Do you stick with the site's recommendations?

journey_man · December 2013

This site has been tremendously helpful in the last couple of days since I decided to do this. Thank you all. I have a coupe of questions:

First, my stats: Male, 36, 6'3", SW/CW 360, GW 250.

Although I am 360, I am tall, built like a football player, have broad shoulders and chest, and have always been naturally muscular (e.g., in high school and college, everyone thought I worked out, but I didn't. But I have done some sporadic weight-training over the years since then).

Due to all that, I have always looked significantly lighter than I was. I guess I am one of those who "carry the weight well," and this has lulled me into a false sense of security for many years, and even when I hit 300lbs some 5-6 years ago I didn't care. Even then, my belly barely pushed over my shirts.

But a very sedentary lifestyle in the last couple of years, compounded by a foot injury last year, has caused my weight to reach a point where I could no longer pretend that I was just a big, imposing guy. No, at this point I'm just a fat, unhealthy guy. There is no upside. So it's finally time for a change.

Here are my questions:

1- 2lbs/week (1000 cal /day) seems to be the recommended max. Does that hold true for people my size as well? I've been reading the success stories of the 300lbs+ crowd, and many started by losing much more than 2lbs/week at first. It seems the beginning is the optimum time to lose as much as possible, is that wrong?

2- How accurate are the site's recommendations? Do people find that they weight loss has tracked the predictions? (e.g., 2 lbs/week for me), or did they have to tweak the numbers a bit?

3- The site recommend ~2300 / day for me. The first two days I stayed well under 2000 with relative ease. Today was harder for some reason (I wasn't so much hungry as weirdly tired) and I ended up consuming around 2400. BUT I am pretty sure I can maintain a 2000 average, which should get me 2.5 lbs/week. Thoughts?

That's all for now, thanks.

ElliottTN · December 2013

1. You are a pretty large guy with a good deal to loose. You will find for a good while you will probably be able to loose 2+ lbs a week with relative ease.
2. Nope. Not really at all in my case but you can't blame them for some great marketing ideas to keep ya coming back. Not saying it can't be accurate.
3. You'll be fine. Don't sweat it, weight loss doesn't reset itself on 24 blocks, its more of a cumulative thing. Just try to recognize patterns and do your best to break them. Like under eating by 100 calories for two days then binging on the third day by 500 excess cals bc you were so hungry from the days before.

bigcle82 · December 2013

I think our stories are similar. you can check out my progress and profile and add as a friend if you like. one day at a time and you will reach your goals and milestones. this is a life style change for us.
good luck

journey_man · December 2013

Thanks guys. I guess I'll monitor things for a couple of weeks and see where I stand.

bidgle82, it does indeed seem that we have a lot in common. Thanks for reaching out and congratulations on your progress.

dmeyerman · December 2013

Journey_Man:

The site numbers have worked well for me when I can stay strict and on point. That is at least my key, stay vigilant with your food tracking and hit the gym.

dgroulx · December 2013

I do not follow the sites numbers. I am morbidly obese and follow my weight loss doctor's recommendations. I use this site to track my food, as I need to bring my food diary to each appointment.

I went to another site to calculate my calorie needs. Based on my age, height, and plugging in my ideal weight, then telling it how many hours I am resting, doing light activity, moderate, heavy, etc - it gave me the results. I should be eating 1,400 calories per day with exercising and 1,100 per day if I am not. I obviously have been eating more than that, which is why I am fat. Most restaurants in the US portion sizes are more than what I should eat in a day. I never thought about it before I moved to Seattle. Calories are actually on the menu for fast food restaurants. It helps you make an informed decision of what you put into your mouth.

jwdieter · December 2013

I changed the default macros and I ignore their sugar recommendation.

The "If you eat .. you will weigh.. blah blah" stuff is kinda pointless, since I don't eat and exercise the same amount every day for 5 weeks. I also burn about 500 cal/day more than the expectation for my work activity level plus activities, so meh.

The nice thing is you're keeping track of intake, and if you do that well, you can evaluate your data and know more about your own body.

avskk · December 2013

I customized my goals entirely. Ordinarily I target 1450 calories, 45% protein, 30% fat, 25% carbs; I've just changed my targets to 1800 calories, 40% protein, 35% carbs, 25% fat because the holidays are stressing me out and I had a raging starve/starve/starve/BINGE thing going on. (Stress tends to send me into an anorectic reversion, so I was obsessing over staying under my target by at least 500 calories and winding up absolutely hangry-heartbroken after a few days. Sticking just under maintenance for a couple weeks will help ease some pressure.) I used the MFP presets (I think it originally set me to 1200, 30%/40%/30%) for all of a month before I realized I was miserable and read up on TDEE and IIFYM.

ETA: And I changed which micronutrients I track, too, because I don't much care about sodium or sugar but I care very much about iron and fiber. So there's that.

I definitely recommend playing around with goal customization a little, and I don't just mean setting it once and rigidly sticking to those goals no matter what. Altering your goals as your circumstances change is really helpful both in staving off Dieter's Woe and ensuring your loss stays consistent and healthy.

journey_man · December 2013

Great info, thanks people. I'm gonna get a tape measure today to get a better estimate of these numbers, since the better formulas use neck, waste, and hip measurements in their calculations.

ell_v131 · December 2013

1) I think it's ok to go a bit faster in the beginning. The reason I read is that the benefit of the reduced weight outweighs the negatives associated with weight loss.

2) I don't find the numbers terribly accurate. I followed the site in the beginning and it had me on 1200 calories (I'm F 5'6, SW 148, GW 130). I learned to live on 1200 but didn't lose a lot until I adjusted my calories at a neat 1500. I'm now losing too rapidly so I just upped my calories again. I also found the macros were not suitable, as I lift 5x a week, I increased my protein. I am doing 40% carbs, 35% protein and 25% fat, although I've been really bad with the fats lately

So yeah I think a little adjustment is in order. I calculate my own TDEE from the data I put in here, not from the online calculators. Basically I add up what I ate in the past 4 week, add the calories burned from exercise and calories from the loss (i.e. if I lost 2 pounds, I add 7000 cals), and that's my maintenance TDEE. From that I take a deficit and that is my goal.

3) I take my daily calorie number as a target to hit, not my maximum. I don't think it makes a lot of difference at the moment since you have a lot to lose, but once you get closer to your goal, it would be good to really aim for that number, not to go much over or much under in your weekly average. This way you'll be getting the nutrients you need for your size and still have good loss. Also losing a bit slower gives the skin time to adjust to your new shape, rapid weight loss could lead to some extra flabby skin.

And great initiative with the tape measure, I love seeing the inches come off

rawhidenadz · December 2013

Nope. According to MFP I should be eating like 1400 calories a day and losing a lot slower. I lose 1.5 pounds a week eating 1800-2000. I don't eat back exercise calories though.

I also tweaked the macro levels. I work out a lot and lift heavy so I like to hit at least 100 g of protein, and MFP's recommended amount was waaay below that.

journey_man · January 2014

Finally added a pic taken this morning (~348 lbs) to illustrate my initial post. Not sure it will alter any of the advice given so far, but just in case.

Good lord, I cannot believe I allowed myself to become like this. And how powerful denial can be. A month ago if you had asked me if I was obese, I would have said no way. Well I'm here now!

ell_v131 · January 2014

I think it's great that you decided to do something about your health and you are on the right track here!

4daluvof_candice · January 2014

Finally added a pic taken this morning (~348 lbs) to illustrate my initial post. Not sure it will alter any of the advice given so far, but just in case.

Good lord, I cannot believe I allowed myself to become like this. And how powerful denial can be. A month ago if you had asked me if I was obese, I would have said no way. Well I'm here now!

very powerful...but obviously youve conquered it by starting your journey. Keep it up and you'll reach whatever goal you settign for yourself. Good Luck!!

Ninkyou · January 2014

I would just continue on the 2000 you're eating and then adjust when you feel the need. Keep up with the information you can glean from the forums, because there's some real gold to be had from the members who have been around a while. And never be afraid to ask questions and listen to all the advice you get.

bwogilvie · January 2014

I can't respond on #1, since I only had about 60 lbs. or so to lose when I started. As to #2 and #3:

#2: I found the site's recommendations to be reasonably accurate at the beginning. I had MFP set to lose 1.5 lbs/week. My losses were more like 1.1-1.2 lbs, which probably means that I was slightly underestimating calories consumed and slightly overestimating my exercise calories. I was content with that rate of progress, so I didn't bother to make any changes.

However, as I've gotten leaner (and readjusted MFP's goals - worth doing every 5-7 lbs. or so, to take loss into account), I've found that it is a little less accurate. Probably due to adaptive thermogenesis (see AG Dulloo et al., Obesity Reviews 13 (suppl. 2): 105-121, Dec. 2012, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2012.01041.x): in other words, I've gotten more efficient at using calories, and I feel colder much of the time!

#3: The average is what matters. I have had days when I have eaten 3500 calories but had negative net calories (like when I rode 111 miles up and down hills on my bike), and days when I have been 1000 calories over my goal. As long as you maintain a calorie deficit over the long run, you'll lose weight. Some people even think that eating at maintenance one day a week (or some such frequency) reduces the risk of adaptive thermogenesis, though I haven't seen any peer-reviewed studies that support the claim (I'm no expert, though).

2- How accurate are the site's recommendations? Do people find that they weight loss has tracked the predictions? (e.g., 2 lbs/week for me), or did they have to tweak the numbers a bit?

3- The site recommend ~2300 / day for me. The first two days I stayed well under 2000 with relative ease. Today was harder for some reason (I wasn't so much hungry as weirdly tired) and I ended up consuming around 2400. BUT I am pretty sure I can maintain a 2000 average, which should get me 2.5 lbs/week. Thoughts?

That's all for now, thanks.

chickenz · January 2014

If you are using the mfp preset numbers I would aim at a goal of no more than 1lb a week. It seems mfp suggests eating fewer calories than other plans so you will definitely lose the weight, in fact in the beginning you will drop a lot of weight fast then it will taper off......

Do you stick with the site's recommendations?

Replies

Categories