My Progress and requesting Constructive Criticism

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Hefeweizen_359
Hefeweizen_359 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello everyone, my name is Jake, I'm 27, and I'd like some constructive criticism on my lifestyle change for losing weight and changing my life around to become fit and healthy.

On November 30th of 2012 I got my A1C tested for the first time in my life, I was the heaviest I had ever been weighing in at 351 lbs, and I was showing signs of insulin resistance. My A1C turned out to be 5.8, so 1 point into the Pre-Diabetic category. Well, that was enough motivation for me to change my life around.

Over the next 1 year, 3 months, and 4 days I lost 68 lbs restricting my diet to 2000 calories a day, and trying to exercise 1-3 times a week for about 45 minutes. I got my A1C measured again at the end of March, and it was down to 5.6, so very happy with my overall progress.

I stumbled onto myfitnesspal and started using it around this time. I've used it pretty much every single day since 3/30 of this year, trying to be very precise.

Since 4/04, I've implemented a more rigorous cardiovascular program using an exercise bike for about 30-35 minutes, followed by stretching and floor exercises for about 10-20 minutes. I've aimed at 5 days a week, and not counting the times I was away for travel (May 1st-6th, and 14-21st), I have kept to it fairly well. Also, in April my net calories was readjusted to 1900, and early this May it was readjusted again to 1800.

Since 3/31 I haven't missed a single day's recording. I was 266.4 lbs, I am now 258.1 lbs after 51 days, eating an average of 1451 net calories a day, and exercising 25 days with 45 minutes or more.

However, while overall it sounds well and good, and I'm definitely going in a positive direction, I have really slowed down in my weight-loss (or at least I feel that I've really slowed down).

I'm still losing weight, but I wonder if I might sometimes sabotage my metabolism not eating enough (since overall I've been eating 1451 net calories a day vs the suggested 1900). As a rule, I try and stay below the 1900 mark, and above 1200 calories (sometimes it's just too hard to eat a little extra to get me nearer the mark -- and far easier to just eat 2 meals a day, as a 3rd full meal that would be filling would put me well over my mark). My lowest ever daily calorie intake was 650, but only 9 days out of 51 have I eaten under 1000 net calories, and with my highest ever daily calorie intake of 2301, and only going over 2000 calories 7 days out of 51.

Also, I wonder whether am I exercising enough.

Anyway, thanks in advanced for any comments or constructive criticism!

Replies

  • merrillfoster
    merrillfoster Posts: 855 Member
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    Have you tried changing your exercise routine? Your body can get used to exercise (I think it's called muscle memory) which makes it less effective. Also, have you considered calorie cycling?
  • lioness803
    lioness803 Posts: 325 Member
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    It's normal for weight loss to slow down after you've been cutting calories for awhile. Also, as you get closer to a goal weight you want your deficit to get smaller-if you initially set MFP to have you lose 2lbs a week, you would want to change it to 1 lb and eventually half a pound, then you'll get more calories to eat.

    Congrats on your loss so far and taking charge of your health. You're doing great!
  • paulawatkins1974
    paulawatkins1974 Posts: 720 Member
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    If you think you are losing slowly, this is what I hear everyone else saying (I don't have a food scale yet) But mine has slowed down too and apparently if we're not weighing our food with a scale, then we're probably eating more than we think. I'm buying one this weekend.
  • davenporter
    davenporter Posts: 30 Member
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    Eating more will not help you lose more. With the numbers you're saying, you should be losing around .7 pounds per week. That means in the past 51 days you should have lost 5.1 pounds. You have actually lost 8.3 pounds. I'd say that's pretty good! You've made a larger caloric deficit than you've recorded, so you must be getting more exercise than you realize! Keep up the good work.
  • CindyMarcuzAdams
    CindyMarcuzAdams Posts: 4,006 Member
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    I use a food scale now that I am on mfp and find its so helpful. Some food I was over eating and some I was under eating.
    You should see how many blueberries 100 g is...a lot! ●●●
  • davenporter
    davenporter Posts: 30 Member
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    The advice to get a food scale is very good. It's very easy to mis-calculate when guessing.
  • DanaHerro
    DanaHerro Posts: 186 Member
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    I ALWAYS lost more eating my TDEE minus 20%. ALWAYS.
    I would up your calories

    At 216 lbs I had to eat like 1900/day to lose 1.5/week
    I'm now about 146 and I eat 1900-2000/day to maintain and would eat 1650 to lose more if I wanted.

    EAT! The more you weigh, the more you need to eat to lose. That was my experience at least. You're probably not even eating our BMR

    Google "In place of a road map" for the post here - it explains is AMAZINGLY

    Congrats on your hard work so far - you are doing AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Okay so I took a peek at your diary and not sure you are logging everything and if you are you need more than 1k calories.

    To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit that's it...exercise is for health...good idea tho.

    So here comes the constructive criticism....

    Log everything accurately which means yes getting a kitchen scale and weighing all solids, measuring liquids. Choose the correct entries. Now that being said you are probably eating more than 1800-1900 calories I eat that and lose weight..and I am a 41 year old woman...yes who lifts weight...

    You have what 50lbs to lose now? Change your weekly weight loss goal to 1lb a week to be sustainable...

    Get your protien up higher it helps keep you feeling fuller longer...

    You don't need to change your exercise but you could start lifting weights. There are lots of programs out there for beginners such as Stronglifts 5x5 and starting strength...and don't think you can't start that now...i

    Weight lifting helps preserve muscle mass along with adequate protien.

    There are lots of posts to help you out

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide?hl=Logging+accurately&page=3#posts-19337078

    ETA: Yes I use a food scale even now that I am at maintenance...well working my way up to maitenance calories...it is an invaluable tool when you want to lose. Choose one that is digital, weighs in ounces and grams and has a tare/zero button.
  • glasshalffull713
    glasshalffull713 Posts: 323 Member
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    You might want to up your net calories a bit. This is only my own personal experience, but for a while I was eating 1200 calories a day and couldn't understand why I couldn't lose any weight. As soon as I upped my intake to 1400, I started losing. Your body can go into starvation mode and it won't want to lose anything out of self preservation. You might just have to lose a little slower now than you were before. Also you might want to add in some metabolic training, or intervals. High intensity training burns more calories during the workout and is also known to create an after-burn effect which increases your metabolism for up to a day afterwards. And I agree with what Merrillfoster said- when you do the same exercise all the time, your body naturally becomes more efficient at it and it will require less effort to do the same thing that once required more. Maybe adding some speed intervals into your bike session or try a class of some sort to mix things up and challenge your body.
  • orangpeel757
    orangpeel757 Posts: 38 Member
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    Getting a scale and switching up your routine are great suggestions.

    If you're looking to add calories, maybe add in some treats. I enjoy apples/bananas with chunky peanut butter. It's not a large meal, around 300 calories, but it does the trick if I want something tasty and need the extra calories.

    I'm also a little curious about what your normal day is like. If you've managed to get in 45 min of exercise on most days but spend the rest of your time sitting around then I'd suggest making some small changes to move around more during the day. 45 min. of exercise isn't going to make up for 12 hours of sitting. Maybe take up gardening or go for short walks, take the stairs, etc. Small stuff can add up.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    Starvation mode is a myth

    changing exercise up makes you retain water and masks weight loss for up to 4 weeks.
  • Hefeweizen_359
    Hefeweizen_359 Posts: 4 Member
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    Thanks everyone who has replied so far, lots of good advice.
    Eating more will not help you lose more. With the numbers you're saying, you should be losing around .7 pounds per week. That means in the past 51 days you should have lost 5.1 pounds. You have actually lost 8.3 pounds. I'd say that's pretty good! You've made a larger caloric deficit than you've recorded, so you must be getting more exercise than you realize! Keep up the good work.

    From that angle yes I guess I have been doing well losing about 1.14 lbs per week for the last 51 days.

    As for the food scale idea that many of you mentioned, great idea and it is now one of my next steps I will take. However, I log absolutely everything (I only drink water / water+mio, or diet tea / diet soft drinks, with the occasion beer / wine but I always log everything that has any calories no matter how few). Additionally, I don't have lots of time for cooking, and since I live with 2 other people, we tend to eat out a lot together, so I get my carefully measured portions still in this way and don't have to do my own thing every time it's time to eat, which is quite important to me.

    One of the questions I find has a lot of conflicting information on is, does my caloric intake or my net calories matter more for maintaining a healthy caloric intake and avoiding "starvation mode" or anything that would otherwise lower my metabolism sabotaging my efforts and causing lean muscle catabolism (and no disrespect intended, but I think there is enough convincing scientific evidence that starvation mode is very real, just not applicable for missing 1-2 days caloric intake, but low calorie diets that continue beyond 2 days can result in your body entering starvation mode and resulting in very real and negative side effects).

    To give an example of where I am confused, say I eat 1200 calories daily to avoid losing lean muscle mass and bone density, but then do 4 hours of walking 35 mph (4 hours of walking at this pace is no where near unreasonable for me, which is why I chose it as an example), and considering my height age and weight I should be burning around 1876 calories from this daily exercise, with 2215 BMR rest calories burned, daily I would have a deficit of 2891 calories, and weekly I would lose 5.8 lbs, right? But this is the type of weight loss that is unhealthy, or at least from a good deal of sources it's advised against right?

    I'm assuming then that this is advised against is that at that high of a deficit you would enter into starvation mode and lean muscle catabolism?

    So net calories are really what matter more for staying healthy, and you want to ideally keep net calories above 1200 as I understand it, right? I am beginning to run into this area where as I want to start working out harder and more, my net calories are getting lower and I'm wondering where I should have them ideally to stave off ill-effects, while still burning as much fat as possible.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    One of the questions I find has a lot of conflicting information on is, does my caloric intake or my net calories matter more for maintaining a healthy caloric intake and avoiding "starvation mode" or anything that would otherwise lower my metabolism sabotaging my efforts and causing lean muscle catabolism (and no disrespect intended, but I think there is enough convincing scientific evidence that starvation mode is very real, just not applicable for missing 1-2 days caloric intake, but low calorie diets that continue beyond 2 days can result in your body entering starvation mode and resulting in very real and negative side effects).

    starvation mode as mentioned here means your body is holding onto the fat regardless of calorie deficit which is not fact and doesn't happen.

    Adaptive Thermogenics can happen but it take a long period of time on a VLCD. Where your metabolism does adapt to the low calorie and burns less but you are always burning calories just at a slower rate.
    give an example of where I am confused, say I eat 1200 calories daily to avoid losing lean muscle mass and bone density, but then do 4 hours of walking 35 mph (4 hours of walking at this pace is no where near unreasonable for me, which is why I chose it as an example), and considering my height age and weight I should be burning around 1876 calories from this daily exercise, with 2215 BMR rest calories burned, daily I would have a deficit of 2891 calories, and weekly I would lose 5.8 lbs, right? But this is the type of weight loss that is unhealthy, or at least from a good deal of sources it's advised against right?
    Eating 1200 calories is the minimum for a woman and it does not help you keep lean muscle mass esp with exercise on top of it. To keep lean muscle mass you have to eat at least 1 gram of protien for every pound of Lean body mass and lift heavy weights.

    With 50lbs to lose 1lb a week is a good rate.

    As a man you shouldn't be going below 1800 calories. If you exercise you need to eat back 50-75% of those exercise calories.
  • positivity1967
    positivity1967 Posts: 27
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    fantastic job on your loses so far

    i think you missed a decimal point in your four hours of walking at 35 mph lol im sorry but all i can imagine is you going along with legs spinning round like road runner lol :)
  • Hefeweizen_359
    Hefeweizen_359 Posts: 4 Member
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    fantastic job on your loses so far

    i think you missed a decimal point in your four hours of walking at 35 mph lol im sorry but all i can imagine is you going along with legs spinning round like road runner lol :)

    Haha, yeah I definitely missed the decimal point, 3.5 mph is what I meant sorry.
    Eating 1200 calories is the minimum for a woman and it does not help you keep lean muscle mass esp with exercise on top of it. To keep lean muscle mass you have to eat at least 1 gram of protien for every pound of Lean body mass and lift heavy weights.

    With 50lbs to lose 1lb a week is a good rate.

    As a man you shouldn't be going below 1800 calories. If you exercise you need to eat back 50-75% of those exercise calories.

    So right now, I would benefit from eating more on the average day, going from an average of 1451 to 1800? And is this bottom limit of 1800 calories to avoid going into adaptive thermogenesis?

    Also, I've now read variously (thank you DanaHerro and SezxyStef again for the very helpful links) that I should eat at minimum my BMR, and 20-30% below my TDEE for best fat loss. Well, according to http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/bmr/, my BMR is 2432 calories, and my TDEE for sedentary is 2918, 3344 for lightly active (1-3 workouts a week), and 3770 for moderately active (3-5 workouts a week).

    This is all so vastly different from the MFP setting I've been using, I mean 20% less of 3770 would be eating 3016 daily calories, and that just seems like a huge amount! I'm frankly shocked...

    3770 @ 30%<TDEE = 2639 @ 20%<TDEE = 3016 with 3-5 workouts weekly
    3344 @ 30%<TDEE = 2341 @ 20%<TDEE = 2675 with 1-3 workouts weekly
    2918 @ 30%<TDEE = 2043 @ 20%<TDEE = 2334 with sedentary lifestyle

    So assuming I've logged everything fairly accurately, for the last 51 days on average I've been eating TDEE - 61.51%?
    (3770 - [ 3770 * x ] = 1451 | x = 61.51% less than TDEE)

    Should I increase my daily calories slowly from the ~1451-1800 range to the 2341-2675 range?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,268 Member
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    I would do TDEE-20% based on your exercise level as long as it's consistent.

    Or

    Enter your stats in MFP with a 1lb a week weight loss goal and they will give you a decent deficit, log your exercise and eat back those calories...

    Your choice.

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