Weight loss help?

destinyamarrie18

I’m currently 359 pounds. 26, F 5’5 I did a lot of research and asked people on this app and everyone recommended IIFYM calculator to calculate my BMR/ TDEE. My TDEE is 2,839 for sedentary to get a better idea of things, but I do workout 5 days a week, an hour each day. To lose weight I need to eat roughly 2,300 calories a day. Which is what I’m doing. My Apple Watch is saying my total calorie burn each day is over 4,000 and I keep being told my deficit is too big because of this so I am slightly confused. I am trying to lose 110 pounds so I just want to be doing things right

totameafox

If you are burning 4000 calories a day then you should be eating at least 3000-3200 calories a day for a 1 pound a week weight loss. Losing slower helps your body adjust to the loss better but at your weight, you are likely to have a lot of loose skin anyway. You still need to eat to keep your body nourished properly for your exercise.

Many people here eat half their exercise calories. Since you are exercising I wouldn't recommend eating less than 2839. If your apple watch is accurate that would be almost a pound every 3 days. It sounds like you are working very hard. Don't burn yourself out. You will be doing this for the rest of your life.

PAV8888

How long have you been at this?

When starting out with sufficient energy reserves it is not as problematic to risk progressing at a slightly faster pace. While for most people targeting 0.25% to 1% of body weight loss per week makes sense, when people have less reserves the lower part of the range appears to have less potential for problems. However in this case targeting the higher end of 1% of body weight per week initially would not be out of line.

This is a long way of saying that if the current deficit proves to be of the order of 1800 Cal a day in actual fact, it is unlikely that anything particularly bad will happen during the first few months of pulling such a large deficit.

So.

I would be congnizant that there is a likelihood that you're pulling larger deficits than what you've selected.

I would be using the time to figure out things about myself.

If my weight changes supported the continuing conjecture that I'm actually pulling such large deficits I would use the knowledge to my benefit choosing to moderate towards sustainability (smaller deficits) whenever the choice between making things harder or making things more sustainable popped up.

From the start point you're at you've got some long term changes to make. Choosing sustainable options makes sense.

When I first started out, one of my reasons for seeing if I could lose at around 2500 Calories of intake was because I had estimated that to be my probable maintenance. Long story there as I didn't even have a target amount of weight to lose as I hadn't been in the normal weight range in my adult life. But hey, guys seem to eat around 2500 and some calculations indicated to me that at my height 2500 would even require me to be non sedentary so it seemed like a good target.

This gave me the opportunity to practice for a long time what sort of eating i could expect at goal (or at the very least planted the seed of doing so in my little brain!) which also planted the seed that sustainability and continued compliance was more important than speed at any point of time. Because time was literally the remainder of my life.

So. I wouldn't worry too much about larger deficits initially.. but I would worry about "looking" at the far end game and shaping a path of making that far end game your daily normal. But, in the process, I would definitely be aware that deficit is a range and eating more and slowing down as per plan totally makes sense vs going off plan and uncontrollable.

Direction (being in a deficit, any deficit) beats being static. While 0.5% of body weight loss per week is better tolerated by most people than 1%, your starting position and amount of time in deficit make it ok to achieve the higher end of that when starting out.

Timelines are elastic and different for individuals. I don't want to foreshadow here but in the quest for sustainability adjustments are a good thing. For some around the six month mark or so, for some the eighth or ninth, for some the third or fourth. Whatever it is do apply deficits that you can SENSIBLY tolerate and adjust as needed to continue to comply and progress in the correct direction.

Nothing wrong with 500 as a target. Or 1000 or 750. But you do have the option of creating a larger deficit at this time as long as it feels sustainable to you. Pulling 1% for many months? For almost all of us there will come a time that we should adjust downwards.

(The rule of thumb is 3500Cal deficit per lb. This is not a "true" value and not every lb is actually 100% fat reserves. But in our world of averages it does work)

Best of luck and do remember that general activity and specific exercises both burn calories and offer health benefits! You don't have to feel like you're dying in order to benefit from activity and exercise.

PS the apple watch is a more nuanced estimate of the online estimates you used. It can be tricked into thinking you're burning more calories if your heart rate is higher because of reasons unrelated to the exact activity you're doing or because of your general condition or because of the type of activity you're engaged in. But it is also with you all the time. I would take it at face value in terms of it being a relatively unbiased and consistent estimate of what you burned. Not a correct estimate necessarily. Just a consistent one.

Based on your consistent logging of intake and your consistent info about your burn from apple watch and your weight level derived by, for example, something like the iOS app happy scale (or similar) based on your weight ins THAT interaction is going to tell you over sufficient time (weeks and months) what sort of deficits you're actually applying.

AnnPT77

You are smart to want to keep the process healthy and sustainable. Good show!

Read what PAV said above carefully, because there's lots of good advice all through there. Totameafox's advice is also good.

Your 4-6 week average logging/scale results will give you a much better estimate of your calorie needs than any calculator or fitness tracker. If you have menstrual cycles, it would be better to compare weight change at the same relative point in 2 or even 3 different monthly cycles, since hormone-related water fluctuations can be pretty wild for some women.

Since you have a lot to lose, and you're quite young so possibly more resilient, you're probably safe with a maybe-large deficit for a few weeks until you have enough personal experience data to figure things out.

However, if you find yourself hanging on by your fingernails from the standpoint of sticking with your calorie goal, losing weight what looks like very fast after a shorter number of weeks, feeling weak or fatigued (or having other negative symptoms) for no other obvious reason . . . I'd suggest considering eating more and restarting the clock on the 4-6 weeks/multiple menstrual cycle "experiment".

destinyamarrie18 wrote: »

I’m currently 359 pounds. 26, F 5’5 I did a lot of research and asked people on this app and everyone recommended IIFYM calculator to calculate my BMR/ TDEE. My TDEE is 2,839 for sedentary to get a better idea of things, but I do workout 5 days a week, an hour each day. To lose weight I need to eat roughly 2,300 calories a day. Which is what I’m doing. My Apple Watch is saying my total calorie burn each day is over 4,000 and I keep being told my deficit is too big because of this so I am slightly confused. I am trying to lose 110 pounds so I just want to be doing things right

I'll say this: I'm your height, more than twice your age (69, closer to 3x your age), quite a bit less than half your weight, sedentary outside of intentional exercise, doing your hour daily of exercise or less, and maintaining my weight on around 2100 gross calories. One person's results don't shed any light at all on another's calorie needs, because we're all individuals; and I admit I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner for my demographic.

Still, that personal experience suggests to me that 2300 or maybe even more would result in weight loss for someone of your demographics. It's a reasonable start to the experiment, IMO.

Best wishes: Reaching a healthier weight with sustainable habits in your 20s will be an amazing, productive investment in your future self's health and happiness. I wish my young self had been that smart. I'm cheering for you to succeed, and believe you can if you stick with it.

tomcustombuilder

Regardless of how you try to calculate things with any app, those are gonna be strictly starting points. You need to stick with those calories for a month and review the progress or lack of progress at that time and make any necessary adjustments.

Anecdotal experience from other people is basically useless because everybody is going to be different and everybody’s going to count their calories differently with varying degrees of accuracy.

I would be concerned about the Apple Watch information at 4000 cal