Losing weight TOO fast?

slmckenzie

Hey all. It's me back again. This is going to be really long - sorry! But hopefully I am able to explain myself enough to hopefully portray my dilemma.

I've been doing the MFP, plus exercising, plus getting rid of pop, plus completely overhauling my diet 180 degrees, plus training for a 5K, for about the last 3.5 months. It's been a wild ride, and I never thought I'd be able to stick with it, but with the help of my wife, plus the determination and motivation, both for my future and the future of our family, I have been able to stick with it, and have been doing great! However, I've come into a bit of a problem, and am wondering whether or not it's a problem, or what the deal is.

Last weekend, we had a bit of a "physical status test" at our gym, which is supposed to be for new gym members (ours was a bit late into the process), that basically checks your current physical status, gives you some overall goals and a chart telling you where you are, and where you should be. During that process, we talked with the trainer who was doing it for us, and I mentioned how I was losing weight, eating, and what I was doing for calories. After telling her, she stated that she was concerned that I was eating too little calories, and that I should be upping my calorie intake, as I'm burning too much muscle along with fat during the weight loss.

I will admit, I've been taking the Omron body fat thing every Monday, late in the afternoon / early evening, before supper. I try to be consistent with it so that I don't inject any variables that may mess up the results from it. And throughout the past two months or so that I've been doing it, my body fat measurement hasn't gone anywhere. It's stayed at about the 27% mark (though when I took it at the gym with theirs, it measured 22% - they stated that it was because I was taking it in the morning instead of evening). Either way, it's been relatively consistent, which means that with the weight I've lost, I've had to lose muscle to maintain that percentage. So for every 3 pounds of weight I've lost, it appears that I've lost about 1 pound of muscle along with it.

I have my MFP set to lose a pound and a half a week. Initially, when I weighed 221 lbs a bit over 3 months ago, I figured that was a fair diet amount, and I should be good to go. Fast forward to today, where I am now 186lbs (yay!), and I still have it set to lose 1.5lbs a week. According to the lifestyle I set for it, I put me as completely sedentary. I work for 9-10 hours per day as a software developer, so I sit on my butt and type all day. Then when coming home, I normally sit and watch TV, play videogames, or plop next to my computer and do stuff on it a lot in the evening. Granted, that used to be my original lifestyle, and it has since changed, but I track all my exercise as "additional exercise", and track it all in MFP.

Initially, MFP had me at about 1690 calories to eat per day. This, with about a 2200 calorie BMR, put me at about 1.5lbs a week. Now, after losing 35lbs, MFP now has me eating about 1490, which accommodates for the lower BMR, since I weigh less.

Now comes the confusing part. As I've been losing weight, I've been trying to alternate between cardio workouts (my heartrate always runs really high), and strength training. I've been doing more cardio recently, since it's easier to do around the neighborhood, now that it's nice out again, but still try to get in strength training every once in awhile. Throughout the weight loss, I don't think I've lost any muscle with respect to the strength training I've been doing (bench press, lat pull, bicep/tricep curls, leg extensions, "yes/no" machine, etc). Those have stayed relatively consistent, if not slightly increased in weight used.

However, the cardio / running part *may* have me slightly concerned. When I first started the C25K, I about died on W1D1. I didn't complete all the intervals, my back was killing me, I had horrible back cramps and side aches, and I couldn't breathe. Fast forward to about a month ago, and I managed to do the day where you had to run 20 minutes straight. I managed to pull through and do it! After that, I started slacking some, with wrapping up classes, work, and just getting a bit lazy about it. So I put it off and only ran once or so every week. Needless to say, when I went back out and genuinely tried to run the next interval of the C25K, I couldn't complete it. So from that point, I've been trying to out and run a bit more regularly, and each time, it's felt like a struggle to maintain that endurance that I had not more than a month prior.

I guess I'm wondering if the lack of endurance and running ability is due to 1) losing too much weight / muscle too fast, 2) not running in quite some time and maintaining that consistency, or 3) not eating enough calories for energy.

When I started, I was 221 pounds. That was 14 weeks ago. I've lost 35 pounds, putting me at 2.5 lbs per week average lost. I hit one-derland on May 2nd, which means that I've lost 13 pounds since then in 5.5 weeks, or about 2.4 lbs per week. So it appears that I've been pretty consistent at about that 2.5 lbs per week average. Perhaps that's the problem - maybe my metabolism is actually a lot higher than normal, so I do burn through calories a bit faster, and I am losing weight a bit too quickly. Or, maybe it's OK that I'm losing at that pace, since I'm still eating the calories I should be eating.

To throw more math into the mix, if I told MFP to lose 1.5 lbs per week, and I'm losing 2.5 lbs per week, if I don't eat back any of my exercise calories, that should mean that I burn 3500 calories per week exercising. Unfortunately, I can definitely state that's not the case, especially within the past month and a half, when I only hit the gym about twice. But when I do, I usually try to eat back part of the exercise calories, especially when I'm really hungry.

Which brings up another question - hunger. If I am eating way too few calories, I would assume I would be hungrier than I should be. I can also say that's not the case. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm starving, I EAT! I will admit to a number of times going out to eat, unhealthy lunches, etc. So it's definitely not as though I'm starving myself throughout the process.

So, long story short, does it seem that I'm eating too little? My body's definitely not going into starvation mode, which is evident by the fact that I'm still losing weight at a pretty good clip. But I wonder if I'm losing it too quickly, or if it's Ok at the pace I'm losing it at. I know when I was at 221, 2.5lbs per week was fine to lose. But now at 185, I'm not sure if it is or not.

If it helps matters any, I'm 5.6", and still have a BMI of 30.0, so I'm *just* above the obese mark. I know that BMI is just a rough estimate, and it shouldn't be taken too strongly (especially because I know I have a ton of muscle and almost no fat in my legs - I can crush and max out the "yes/no" machine, with calf extensions in the 600lbs-ish, and leg extensions around 350lbs). But I have a ton of flab left on me above the waist line. So I know there's still a lot of weight left to lose.

Thanks for any input and advice you have, and sorry for the long read!

suzycreamcheese

if its working for you, and you feel like you have enough energy and dont feel hungry, and feel its a lifestyle you could maintain, then dont worry about it. Keep going x

trud72

LOL i was lost half way down that and i'm certainly no maths expert but the basic question...can you loose weight too fast most people would say NO WAY! and i would say it too BUT the experts would say 1.5/2 lbs an week is the right amount!
they say if you loose it too quick you will gwt baggy skin ect but even if you loose it slowly you still will if you have streched it!!
so the answer to your question...i dont know lol
good luck whatever it is... x

k2d4p

I lost 102 pounds in 8 months. I had many MANY people tell me that it was too fast. I feel fine and have maintained it for months now. In my opinion, I wouldn't listen to a trainer. I would speak with a doctor. Try not to get jumbled up in all the stats and math. That will be something that is very difficult to keep up with for long. I would say you need to do what you feel is right for you.

registers

if its working for you, and you feel like you have enough energy and dont feel hungry, and feel its a lifestyle you could maintain, then dont worry about it. Keep going x

I can't believe your personal trainer even mentioned starvation mode, they need to stop reading their fitness magazines and get educated. But I agree with the quoted section, "if it's not broke, don't fix it."

withchaco

"I'm not hungry, so I must be eating enough" isn't always the case. Unexplained lack of hunger or appetite may indicate your metabolism going down.

Overall, though, it sounds like it's working for you just fine. Every body is different.

AshinAms

I don't think that there is such a thing as losing too fat, but I know when my weight loss goes over about 1 lb a week that I have very little stamina for resistance or cardio training. I suggest that what you do is try zigzagging your calories so that when you are expecting to train hard you make sure your body has adequate reserves to pull from.

Hunger can be misleading - exercise is a fantastic appetite suppresant!

You will always lose some muscle with the fat, and your ratio looks ok so I wouldn't worry about that.

If you haven't already, the website of Tom Venuto and the ebook that he publishes - Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle is VERY good. I can't recommend it enough, especially for men. It might help with planning what to eat before training.

Good luck!

andyj1984

There is also the simple fact that men do tend to lose weight faster and easier than women! (sorry girls...). Its one of those things, because we have more muscles, and are less disposed to having a store of fat. For women the body tries to keep on to some of the fat supply.

I have a similar type of job, and am losing a similar amount of weight, though my starting weight was much higher at 248lbs. I'm losing about 2.5lbs/week, which is fine for me. I have decided that once I get to 200lbs I will change my deficit to a smaller amount, around 1lbs/week.

As long as it works for you keep going, you can always rebuild the muscle through strength training when you have lost the fat, Its not something I personally worry about! Maybe when you get closer to your goal you can incorporate some strength training?

Well done on the weight loss BTW!

mags2504

Going to the running point you made, I also am trying a bit of running. I started a few months ago and was jogging between telegraph poles along the road. I started jog one walk one. A few weeks ago i managed to run about 2.5 km without stopping (a slow pace mind) but have only managed that once since. We will get there though so I'm not worried.

ninyagwa

I think all of the above comments have some validity. I do think you should consider also that even if your personal trainer is certified, that does not make him/her a certified nutritionist.

If you feel okay with how your weightloss is going, and so does your doctor, then don't even worry about it.

For the best answer, speak with your primary care physician, and if he thinks it's an issue have him refer you to a certified nutritionist who can help you with your calorie goals.

You're doing great!!

ladyhawk00

As mentioned, hunger is not necessarily a good cue for how much you should be eating. Since you are close to goal and don't have much left to lose, you should have a MUCH smaller deficit than you did before. Might help to read these:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficits

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

bonjour24

i can only really comment on the running part. you need to run at least 3x per week to see any improvement in your running performance. less than that and you're not building your endurance, so you won't get any better (or it may take alot longer to improve).
so, i say that you're not running enough. it would be like benching 350lbs, stopping for 2 months, then expect to be able to bench 350lbs again straight away- not gonna happen.