I lose too fast

autumnfield
autumnfield Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
So here's a strange one: I think I'm losing weight too fast.

I used the scooby calculator as advised in a previous posting in early August. It originally came up with:
base metabolic rate: 1433.
daily calorie to maintain weight: 1720
10% reduction: 1548

I've adjusted this a few times as I lost weight, and the 10% reduction is now at 1480 or so. I've lost 6kg very quickly. Mind you, my weight was normal to start with. I only wanted to lose the weight I gained since turning 40 - too much cake, latte macchiato, gravy and such things.

This above is my issue: I only dietted for just under 2 months and my weight remained stable for the coming three. I guess I learnt something there. Now I tried it again (I had an argument with a friend who has been jojoing all her life) and I lost 1kg in just 4 days and another kilo in the following week. I don't do sports and put everything on the scale. I use the recommendation by this scooby calculator. Based on that I should not have lost 6kg in less than 2 months, and certainly not 2kg in less than 2 weeks, and based on what I read here certainly not if I'm normal weight to start with and don't have a tendency to store a lot of water in my legs. So what is going on?

Replies

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    Remember those are good formulas but they to no input your own biological factors. Why to you think losing about 2 pounds a week is too fast. Go can always eat more. Hey it is the carbs that stick and hang on after age forty. :)
  • autumnfield
    autumnfield Posts: 10
    You think so? I love carbs and when I'm counting I'm always way over. If I take 6kg in 8 weeks then that's a 1000 calory deficite per day if I see this correctly. With no sport, and assuming my maintaining calories are somewhat ok, then I only would have eated 700 calories per day. Even if I take it at 2000, then my deficite still would have been massive and I don't think I would have managed to get out of bed and work.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    The first few weeks of any weight loss plan aren't going to be typical. If you lost weight, gained some back and then lost again quickly, it's likely a bunch of that was water weight or fluctuation.

    Even if the calculated values were exactly accurate for you (hint: they're not), they would still only be averages over extended periods of time. You need to chart for a couple of months and then correlate against your actual weight loss values.
  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,509 Member
    I don't know how tall you are or how much you weigh, but I am also a 40 year-old woman and my maintenance calories (no exercise, desk job) are about 2100. If i were netting 1500 I would be losing very quickly as well!
  • autumnfield
    autumnfield Posts: 10
    Ok, then I think this will remain a mystery as I don't want to lose more weight. I think I'm looking too thin already.
  • autumnfield
    autumnfield Posts: 10
    Mouse, I'm 1.68m. I'm not very tall.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Seriously, you're talking about 2 kgs (less than 5lbs) of fluctuation in a 2 week time period. Sometimes my weight varies that much at different times of a single day -- certainly that sort of variance isn't all that unusual within a couple of weeks or at different times of month. Anything at all could influence a variance that small, from TOM to sodium intake to water retention to just plain non-linear weight loss.

    If you were maintaining steadily for a few months at a given calorie range, then you should have a fairly good idea of what your personal maintenance calories are. Ignore the calculators and use that as your starting point, and deduct 10-15% for a small weight loss and try that for a few weeks, see how you go. Don't put too much stock in any single weigh-in, just keep it going steadily and you should see a trend.
  • Delphine2013
    Delphine2013 Posts: 5 Member
    Hmm I am doing 1/2 lb a day and I think that is too slow. I would not worry too much about it. Some maybe water loss and you can always start weight lifting to add muscle, if you are worried about what you are losing. Also if you are looking too thin, then add muscle and tone up (assuming you are not).
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Delphine2013 wrote: »
    Hmm I am doing 1/2 lb a day and I think that is too slow.

    It's not. Unless you have lots (as in, hundreds) of pounds to lose, I'd say it's too fast if it continues at a long term pace. Between 0.5lbs and 2lbs per week is a healthy pace for most adults. 3.5lbs/week is a deficit of 1750 calories/day, which might work fine for a few weeks, but if you keep it up long term you could be doing your body some damage by depriving yourself of adequate nutrition... and have trouble keeping it off.
  • autumnfield
    autumnfield Posts: 10
    segacs wrote: »
    Seriously, you're talking about 2 kgs (less than 5lbs) of fluctuation in a 2 week time period. Sometimes my weight varies that much at different times of a single day -- certainly that sort of variance isn't all that unusual within a couple of weeks or at different times of month. Anything at all could influence a variance that small, from TOM to sodium intake to water retention to just plain non-linear weight loss.

    If you were maintaining steadily for a few months at a given calorie range, then you should have a fairly good idea of what your personal maintenance calories are. Ignore the calculators and use that as your starting point, and deduct 10-15% for a small weight loss and try that for a few weeks, see how you go. Don't put too much stock in any single weigh-in, just keep it going steadily and you should see a trend.

    Maybe. Looking at my weight (I go on the scale every morning before dressing up), it normally doesn't fluctuate more than 200 grams from one day to another unless I stop with the pill, which I rarely do.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    Did you have some recent blood tests done? What you're writing sounds familiar: minimal fluctuation and really easy weight loss. I'm suspecting that I might have a pernicious anemia or something similar. Got lowish iron and really depleted storage iron and red blood cells increased in size. Doctor only did overall vitamin B12, which is still about ok but not the other tests needed. He only looked at lab ranges (which go further down here than in the US and Europe for some reason) and concluded I'm fine.

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