Question on my weight loss technique

Hey,
This is a completely un-scientific reply, but it's my experience.
I am pretty much exactly the same position, just 5'6" and started at 240lb, now at 220lb after 8-9weeks.
I've eaten 1500kcal per day, as well as going to the gym around 2-3 times a week, swimming once a week and wheelchair basketball training once a week (pretty much entirely sedentary the rest of the day if I'm not working out).
I'm satisfied on 1500kcal per day as well, and I don't eat back my exercise calories that MFP gives. Seems to be working well for me, would have lost more, but lost track for a while when parties were on.
So for me, 1500kcal has worked well, and I feel I've slimmed down quite a bit more than weight lost (My shirts are starting to be way too baggy). Just keep your protein around 150g per day, to keep muscle repair up, and well, that's what's worked for me. But like I said, this is just experience, not scientific approach.

I think it's too low. Now, you can get away with a larger calorie deficit when you have larger fat stores, but you could well run into trouble over time. Larger calorie deficits mean a higher chance that you will be losing too much lean mass as you lose weight. Ideally, you'd want (I presume) to be losing mostly fat. The muscle you have at the moment is burning calories even while it's at rest. The more muscle you lose, the less you'll be burning. Of course, your BMR will go down as you lose weight anyway, but holding onto that muscle will help. It also helps a lot with the shape you end up with when you get to your goal. It's a lot easier to hold onto what you have than to lose all the weight and start building muscle from there.

It's not unusual for people to change their diet completely and suddenly feel "full and satisfied" on a low amount of calories. The thing is though, hunger is really not a good indication of how much food your body needs. It's quite a complicated process and restricting your calories for a long time, especially at a low level, can mess up your hormonal responses. People often find that the less they eat, the less hunger they feel (very common with eating disorders). Often, when people increase their calories, their appetite returns. 1500 calories is not a lot for a 5'8" male, especially with all that exercise you're doing too. You need more energy. You will get some of that energy from fat stores, but only so much. It's also hard to get all the nutrients you need on that many calories. Having cut out junk food and eating "healthily" - hopefully that means you're eating very nutrient-dense foods now, and that will certainly help. Chances are, you're getting better nutrition now than you were before.

Like I said, you can get away with more strict dieting when you are obese. Speaking from my experience, and everything I've learned over the last year or so, if it was me doing it all over again, I would go for a slightly smaller calorie deficit, focus on getting fitter, nourishing my body and fuelling my workouts. Don't be in a rush to lose it all at once. This is going to take time, and it doesn't stop when you reach your goal either. If I had your stats, I would choose to eat at around 2200-2400 a day, for now, and reduce the calorie deficit (ie eat more) as I got closer to a healthy weight.

And, even if you think it won't apply to you, I wouldn't discount the potential psychological effects of over-restricting. You might feel at the moment that 1500 seem "plentiful", but it probably won't always feel like that. Right now you're just starting out, probably feeling very motivated, it sounds like you've made big changes to your diet already. The truth is, motivation will come and go, and there may be times when you want to go back to your old ways. I would strongly advise making it as easy on yourself as you can from the beginning. Allow a little flexibility, allow yourself the foods you enjoy (I'm not saying you have to eat fast food). Avoid making such radical changes that a few weeks or months down the line you're going to burn out and want to fall off the proverbial wagon.

This might be worth reading (as well as the rest of the site), to help you decide:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/setting-the-deficit-small-moderate-or-large.html

Good luck with whatever you decide.

You're eating too little and you'll stall eventually. Eat more.

Rapid weight loss isn't the way though, in any case.

For a newbie like you who is quite a bit overweight I think you should not count calories at all for first few months. You can lose at least 20 to 25 pounds with simply healthy eating. Just ate healthy and stay away from too much fat and sugars and all that kind of stuff, and exercise. You will lose your first 20 pounds easy with this, no calories counting necessary, just ate healthy and as less junk as possible and work out. Of course don't starve yourself, ate so you would be satisfied and have energy, but healthy stuff

After a while when your weight loss starts to slow down you can start to count calories...

Yes, "starvation mode" it is true. But at same time it is also very exaggerated. You need to be in very big calorie deficit for quite a long while for that to have any big effect on your metabolism. But saying that you will stop losing weight completely is bs when you are in starvation mode, you will still lose weight if you are in calorie deficit even if you have "damaged" your metabolism quite good, a certain amount of energy expenditure is necessary to move a certain amount of mass, etc... you just can't brake lows of physics.

10 - 20% of your TDEE is all you need really. More would help to lose weight faster but prolly would also, if for long time them, would make your hormone levels get down, leave you with less energy to work out, even walk, sex drive goes on vacation... etc. Tried it, and I'm only 22 like wtf, better stick to 10 - 20%. ^^

But like I said, for not don't worry much about cals just ate healthy and work out. ^^

Forget starvation mode for the minute.

At your weight, you likely have a substantial amount of lean mass beneath the blubber.

Would you prefer to keep it that way, or increase the rate of loss through a weight loss goal that is too aggressive?

Sorry for sounding like a idiot but can you expand on what you mean? I don't really understand...are you saying that 1500 calories is too low for me and I should be taking in 2600 or so calories a day as suggested by the TDEE?

Your body can only metabolise so much fat per day for energy; any deficit past that comes from fat-free mass; bones, muscle etc.

TDEE - 20% is an attempt to avoid getting to that point, whilst scaling with how much you have to lose.

I personally would say start off with the TDEE - 20% and go from there. If you find after a month or so you're not really seeing any loss, knock another 100 cals off a day.

My advice is to cut on as much calories as possible so that you can lower them when you hit a plateu and you won't feel deprived or hungry at a later stage of your diet.Besides that lowering them to 1500 that fast may result in quite abit of muscle and strenght loss.I've done that and believe me you will feel pretty foolish later on and will ask yourself "why the **** did I do it?" Just do it slowly.You have quite abit of bodyfat so you will have pretty rapid weightloss at the beginning and whet it stalls just lower the calories about a 100-200 a week again.

Do you exercise at all? If not honestly I'd just go with whatever MFP tells you with the 'lose 1lb a week' setting. If you do, I'd add 200-300 calories.