Adjusting calories

I am starting to use MFP again after stopping due to a move. The first time around (about 8 months ago) I lost 6 lbs the first week, and then 1-2 lbs a week after that. This time around I've been losing between 2-3 lbs per week for three weeks. I've read that if you're significantly overweight it's not uncommon to lose more when you start because of the drastic diet change. I was 229 when I started the first time and 224 this time and I'm 5'7". So "obese" but I'm not sure how much that applies and for how long. I imagine it applies to me based on eating habits though, I was at a point where I was eating take out about 10 meals and 4-5 sodas a day. Now it's down to 3-4 take out meals in much smaller portions as well as usually less than 1 soda per day. Also cut out almost all of the alcohol which was quite a bit too.

I've also read that you don't want to lose faster 2lbs/week for many reasons, the primary ones that I am concerned with would be my skin not shrinking down along with my size and losing muscle. I'm a math person and so the variables with this kill me. I try to do what I can to track everything correctly. I measure out exactly everything I make for myself, but there's of course 3-4 times a week the hubby wants to eat out. For one place he especially loves I have no idea what the calories are, we just guessed (I always get the same thing). For the others I know it's not always prepared exactly the same so there's obviously variables there as well. I wear a body media fit arm band to track my calories rather than using guesstimates based on activities.

I'm down to 1,200/day per MFP and usually end up over it, about 1,400 daily average at the end of the week for the past three weeks. I didn't like trying to guess the loss and where I'll be in 6 months so I made a spreadsheet to estimate how much I should be losing based on still having 1,200/day average calories so right now it would be 1.9 lbs.

So my questions would be:
-At what point do I start worrying about the greater than 2lb week loss considering my weight/diet changes?
-When that does occur, do I just add the calorie equivalent to the loss over recommended from the previous week? For example if I lost 2.6 and per calculator should only lose 1.9 eat 2,450 more calories the following week and see where that gets me.

Again, while I'm mostly happy to be losing more than the 2lbs/week, I also know that I need to lose these pounds the right way and would rather it take longer and lose less muscle and have my skin stretch down along with my fat. But if I can keep this up for a while I'm definitely good with that.

Replies

  • tnicmorris
    tnicmorris Posts: 144 Member
    I'm no expert at all...I'm sure they'll come in and advise you soon enough. But, from what I've gathered in my own journey so far:

    I don't think you have to worry so much about losing 2-3 pounds just yet except for the fact that 1200 calories is probably way too little for you to eat. There are endless debates on MFP about the 1200 calorie thing, and I tend to think that unless you're happy with it, it's not enough calories. MFP does tend to underestimate the calories you need. What I did in the beginning was look at what MFP said my calorie intake should be and compared it to Web MD's similar calorie counting model. Theirs is always a couple hundred calories more. I took the average of the two numbers and set that as my starting number. MFP now uses that scale when it readjusts my calories as I lose weight.
  • Soooo WebMD says 1,100, lol.

    I'm not only eating 1,200 calories, MFP recommends a net of 1,200, and I'm netting about 1,400 daily based on the weekly chart. As far as being happy with that, no. BUT, I would describe my "happy" eating habits as what got me here in the first place, lol. I would say though that I feel comfortable with what I'm eating - i.e. not finding myself fatigued, starving, etc. I do feel hungrier before meals now more often which I don't like but I'm pretty sure that's supposed to happen... lol. It's not stomach pains or anything like that to clarify.