Confused...

giddings78
giddings78 Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
Im new to this weight loss game but have tried to do as much research as possible as not to fail, however i have become confused regarding so of the figures my body is through at me.

Im a big guy, i was 135kg (300lbs) at the start of August and got down to 125kg (275lbs) on the 21st of November (14 weeks) however in the last 2 weeks i have dropped 3kg a week and am now done to 119kg (262lbs). I have not changed my diet (approx 1600 cal a day) in the last 2 weeks but have increased my exercise (2km walk, 30 x-trainer, 20 min weights) by a small amount. According to the app (not sure how accurate it is) im using it has been body fat rather muscle.

In my research i have not heard of this happening, in fact only the opposite of things slowing down, hence why im confused! Has anybody heard of something like this or got a reasonable explanation?

Replies

  • now_or_never12
    now_or_never12 Posts: 849 Member
    I'm confused by the question... are you saying the app says you are burning body fat or muscle?

    You will burn muscle if you are not taking in enough calories and protein.
  • cedarghost
    cedarghost Posts: 621 Member
    yeah, I'm a little confused on what you are asking too. Your weight loss rate depends on a lot of things, including how much you have to lose. The more you have to lose, the faster it can come off and the less chance you are losing lean body mass rather than fat. Just be prepared for the loss to slow down as your near a healthy weight and make sure your really watch your protein when that happens.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    For a person of your size, you are in a very large deficit. This will almost certainly cause some of your loss to be lean muscle mass. Walking is a low impact exercise that will primarily burn fat for fuel but losing at that quick a rate is costing you some muscle tissue. You will lose some no matter what but the way to minimize this is less of a deficit and adding in some strength training to your walking.
  • lauren3101
    lauren3101 Posts: 1,853 Member
    I understand what you are saying I think - your weight loss has come off a lot quicker in the last two weeks?

    Weight loss is not linear and can happen in fits and spurts. I normally lose around 1lb a week, but then didn't lose anything for 3, then lost 8lb in one week.

    Having said that, it doesn't sound like you are eating a lot (I eat 2000 cals a day and I'm shorter than you, weigh less than you and am female). I would re-evaluate your calorie limit.
  • mrseelmerfudd
    mrseelmerfudd Posts: 506 Member
    I understand what you are saying I think - your weight loss has come off a lot quicker in the last two weeks?

    Weight loss is not linear and can happen in fits and spurts. I normally lose around 1lb a week, but then didn't lose anything for 3, then lost 8lb in one week.

    Having said that, it doesn't sound like you are eating a lot (I eat 2000 cals a day and I'm shorter than you, weigh less than you and am female). I would re-evaluate your calorie limit.

    This!
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
    When in a caloric deficit, it is inevitable that the body will use some muscle and some fat. The higher the deficit, the more amount of muscle will be used in addition to fat. There is a theoretical limit to the amount of fat the body can use in a day that is based on the amount of fat available. But, I have not seen significant enough research on this to declare it a fact.

    Your question seems to be that since you've taken up exercise, you've lost weight at a faster rate, but had assumed that it would have slowed down. Weight loss slowing down with exercise usually only occurs in people that take up an intense form of exercise such as HIIT and heavy weight lifting, and then, that is only temporary until the body adjusts to being more active. Otherwise, increasing your activity increases calories burned and thus increases loss. The general slowing down of weight loss from more intense exercise is due to the extra retention of water.

    The "Fat burning zone" as promoted by lots of exercise equipment and apps is where the proportion of fat used for energy is higher than the portion of muscle and energy stored there. Higher intensity exercises will use less fat as a proportion of the energy used, but will use more fat overall.

    Math:

    60% of 100 is 60 (Higher proportion, less overall) <-- Fat burning zone
    50% of 150 is 75 (Lower proportion, more overall) <-- Burns more fat
  • giddings78
    giddings78 Posts: 12
    Thank you all for the responses. Sorry about the confusion to some, but lauren3101 got it. I was just confused that the weight would come off nice and steady and then increase rapidly for the last 2 weeks. Must have skipped over the point that weight loss is not linear.

    The large deficit at the moment is only a temporary thing to shrink the size of my stomach back to a normal size and then i was planning on increasing to around 2300 a day with more calorie rice foods but staying at the smaller portion size.

    I understand and do expect that lean muscle mass to occur while losing weight and will be increasing weight training when i go to the increased calories

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