Maintaining weight, better to have lost weight slow or fast(er)

SunnyDayzMomma
SunnyDayzMomma Posts: 114 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
*Cross posted in General weight loss

I've been reading a few articles by this guy, about losing weight slowly vs fast. This article talks about setting a target weight. They suggest taking 6 months to lose 10% of your body weight. http://vitals.lifehacker.com/how-to-set-a-target-body-weight-for-better-chances-of-d-1678382801#replies

What he says, based on the quoted research, is that our bodies react to fast weight loss in such a way that makes keeping the weight off very difficult. They talk about metabolism, NEAT, etc. It's an interesting read, and it makes sense. But when I put my stats into the calculator they've created, it puts me at a calorie goal of 2500 a day. That's a whole 1000 more than what MFP suggested for my 90 pound weight loss goal. I just have a hard finding wrapping my head around taking 1.8 years to lose my weight, vs going faster like I am. I've lost approx 22 pounds in 2 months. If doing it quickly (my goal is 2 pounds a week) will just make me pack on the pounds again, then yeah, I'll slow down. But I just don't know if I believe it's bad to be working on a 1500 calorie a day goal right now. I don't want to purposely go slower unless it's truly better that way.

Thoughts? Advice? Words of wisdom from any yo-yo dieters or people who have kept the weight off for years now?

Replies

  • catt952
    catt952 Posts: 190 Member
    Personally what ever diet you choose will work. It will work IF you stick with it. Whether or not you will stick to it involves whether it is realistic enough and if you can keep the techniques along with you for the long term.
  • MeiannaLee
    MeiannaLee Posts: 338 Member
    I personally lost 30 pounds in 3 months and almost 50 pounds in 7 months and even though I just started maintaining, my metabolism is even faster and healthier than it was before. Because I eat all day long and am very active, its really easy for me to maintain.
    See, studies like that are not really exact because everyone's bodies are differently. Its kind of like saying what death feels like...well how would anyone know exacly if there is no precise answer. Like those studies that say diet soda leads to weight gain. No, it doesnt-at least not directly.

    You just need to do what feels comfortable to you and your body. If you feel good losing 2 lbs a week than go nuts! But if you are constantly hungry, thinking about food, cranky, tired or burned out chances are the deficit is too large and you need to cut back to .5-1 lb a week.


  • SuggaD
    SuggaD Posts: 1,369 Member
    I lost around 70 lbs in less than a year and have been keeping it off for almost 2. I don't buy into that crap.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited September 2015
    I did it slow...lost 20lbs over a year in 2012....and have kept it off. My loss was at a pace of 1/2 lb per week, if even that... thank goodness that 20 odd years off yoyo dieting is over! :smile:

    For me to have success it meant being able to eat everything, no banned foods etc and not half starving myself. I got active which earned me more cals and for a small fry being able to lose eating 1800 cals is a win win situation :smile:
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I thought the National Weight Loss Study found it didn't matter how fast or slow it came off. The key thing making sure you maintain - that means adjusting your lifestyle. That's why slow losers tend to keep it off. They have time to develop new habits.
  • dcarter1020
    dcarter1020 Posts: 73 Member
    It took me a year and a half to get to my goal. I would've preferred to do it quicker, but I think the year & a half helped me to establish some pretty good habits during that time. I've yo-yo'd several times and always gained back. The reason I think this time will stick is because I've created a routine that's easy to stick with and I don't feel deprived. Either way works I think as long as you're mindful and active. Good luck!
  • Digbysmom
    Digbysmom Posts: 36 Member
    It took me 255 days to lose 33.5 pounds. I'm so glad it took me that long as it gave me time to develop good habits and change my relationship with food. Now it's just become a good long-term habit.
  • RebelDiamond
    RebelDiamond Posts: 188 Member
    Your eating habits after you lose the weight will determine whether it stays off or not.

    It's also worth noting that the longer you have good habits for, the more likely it is that you'll retain them.

    For me, my habits have changed so dramatically that when I'm not actively trying to lose, I tend to maintain (with a few kilos buffer).

    I think the main thing is to acknowledge that weight loss and developing healthy habits is a journey rather than a destination.
  • Soopatt
    Soopatt Posts: 563 Member
    By the time you are done, I am sure your experience will be both "fast* and "slow" (as both are relative terms). Weight loss starts off fast, but it generally slows down to a crawl when you are working on losing those last few pounds. I imagine that in the last slow months you can then benefit from the getting-used-to-it effect?

    MFP does not seem to lend itself to "drop it fast and then stop suddenly" sort of approaches, like you might get from a liquid diet or a very low calorie plan. The rebound from fad diets seems obvious and intuitive, but as you are not approaching your weight loss that way, I am sure you fall into the have-time-to-get-used-to-it group.
  • jeepinshawn
    jeepinshawn Posts: 642 Member
    I can only share my story, I have been on MFP for something like 220 days, I have been maintaining now for about 45 days I think, prior to that I lost approximately 100lbs in the remaining days. I did this not through any fad diet, not by excluding any one food or food group I did this by exercising, mostly walking although some specific cardio and a little weight lifting. That kind of weightloss is pretty fast by anyones standards. I plan to keep it off by maintaining my food entries into MFP and using my fitbit to keep a reasonably accurate measure of TDEE. I also tend to leave about 200-300 calories of wiggle room incase one of my entries is inaccurate.
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    Split the difference and eat 2000 hahaha.
  • kyrannosaurus
    kyrannosaurus Posts: 350 Member
    I lost the weight quickly. It slowed down towards the end when I started to reverse diet and took a maintenance break for a few weeks. Over all lost more than 70lb in 8 months. I am pretty determined that I will keep it off. I have regained weight before, so this time around I have committed to logging daily during maintenance.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
    It took me a year to lose 30 pounds about three years ago. I believe that gave me time to rethink my approach to food, as well as my attitude. When I started maintenance, I wasn't worried and I didn't have any yo yo effects.

    I've continued to log my food, but I'm pretty relaxed about it - I don't always finish, but I do know what I'm doing all day long. I pretty much start every day by logging breakfast and then see how the day plays out.

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