Should I slow down?

jestersvk

Hey,
I have a question regarding my dieting/workout. It's a bit longer but please I would really appreciate your help.
I started because I was fed up with being friend-zoned by every single girl I met (+ I want to look better) so I looked around and found the MFP app for iPad and played with it just to see what it would take for me to loose wight. What I found out pleasantly surprised me. I found that if I set it so that I want to loose 2 pounds a week I only have to cut down on soft drinks and sweets (soft drinks almost doubled my caloric intake). But basically I don't starve or feel any more hungry than usual. To speed up my weight loss I also started swimming, one hour a day every day. The app suggested that I eat 1660 calories a day (instead 2500 which is the recommended calorie intake for men) + 900 calories which I burn swimming for 60 minutes . That makes about 2500 calories I can eat every day and still loose 2 pounds a week. But I usually only eat those 1600 - 1700 suggested by the app which adds up to 1700 - 1800 calories which I loose every day. This total would mean that I would loose not 2 but about 3-4 pounds a week. But then I read that if I eat too little I can in fact be loosing muscle tissue and not fat which is what I don't want, so my question is: Should I increase my daily calorie intake thus slowing my weight loss or is it ok as long as I eat enough to cover my resting metabolic rate? (which I found is somewhere between 1200 - 1800 calories / day and as I stated earlier I eat about 1600 - 1700 calories a day so well within the limit)

em9371

you should eat the exercise calories back and not aim for a loss above 2lb /week.
trying to lose faster than your body can cope with will burn muscle rather than fat, muscle burns more calories than fat so this will slow down your metabolism and make it harder for you to lose and easier to gain in the long term.
its much easier to sustain too at a higher calorie level you dont feel like you are on a diet so can easily stick to your goal, at lower levels you are more likely to feel hungry and deprived which could result in a binge.
if you add some weight training to your exercise plan, this will help build muscle so your body burns more calories even when resting. also a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat so you will lose inches more quickly this way.
hope this helps x

candicemaechling

I know this wount help a lot but everyone is different in the beginning I had 159 to go so I was losing like crazy in the beginning with better food choices and excersice my first 3 months was 60 gone and its taken me 10 more months to lose 50 more you have to experiment and find out what works for you I've tried lots of different ideas that I've seen through different post of successful people. Be careful with the excersice calories they are close to accurate compared to my hrm I've found mfp estimates to be high. You can do this though good luck and lots of reading on here will help I promise!