stroke when I mentioned drinking a six pack of soda or so a week! I find this terribly amusing as I used to drink close to two cases per week. Granted, that's probably a good portion of the reason my stomach is trashed now. Anyway, with the exercise, I haven't been craving the sweets like I used to. It used to be that by 8 or 9 o'clock at night I was prowling the kitchen looking for sweets. Last night my wife suggested the pie because she still had over 1000 calories to go. It sounded good to me but if she had changed her mind, it wouldn't have phased me.

Tacklewasher

I asked a similar question a while back. Read though this as there is a lot of good info there.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10490435/what-rate-can-someone-lose-at

And also realize that weight loss isn't linear (there is a thread on that as well) so the 3.5 lbs may not stay off. I'm down 3 lbs since yesterday, but expect the scale to go back up. In my case, a couple glasses of wine with a healthy dinner (roast and veggies) and little salt yesterday meant a bit of a water loss (alcohol does that to me) but it will come back.

Jabbarwocky

Yes, I'm familiar with the non-linear thing. Been tracking my weight almost daily for just over a week to get a better idea of how things go. This REALLY highlights the ups and downs.

Chadxx

At your size, you are fine. As you lean out, you will need to slow down a little but that will largely take care of itself as you will burn fewer calories at a lighter weight.

__TMac__

I think you're going to need more data. You are a science experiment with sample size=1. After another two or three weeks, if you're still losing at that rate, you'll probably want to reduce your deficit a bit. But at your starting weight, I'd not be as worried about health effects as just forming sustainable habits.

Jabbarwocky

And everything I'm doing is sustainable. If I tried to cut my intake back, I'd binge. And the fact of the matter is that I LOVE food! No offense to any vegan's, vegetarians, or possibly Muslim's on here, if God didn't want me to eat pork then why did he make bacon so tasty!!! I understand the concept that it wasn't put on in a day so it wont come off in a day.

As to my wife's concerns, yes, there has been a few times where I've pushed myself a bit too hard but just like the cutting back, I know me. Once I start allowing excuses to back off for a few days on exercise or how I eat then there might not be an end in sight. I'd personally rather push myself every once in a while than become that four or five hundred pound man riding around town on a rascal because I'm to fat to even walk a block.

That's one of the differences between us. She will continually think and rethink a decision. Once I've made that decision its made. Do what you have to in order to get it done. And thanks @Tacklewasher . Very informative thread!

Tacklewasher

Jabbarwocky wrote: »

if God didn't want me to eat pork then why did he make bacon so tasty!!!

Ahh. But God/Nature didn't make bacon. We just took one piece of a pig and made bacon out of it.

And I am pretty thankful we did

Tacklewasher

Diem78 wrote: »

I really think it depends on how much you have to lose. Bigger folk lose it pretty quickly at the beginning compared to people that don't have as much to lose.

True. I lost ~ 15 lbs a month for the first 3 months. But starting at 330 meant I could manage that. I can't any more.

Jabbarwocky

"Tacklewasher wrote: »

Ahh. But God/Nature didn't make bacon. We just took one piece of a pig and made bacon out of it.

I'm fair sure that there was a bit of divine intervention there!! LOL! If nothing else, God made the parts and we finally got lucky and put them together properly!

SafioraLinnea

I think a lot of factors need to be considered. Do you have a lot (100+lbs) you need to lose? Faster weight loss when you have a lot to lose can be okay, but I've been told you shouldn't try to lose more than 1% of your current body weight in a week. So a 400 pound person should aim for no more than 4 pounds a week. From reading what you've posted, here are my thoughts.

First, please understand that MFP is already set up for weight loss and you shouldn't be eating below the recommended amount of calories. You have set up MFP to give you a calorie reduction so you lose 1.5 pounds a week. You should be eating all of those calories. Your net needs to be at the recommendation or as close as possible. If you are definitely eating back all of your exercise calories, it's probably fine and will stabilize. Fitbit will help you with that.

Second, you are not inactive. Inactive means you sit on your behind or lay in a bed all day. I would adjust that. You are short changing yourself on calorie needs. It can be ok short term but over time that can change and make you feel unwell.

Third, I find that the first 2-3 months of fat loss are the least accurate indication of long term results. After that time, my experience shows things settle into a consistent and steady slower loss.

Jabbarwocky

My goal weight is 200 pounds which still puts me overweight so right now I have 65 pounds to go. I know the setup for MFP. I actually asked my dietician about where to set my activity level. She said as long as my net average remains over 1500 I'm fine. I'm normally eating back about 3/4 of my exercise calories. Leaving a buffer because I know calories burned tends to be overstated just like calories consumed tends to be understated. Will see on the Fitbit since today is the first time in almost two weeks of owning it that it was able to give exercise calories to MFP. This journey isn't meant to be a quick one. I know it will take quite a while to lose the weight and I have no problem with that and slowing down to only a one pound a week loss is fine with me just so long as the overall tendency is downward!