For the beginners on here how to determine what is safe

Now onto those who have a lot to lose, meaning more than 30 pounds. You are the lucky ones of the bunch here believe it or not as you can use that added weight to your weight loss advantage. The smaller of your brethren have to work twice as hard to burn as many calories as you do from simply walking. It takes tremendous energy to do high paced workouts when you are bigger. This is not a bad thing though and here is why, you can use it to your benefit. Meaning you do not need to work out as hard as they do to drop the weight. The same idea applies to you as it does to then but here is difference, you can have a larger deficit than they can and do it safely. There are 2 major differences here though when I talk about intelligent application of workouts. Firstly you would be much better off doing a resistance workout with weights, now you may ask why. Well its simple really, your body has stored energy that will feed the muscle, it is fairly readily available weight training along with extra protein will allow you to build muscle, your legs and supporting muscles are already really strong just from carrying the weight you have. Ever wonder why you get tired doing the same walk as a "skinny" friend? That my friend is a high intensity workout for you. Yep that 30 min walk up a small hill will drive your heart rate through the roof. Yay for extra weight right? You probably hate me for saying that but look at it this way for someone to relate to you they would need to carry a weight vest to make them the same weight as you, now have them do the same walk as you. Different story then, they will probably drop out before you do. So how far can you push it safely, well for a lot of you with 50 pounds of more to drop you can go to around 800 cal/day deficit so you do not need to eat back all the workout cals, but you do need that extra protein and that is a must have for that muscle growth. For those with 70 pounds or more, 900/day and for those with 100+ 1000/day. So you can drop weight twice as fast as the smaller ppl. As you drop though you will have to drop that deficit as the weight comes off.

Now to address those who are going to say I am wrong and that they have done it successfully because for every one of who has done it right there is going to be a few who say we are wrong. To those I say are you as strong as you were when you started? Can you lift as much weight now as when you started. The answer I can almost guarantee you is no, why? simple you lost muscle, you only cared about the scale and not the measurements. For those who did it smart and maintained that muscle using that as a tool to shed fat congrats your a smart cookie. More muscle burns more fat, so keeping and building upon that will burn more fat every hour of every day with you sitting on you butt. Cardio is great for short term cal burns, but the affects do not last as long as a weight program will. Unless you do circuit, or HIIT or MRT (metabolic resistance training) you are not getting the maximum results for time spent in the gym.

lol thats funny you should say that its amazing the number of people who have requested me to be their friend and the reaction i got from a previous post about the common mistake many women make when joining mfp and trying to shed weight. I offended some on that one and it got a huge number of replies, but my intention was to provoke a response with that one.

Yes there definitely some penis phobic women who do not want any advice from a man just like there are some vagina phobic men who do not want advice from a woman. To each their own lol.

your post was very enlightening thank you... i just have one more question. i still have a lot of wieght to lose, i have lost about 55pounds. it has taken me about 2.5 years but i lost 50 just working out and generally becoming more active. i started mfp and have lost 5 more pounds. i know i have a lot of muscle. when most people find out that i weigh 220lbs they say they never would have guess i wiegh that much. my question though is, it okay to want to lose muscle? my calf muscle have become bigger from carrying the wieght. but i dont know how to lose the wieght and not have them gain even more muscle

Yes it is ok but its hard to be selective over where you lose it, my advice though is that if you aim to lose it then adjust the workouts and gear them to cardio only with little weight lifting for that area. A runner's body will naturally want to shed some muscle to make it easier to run. The body will adapt to that on its own, just do not starve the body to lose it. If you are naturally more muscular in one area do not work it as much. Running will focus more on tone than building muscle for the legs unless your leg muscles were lacking to begin with. How much protein do you take in for a day on average?

ive only been on this site about 2.5 weeks. but i looked through my food diaries and my average ranges from about 50-70g.

Ok good you are on par then, stick to a more cardio oriented routine with some running, if you do not see results in about 3-4 weeks msg me we can go from there but just remember that it may be slower coming off of there as selective muscle loss is another matter altogether from fat loss.

As a beginner, I am deeply offended. :grumble:

lol suck it up princess, no seriously though there are always going to be those who read it for what they want to read and not what it really means.