Logic on “the last 20 pounds”...
Options
brittlb07
Posts: 313 Member
I need help understanding why everyone says that when you get to the last 20 pounds, you should only be losing 1/2 pound a week. Why is this suggested? I only have 18 left to lose (and only started at a total of 25). If I am comfortable sticking to me 1350 calories a day, why can’t I keep aiming for 1-1.5 pounds per week as I’ve experienced so far?
3
Replies
-
Primarily because your body can only burn a set amount of fat each day before it starts going after muscle and other tissue. How much it can burn is based on how much you have overall. So, once you're that close to a healthy weight, the body just doesn't have enough to support that much loss.
Muscle is much, much easier to retain than it is to build and is what gives us a nice shape. Losing muscle isn't worth it.36 -
The above advice is spot on and is very important! Also, I’ve found since I’m experiencing this right now, I am so so so so hungry if I have my calories set to 1 to 1.5lbs a week. Just experiment with it yourself. It’s very hard to maintain the lighter you get.3
-
It's just harder to lose and stay committed (because there is "less" of you, so fewer calories needed, and so calorie count needs to be on point, less wiggle room).3
-
OK,I'm bumping this thread. I'm now 20 pounds away. I weighed in at 155 and my goal in 137. That will put my BMI at 22.5. I don't know if I'm going to make it because I have always failed when I got to the last 20 to 25 pounds. It takes so much patience that we constantly need reminders we are moving in the right direction.
For instance. A few weeks ago I was only a couple of pounds heavier than now. I fluctuated 1 to 5 pounds every day and on my weigh in days, which is Mondays, I was always heavier than my projected weigh loss....frustrating!
So before I gave up...again..., I had to go back and look at my weekly diary and calorie history and do the math. The result indeed proved I actually was losing an average of 1 pound a week. Today's weigh in proved it as well. Finally, however, I know next week I might not budge. I might not see anything for 2 weeks. And then only 0.5 pounds. Maybe not for another month I will all of a sudden drop an additional 3 pounds, "seemingly overnight".
So we just can't be in such a rush. If you know you are eating within your calorie allowance, and if you are honest about your logging. You will lose the weight. It will happen. You just have to give it time. I m only allowed 1410 calorie in order to lose a pound a week. I have to exercise in order to enjoy my snacking and lose the weight. I need all the calories I can get.lol
15 -
Also when you get down to a fairly lean state it is probably a good idea to incorporate diet breaks on a fairly regular basis:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p12 -
So how do you know when you are 20 pounds away really? Especially if you are not sure about your goal weight? I'm 5'2" and I'm thinking my goal may be between 130 to 115, I have no idea when I'll be happy with my weight so it's hard to decide. I'm thinking I just go with how I feel? So if I start to feel too hungry all the time it's time to scale back to .5lbs?6
-
BattyKnitter wrote: »So how do you know when you are 20 pounds away really? Especially if you are not sure about your goal weight? I'm 5'2" and I'm thinking my goal may be between 130 to 115, I have no idea when I'll be happy with my weight so it's hard to decide. I'm thinking I just go with how I feel? So if I start to feel too hungry all the time it's time to scale back to .5lbs?
Personally, I stuck with 1 lb/week until that became too uncomfortable. For me, that was about 5 lbs away from my initial goal weight which was the top end of healthy on the BMI scale. My initial goal was to only lose about 25 lbs to begin with. I found an article I liked that based rate of loss on body fat percentage, which I think is a much more reasonable determining factor.
Body Fat Level Rate of Fat Loss
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-34% 1-2 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.5% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 35+% 1.5-3.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.5% of body weight per week.4 -
Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.8
-
I am in the same situation. I want to lose the last 15lbs. But it seems like it is going to take me forever. I am hoping to get there in 4-6 months.1
-
Cassandraw3 wrote: »BattyKnitter wrote: »So how do you know when you are 20 pounds away really? Especially if you are not sure about your goal weight? I'm 5'2" and I'm thinking my goal may be between 130 to 115, I have no idea when I'll be happy with my weight so it's hard to decide. I'm thinking I just go with how I feel? So if I start to feel too hungry all the time it's time to scale back to .5lbs?
Personally, I stuck with 1 lb/week until that became too uncomfortable. For me, that was about 5 lbs away from my initial goal weight which was the top end of healthy on the BMI scale. My initial goal was to only lose about 25 lbs to begin with. I found an article I liked that based rate of loss on body fat percentage, which I think is a much more reasonable determining factor.
Body Fat Level Rate of Fat Loss
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-34% 1-2 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.5% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 35+% 1.5-3.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.5% of body weight per week.
Yeah I'm 148 so going with the top end of my goal, 130, I technically should be scaling back to .5 but with my activity level I'm currently eating 1500-1700 calories a day so not hungry, and losing 1lb a week still.0 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.0 -
BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
Take a maintenance break for a couple of weeks. If you're starting to show signs, you may start to experience unusual hunger without the interference of a deficit (oddly enough, a deficit can have an appetite suppressing effect for some people when they go too low), if not, then you've done yourself well by taking a maintenance break anyway.3 -
BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
You probably won't until it is too late and you are at what you thought your goal weight should be, but notice that you don't look nearly as "toned" as you thought you would, due to loss of more muscle than expected.4 -
Cassandraw3 wrote: »BattyKnitter wrote: »So how do you know when you are 20 pounds away really? Especially if you are not sure about your goal weight? I'm 5'2" and I'm thinking my goal may be between 130 to 115, I have no idea when I'll be happy with my weight so it's hard to decide. I'm thinking I just go with how I feel? So if I start to feel too hungry all the time it's time to scale back to .5lbs?
Personally, I stuck with 1 lb/week until that became too uncomfortable. For me, that was about 5 lbs away from my initial goal weight which was the top end of healthy on the BMI scale. My initial goal was to only lose about 25 lbs to begin with. I found an article I liked that based rate of loss on body fat percentage, which I think is a much more reasonable determining factor.
Body Fat Level Rate of Fat Loss
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-34% 1-2 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.5% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 35+% 1.5-3.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.5% of body weight per week.
I even find these quite agressive rates of loss. I would re-ost it as:
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.0 (at most) lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-38% 1-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.0% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 39+% 1.5-2.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.25% of body weight per week
but, since most people don't know their BF%.. if their goal weight is in a "healthy" BF% or in the healthy BMI range then the following is a good idea for setting rates of loss:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.
2 -
BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
I noticed that you said you were inclined to stick at your current 1500-1700 calories a day (that's net, right? after eating more calories to support your activity level?) because it's working for you at present. With ~18 pounds to go, that same deficit is going to result in slower weight loss over time. You might not "feel crappy" in the traditional sense (feeling low energy, for ex depending on your caffeine habit) if your deficit is too steep. What you might notice is hair loss beyond your seasonal shedding & disrupted sleep, and maybe more hunger sensations. That's your body working to divert resources to maintaining essential function. Lean mass loss (everything that's not fat) is inevitable during a long deficit period but as noted above, it's to be minimized as much as possible. If you're wanting to roll the dice a bit, keep doing what you're doing for another month. But then re-assess and slow your roll
Really, it's not a race ... one of the up sides of reducing the deficit is figuring out how maintenance is going to work for you.
3 -
FIFY, as the same deficit, should lead to the same weight loss, but your cals out lowers as you weigh less, so with the same intake you will lose slower as you lose weight (though still may be too fast given the amount of fat stores you have left)BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
I noticed that you said you were inclined to stick at your current 1500-1700 calories a day (that's net, right? after eating more calories to support your activity level?) because it's working for you at present. With ~18 pounds to go, that same calorie intake is going to result in slower weight loss over time. You might not "feel crappy" in the traditional sense (feeling low energy, for ex depending on your caffeine habit) if your deficit is too steep. What you might notice is hair loss beyond your seasonal shedding & disrupted sleep, and maybe more hunger sensations. That's your body working to divert resources to maintaining essential function. Lean mass loss (everything that's not fat) is inevitable during a long deficit period but as noted above, it's to be minimized as much as possible. If you're wanting to roll the dice a bit, keep doing what you're doing for another month. But then re-assess and slow your roll Really, it's not a race ... one of the up sides of reducing the deficit is figuring out how maintenance is going to work for you.6 -
Hormonal changes should be determined by a medical professional, if you think you are at risk of or are having issues, see a specialist. Remember that people on MFP are knowledgeable but are not medical experts, so not everything everyone says should be taken as fact.6
-
Cassandraw3 wrote: »BattyKnitter wrote: »So how do you know when you are 20 pounds away really? Especially if you are not sure about your goal weight? I'm 5'2" and I'm thinking my goal may be between 130 to 115, I have no idea when I'll be happy with my weight so it's hard to decide. I'm thinking I just go with how I feel? So if I start to feel too hungry all the time it's time to scale back to .5lbs?
Personally, I stuck with 1 lb/week until that became too uncomfortable. For me, that was about 5 lbs away from my initial goal weight which was the top end of healthy on the BMI scale. My initial goal was to only lose about 25 lbs to begin with. I found an article I liked that based rate of loss on body fat percentage, which I think is a much more reasonable determining factor.
Body Fat Level Rate of Fat Loss
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-34% 1-2 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.5% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 35+% 1.5-3.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.5% of body weight per week.
I even find these quite agressive rates of loss. I would re-ost it as:
Men: <15% Women: <24% <0.5-1.0 (at most) lb per week, or; 0.25-0.75% of body weight per week.
Men: 16-25% Women: 25-38% 1-1.5 lb per week, or; 0.75-1.0% of body weight per week.
Men: 26+% Women: 39+% 1.5-2.5 lb per week, or; 1.0-1.25% of body weight per week
but, since most people don't know their BF%.. if their goal weight is in a "healthy" BF% or in the healthy BMI range then the following is a good idea for setting rates of loss:
If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal.
I agree that the high end of those are aggressive (perhaps too aggressive), and I had actually posted a debate post on it. Since I work a desk job, I spend a good portion of the day sitting, with a maintenance range of 1800-2100 depending on intentional exercise so from my personal experience, the low end of that is what was manageable for me. Someone who is more active is likely able to have a higher deficit.
I cannot speak to the hormonal impact as I am no expert, but refeeds/diet breaks have been discussed multiple times on the forums as a way to help combat those. A lot of research that I have seen discusses the impact of sufficient protein for maintaining lean mass while in a deficit. Basically, no matter what your deficit, you will maintain lean mass (or at least lose a minimal amount) so long as you get enough protein.
*Again I am no expert. This is just from research I have done.1 -
BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
I noticed that you said you were inclined to stick at your current 1500-1700 calories a day (that's net, right? after eating more calories to support your activity level?) because it's working for you at present. With ~18 pounds to go, that same deficit is going to result in slower weight loss over time. You might not "feel crappy" in the traditional sense (feeling low energy, for ex depending on your caffeine habit) if your deficit is too steep. What you might notice is hair loss beyond your seasonal shedding & disrupted sleep, and maybe more hunger sensations. That's your body working to divert resources to maintaining essential function. Lean mass loss (everything that's not fat) is inevitable during a long deficit period but as noted above, it's to be minimized as much as possible. If you're wanting to roll the dice a bit, keep doing what you're doing for another month. But then re-assess and slow your roll Really, it's not a race ... one of the up sides of reducing the deficit is figuring out how maintenance is going to work for you.
Oh I know it's not a race! I am totally fine with my rate of loss slowing down, I was just trying to figure out when exactly I should drop, if my goal is 130 I should do that now with only 18lbs left but if my goal is 115 then I still have 33lbs to lose and don't need to switch to .5 yet. You see my confusion?
1500-1700 is including my exercise calories, sedentary with a 500 cal deficit is about 1300 calories for me. I use my Fitbit to track my calories and I eat back the big majority of my exercise calories back.
0 -
BattyKnitter wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Other than muscle, there is also the issue of being more likely to suffer from hormonal problems when you're already on the lean side and still dieting on a higher deficit. Those can be so hard to resolve and may even require gaining back some fat, so it's best to avoid getting to that point in the first place. By that, I don't mean just menstrual cycle disturbances, but also hunger hormones can get out of whack and when you transition to maintenance you'll find it much harder to keep your weight stable.
How do I know if I am at risk for this though? Would I not start feeling crappy? Right now I have energy and I'm only hungry before meals.
You probably won't until it is too late and you are at what you thought your goal weight should be, but notice that you don't look nearly as "toned" as you thought you would, due to loss of more muscle than expected.
Just a clarification, I don't plan on sticking to my 500 cal deficit until I reach goal weight, I do plan on cutting it back to 250 I'm just trying to figure out when I should do this.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.4K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 390 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 922 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions