Am I overdoing it?

gasperinimarco587

Hi all!
My girlfriend and I started this journey three days ago because we are feeling a bit unwell in our bodies and want to change that. Also, we want this to be our future lifestyle, not just a temporary diet!

Today, my brother gave me a guilty conscience by saying I am overdoing with my deficit it so I wanted to ask you guys.

Me:
Male, 32yo, 178cm, 95kg - Target: 70-75kg
Job: Homeoffice 8-9 hours a day + decent hours of gaming and not much walking besides running.
We started to run 3x a week. At the moment we are at around 15-20 mins per session and 1,7km.

On the app I selected 0,8kg per week (gf selected 0,5kg) since I know my capabilities with eating habbits. Before we met, I did intermittent fasting - 16/8 or even 24h, I plan to do it again starting tomorrow.

App shows 1560 calories for me, brother says I need around 2000-2100 to lose weight in a healthy way, otherwise my muscles will go back first, before my bodyfat.

Am I really overdoing it? I know it is hard, I have no problem with it. But I dont want to overdo it or doing it unhealthy.

Can you guys answer my question, if I am doing it right or wrong?

Thank you !

trixsterjl31

1500 is considered a bare minimum for males. 1200 for females. Doctors advice is always best when starting any program. That said if without knowing you your height/weight goals seem reasonable. If you keep exercising and east enough protein I dont think you need to worry a lot about muscle loss. They aren't wrong that if you go to low and your body start to starve it will eat muscle if it cant get sugar or fat.

FibroHiker

With intermittent fasting your calorie goals are within reason. However, the number is low enough that it could be setting you up for future failure in the terms of yo-yo dieting.

In 2020 I was losing weight steadily and then badly sprained my foot which derailed my progress. I reduced my daily calorie intake to 1250 because I couldn't move much or burn calories each day. I lost the weight I wanted to lose but it wasn't sustainable long term and I gained the weight back about 8 months later.

You want to keep this weight off. Building positive habits for the longterm are the best bet for success.

abstractedbrown

Are you tracking the nutrition categories on the app? Some consequences are not well known, I am still learning. E.g. some types of fat intake needed for brain health and can affect mental health.

ddsb1111

Set up your calorie goal to lose 1 lb per week, and eat that many calories. This enables you to eat foods you love and lose in a healthy way.

oakster69

I would add ( or reinforce since you mentioned in your first paragraph) that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Dont go to hard initially. Much better off to do something that is sustainable. I set myself for 2 pounds per week because I am overweight by a lot. I am also in my 50's so I didnt want to hurt myself lifting weights and lose more time. The two pounds per week were intially pretty easy but it has gotten a little tougher. If you are younger and closer to your ideal weight you can likely go harder from the get go. I would be concerned about muscle loss if losing too fast. That is chasing numbers on a scale, not health. Heath is about strength and fitness. Just dont burn yourself out trying to win the race in the 1st inning, its a lifestyle.

Sand_TIger

My thoughts are to set your goal to lose 1 pound a week and use that for your calories, then if more is added from exercise eat back half of that. I say half because fitness trackers are excellent at over estimating your calorie burn, it's almost always too high an estimate, no matter how fancy your fitness tracker. Weighing yourself at set intervals is a better measure, ultimately, though there will be times when nothing seems to change yet you are still losing fat.

Also add in some weight training even if it's just body weight stuff like pushups, squats, etc, because that will help you keep your muscle. General guideline is to lose no more than 1 percent of your body weight each week, though more than that might come off at first in terms of water weight. Keep in mind whether you can deal with this for a very long time as this is indeed a long term process and you want to be able to keep the weight off at the end by not going back to your old ways. Good luck!

Corina1143

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