2lbs a week when less than 10lbs to lose
GrumpyHeadmistress
Posts: 666 Member
I know the received wisdom is that when you've only got a small amount left to lose you should aim for 0.5lbs a week. But why? Is there any science behind the idea?
I've got 9.4lbs to go and am happy on my 1200kcal at 2 lbs a week. Am i endangering lean muscle mass if I don't increase my calories?
I've got 9.4lbs to go and am happy on my 1200kcal at 2 lbs a week. Am i endangering lean muscle mass if I don't increase my calories?
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Replies
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because the bigger you are, the higher your TDEE is. You need a deficit of 1000 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week When you don't have a lot to lose, you have less calories to play with, and a 1000 calorie a day deficit is usually far too big and results in a very small calorie allowance.5
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Alatariel75 wrote: »because the bigger you are, the higher your TDEE is. You need a deficit of 1000 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week When you don't have a lot to lose, you have less calories to play with, and a 1000 calorie a day deficit is usually far too big and results in a very small calorie allowance.
This. MFP's minimum intake is 1200, so you cannot safely reach a 1000 calorie deficit. Plus the higher deficit you have, the greater chance you will lose muscle mass, which will leave you looking "skinny fat" when you reach your goal.4 -
As you get smaller the extra between enough for proper nutrition and total calories is smaller. So yes for most people 2lbs becomes undoable. Why not aim for 1 lb and see how you do.1
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Also mfp will not set you below 1200 so 1200 might not be 2lbs a week6
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When you lose weight, you lose fat and muscle. As the calorie deficit increases, the ratio of fat:muscle get skewed in the direction of muscle. 1% of total body weight is a general recommendation for healthy weekly loss. You will notice it when you're eating too little, but there are some confounding factors - logging of food intake may be inaccurate so you're eating more than you think, the lag before malnutrition catches up with you, your tolerance for hunger, water weight fluctuations, your body's fat% and maybe more.
Think about is as a river that dries up during summer and turns into a little creek. There is water, but it runs so so slowly, and starts to trickle.2 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »because the bigger you are, the higher your TDEE is. You need a deficit of 1000 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week When you don't have a lot to lose, you have less calories to play with, and a 1000 calorie a day deficit is usually far too big and results in a very small calorie allowance.
But if my TDEE is now less, than surely my deficit has reduced too? So when my TDEE was 2200 and my daily intake was 1200, I could lose 2lbs a week (7000 deficit a week). But now my TDEE has reduced to say 1800, if I keep eating 1200 a day my deficit has shrunk to 600 a day (or 4200 a week). Therefore I should be losing just over 1lb?
My TDEE dropping already causes my loss to slow. If I increase my calories as well I'm decreasing the deficit even more and slowing the loss further.1 -
Your deficit has reduced. Therefore, you aren't at 2 lbs per week any longer. You said in your OP you were happy at 2 lbs per week but you aren't at 2 lbs per week.GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »because the bigger you are, the higher your TDEE is. You need a deficit of 1000 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week When you don't have a lot to lose, you have less calories to play with, and a 1000 calorie a day deficit is usually far too big and results in a very small calorie allowance.
But if my TDEE is now less, than surely my deficit has reduced too? So when my TDEE was 2200 and my daily intake was 1200, I could lose 2lbs a week (7000 deficit a week). But now my TDEE has reduced to say 1800, if I keep eating 1200 a day my deficit has shrunk to 600 a day (or 4200 a week). Therefore I should be losing just over 1lb?
My TDEE dropping already causes my loss to slow. If I increase my calories as well I'm decreasing the deficit even more and slowing the loss further.
MFP won't go lower than 1200 calories per day for women. Even though you are set at 2 lbs, that 1200 per day won't get you 2 lbs of loss per week. As you said, your actual deficit at 1200 is closer to 1 pound per week. That gives your reduced deficit for your reduced TDEE without changing your MFP settings or your intake amount. If you did change your MFP settings to, say, 1.5 pounds per week, it would still give you that 1200 because it won't go lower.
I don't understand why you think you'd need to increase your calories in this scenario. Staying at 1200 has gradually reduced your deficit as your TDEE has reduced. It's perfectly fine to stay at 1200 if that works for you because that's sufficient calories to get in all of your nutrients. The thing is that you don't want to go below 1200 in order to try to keep your deficit at 1000.6 -
Your deficit has reduced. Therefore, you aren't at 2 lbs per week any longer. You said in your OP you were happy at 2 lbs per week but you aren't at 2 lbs per week.GrumpyHeadmistress wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »because the bigger you are, the higher your TDEE is. You need a deficit of 1000 calories a day to lose 2lbs a week When you don't have a lot to lose, you have less calories to play with, and a 1000 calorie a day deficit is usually far too big and results in a very small calorie allowance.
But if my TDEE is now less, than surely my deficit has reduced too? So when my TDEE was 2200 and my daily intake was 1200, I could lose 2lbs a week (7000 deficit a week). But now my TDEE has reduced to say 1800, if I keep eating 1200 a day my deficit has shrunk to 600 a day (or 4200 a week). Therefore I should be losing just over 1lb?
My TDEE dropping already causes my loss to slow. If I increase my calories as well I'm decreasing the deficit even more and slowing the loss further.
MFP won't go lower than 1200 calories per day for women. Even though you are set at 2 lbs, that 1200 per day won't get you 2 lbs of loss per week. As you said, your actual deficit at 1200 is closer to 1 pound per week. That gives your reduced deficit for your reduced TDEE without changing your MFP settings or your intake amount. If you did change your MFP settings to, say, 1.5 pounds per week, it would still give you that 1200 because it won't go lower.
I don't understand why you think you'd need to increase your calories in this scenario. Staying at 1200 has gradually reduced your deficit as your TDEE has reduced. It's perfectly fine to stay at 1200 if that works for you because that's sufficient calories to get in all of your nutrients. The thing is that you don't want to go below 1200 in order to try to keep your deficit at 1000.
Sorry I should have been clearer - at 1200 I am still losing at 2lbs a week (on average).
Thanks for the confirmation. In which case I'll leave my calories at 1200 rather than increasing them.
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If you are still losing 2 pounds per week, you are either underestimating what you are taking in or burning more cals than you think. Are you eating your exercise calories?2
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If you are still losing 2 pounds per week, you are either underestimating what you are taking in or burning more cals than you think. Are you eating your exercise calories?
I'm pretty accurate with my logging but I do think I underestimate my swims by about 400 calories a go. As I swim four times a week it adds up.0 -
I eat all my exercise calories.0
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how far are you swimming if you think you are underestimating by 400cal (I ask because I swam 2000yds last night with sprints and only burnt 200cal - on a GPS based watch that adjusts for age/weight etc) - swimming doesn't burn a huge amount of calories1
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deannalfisher wrote: »how far are you swimming if you think you are underestimating by 400cal (I ask because I swam 2000yds last night with sprints and only burnt 200cal - on a GPS based watch that adjusts for age/weight etc) - swimming doesn't burn a huge amount of calories
2500 metres with fast breaststroke - faster than anyone doing crawl.2 -
yeah, underestimating by 400cal is going to be tough - you *might* burn 250cal doing that (even my 2.4 mile swims only have me burning 400cal)2
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deannalfisher wrote: »yeah, underestimating by 400cal is going to be tough - you *might* burn 250cal doing that (even my 2.4 mile swims only have me burning 400cal)
Hmm can't be that then. Maybe my TDEE is higher than I thought.0 -
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If you're losing more than 1% of your BW per week, you're definitely getting into your muscle mass. You don't have the fat stores to mobilize for fast weight loss.6
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You lose muscle only if you don't hit you're macro nutrients because I've been dieting and haven't lost any muscle I've been gaining a lot of muscle .kommodevaran wrote: »When you lose weight, you lose fat and muscle. As the calorie deficit increases, the ratio of fat:muscle get skewed in the direction of muscle. 1% of total body weight is a general recommendation for healthy weekly loss. You will notice it when you're eating too little, but there are some confounding factors - logging of food intake may be inaccurate so you're eating more than you think, the lag before malnutrition catches up with you, your tolerance for hunger, water weight fluctuations, your body's fat% and maybe more.
Think about is as a river that dries up during summer and turns into a little creek. There is water, but it runs so so slowly, and starts to trickle.
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HarlemNY17 wrote: »
You lose muscle only if you don't hit you're macro nutrients because I've been dieting and haven't lost any muscle I've been gaining a lot of muscle .kommodevaran wrote: »When you lose weight, you lose fat and muscle. As the calorie deficit increases, the ratio of fat:muscle get skewed in the direction of muscle. 1% of total body weight is a general recommendation for healthy weekly loss. You will notice it when you're eating too little, but there are some confounding factors - logging of food intake may be inaccurate so you're eating more than you think, the lag before malnutrition catches up with you, your tolerance for hunger, water weight fluctuations, your body's fat% and maybe more.
Think about is as a river that dries up during summer and turns into a little creek. There is water, but it runs so so slowly, and starts to trickle.
How do you know?6 -
Take your time . At 1200 calories a day or lower for a male is not NORMAL . Male should atleast consume 1500 calories per day . Eating less than that you should see a doctor and not MyFitnessPal0
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HarlemNY17 wrote: »
You lose muscle only if you don't hit you're macro nutrients because I've been dieting and haven't lost any muscle I've been gaining a lot of muscle .kommodevaran wrote: »When you lose weight, you lose fat and muscle. As the calorie deficit increases, the ratio of fat:muscle get skewed in the direction of muscle. 1% of total body weight is a general recommendation for healthy weekly loss. You will notice it when you're eating too little, but there are some confounding factors - logging of food intake may be inaccurate so you're eating more than you think, the lag before malnutrition catches up with you, your tolerance for hunger, water weight fluctuations, your body's fat% and maybe more.
Think about is as a river that dries up during summer and turns into a little creek. There is water, but it runs so so slowly, and starts to trickle.
Unlikely that you've gained any significant muscle while dieting. Are you a newbie, and returner or obese? And other than adequate protein, hitting your macros has little impact on muscle loss. Lack of sufficient energy in (calories) will though.4 -
HarlemNY17 wrote: »Take your time . At 1200 calories a day or lower for a male is not NORMAL . Male should atleast consume 1500 calories per day . Eating less than that you should see a doctor and not MyFitnessPal
except that the OP is female...4 -
deannalfisher wrote: »HarlemNY17 wrote: »Take your time . At 1200 calories a day or lower for a male is not NORMAL . Male should atleast consume 1500 calories per day . Eating less than that you should see a doctor and not MyFitnessPal
except that the OP is female...
I guess my handle is ambiguous...6 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »If you're losing more than 1% of your BW per week, you're definitely getting into your muscle mass. You don't have the fat stores to mobilize for fast weight loss.
This is concerning - I don't want to end up skinny fat. I do work out with a PT twice a week doing purely strength but have always assumed that I'm just losing the duvet of fat and maintaining the muscle underneath but not actually building any muscle.
So your body has a maximum amount of fat it can use every day/week?
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
True that this is possible if she is as active as she is mentioning with her swimming, etc. If we had height/weight/age we could estimate maintenance calories.... Just like we always say on here though, having a 1000 deficit with less than 10 pounds to goal is very tough to maintain. Figuring that the odds are that the answer falls somewhere in those areas, which is why I asked if she was eating her exercise calories that could have lead to a high deficit.
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Need2Exerc1se wrote: »
True that this is possible if she is as active as she is mentioning with her swimming, etc. If we had height/weight/age we could estimate maintenance calories.... Just like we always say on here though, having a 1000 deficit with less than 10 pounds to goal is very tough to maintain. Figuring that the odds are that the answer falls somewhere in those areas, which is why I asked if she was eating her exercise calories that could have lead to a high deficit.
If it helps - 5'4", 134.4lbs, 36. Goal is 125lbs
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I eat everything that doesn't move. And some things that do.3
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@GrumpyHeadmistress I haven't seen you say, so I'll ask. What is your BMI. It actually might inform the answers you get.
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Apparently it's 23. Who knew?!0
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »@GrumpyHeadmistress I haven't seen you say, so I'll ask. What is your BMI. It actually might inform the answers you get.
According to the height/weigth she posted it would be 23.11
This discussion has been closed.
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