12 weeks left in the year! Can we lose 2 lb per week?
Replies
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theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
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Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.0
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_flawedperfectly_ wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
Not often, because 1,200 usually fills me up. Like I mentioned, I try to stick with low cal stuff like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I find that if I endulge in higher calorie foods, it's definitely hard to stay full because you can't eat as much.
If I'm feeling particularly hungry and have earned exercise cals, I'll eat some, but never more than half of them.
Thanks!
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krazykarenn wrote: »Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.
I don't think anyone means to be negative. It's just that a goal like that is likely unattainable for many.
This time around with my weight loss I decided to do more weight training than cardio, and I absolutely love it. I've been at it for two months and over that time I've gotten definitely gotten stronger and I'm more toned. Even though I only do 15-20mins of cardio 3xs/wk I've still lost weight consistently too. And besides all that, it's important for us in order to keep our bones strong for the long haul.
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krazykarenn wrote: »Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.
I don't think anyone means to be negative. It's just that a goal like that is likely unattainable for many.
This time around with my weight loss I decided to do more weight training than cardio, and I absolutely love it. I've been at it for two months and over that time I've gotten definitely gotten stronger and I'm more toned. Even though I only do 15-20mins of cardio 3xs/wk I've still lost weight consistently too. And besides all that, it's important for us in order to keep our bones strong for the long haul.
Thanks for the input! I feel so good after weight training!0 -
krazykarenn wrote: »Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.
Strength training + a moderate weekly weight loss goal + eating enough protein = keeping a larger percentage of lean muscle, while losing fat. This lowers your body fat percentage.
Cardio burns calories & increases endurance (both good things). But, if one is doing hours of cardio a day (and not fueling that), then they are basically working out to increase muscle loss. Google skinny-fat. This is when you lose weight, but still have that (smaller) yet still jiggly look when you are at goal.0 -
theawill519 wrote: »_flawedperfectly_ wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
Not often, because 1,200 usually fills me up. Like I mentioned, I try to stick with low cal stuff like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I find that if I endulge in higher calorie foods, it's definitely hard to stay full because you can't eat as much.
If I'm feeling particularly hungry and have earned exercise cals, I'll eat some, but never more than half of them.
Thanks!
The closer to goal you get the more important it becomes to eat enough to support existing lean muscle mass. You body won't "trigger hunger signals" because it's catobolizing existing lean muscle. So not eating because of hunger signals....isn't terribly relevant.
Not everyone will be a volume eater. Plenty of people need calorie dense foods to stay full longer. Low fat diets are satiating for me (they are for some).
1200 gross calories AND 5'10".........is less than MFP guidelines, not a good idea IMO.
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theawill519 wrote: »_flawedperfectly_ wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
Not often, because 1,200 usually fills me up. Like I mentioned, I try to stick with low cal stuff like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I find that if I endulge in higher calorie foods, it's definitely hard to stay full because you can't eat as much.
If I'm feeling particularly hungry and have earned exercise cals, I'll eat some, but never more than half of them.
Thanks!
The closer to goal you get the more important it becomes to eat enough to support existing lean muscle mass. You body won't "trigger hunger signals" because it's catobolizing existing lean muscle. So not eating because of hunger signals....isn't terribly relevant.
Not everyone will be a volume eater. Plenty of people need calorie dense foods to stay full longer. Low fat diets are satiating for me (they are for some).
1200 gross calories AND 5'10".........is less than MFP guidelines, not a good idea IMO.
I'm still 241 pounds. I think I'm okay for now.
I didn't suggest that anyone do exactly what I'm doing or that it would work for everyone else. The OP asked us to share what works for us- that's what I did.
MFP calculated 1,200 cals a day for me, so how could it be below the MFP guidelines? I put in all of my stats, including my height and that I work at a desk 9 hours a day, and that's what it gave me.0 -
krazykarenn wrote: »To be honest I will be happy with 1lb per week, but aiming for 2, knowing that it will get harder as I get closer to my goal!
THIS, is a great plan.0 -
theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
It is excellent news that you are doing this while still obese because your body can actually tolerate these deficits (and associated loss rate) without significantly impacting your lean mass. You may or may not trigger issues with your gallbladder (a common problem for women and associated with rapid weight loss).
You may or may not be comfortable with such a large deficit long term (for the amount of time it will take you to reach normal weight) and, based on what you said, for fear of over-indulging you are definitely avoiding goods you will eventually want to eat again.
In other words you are not yet learning how to move and eat at maintenance.
Hey: I can't blame you: I did the exact same thing when moving from 280 to 230 before joining MFP!
I joined MFP when looking for a longer term solution, after coming to the realization that the rates of weight loss I was subjecting myself to by eating subway and salad every day and moving around for multiple hours at a time were not going to be sustainable forever.
My first discovery was that the olive oil I was using in my salad was more calories than the can of Salmon... and that the subway subs were not as filling as a lot of other food that was just as few/many calories.
But I also slowly discovered that I don't have to starve myself to lose weight.
And that I SHOULD NOT starve myself to lose weight if I don't want to throw away lean mass I don't have to!
And as to these consistent 2lbs a week... what's the plan on the week the two lbs don't roll around as expected?
So, in terms of the OP: I would love to see someone propose a challenge to meet our own targets, because that's what we should be aiming for.
This is not a game where we try for 50lbs in order to succeed in getting 25lbs!
Absolutely, you mean the challenge well. But, it feeds right into the dieting approach followed by thousands of people who regularly fail!
"I am macho woman and I will power through adversity: eat nothing, go to the gym 24/7, shed weight fast". And be back doing the same next year.
So change the game!
Change it to one where you hopefully get to understand more about how your body operates, the inputs, the outputs, and their effect on your fat mass, and weight.
Change it to one where the whole thing is easy. Where you slowly shed the weight and you imperceptibly slide into maintenance without changing anything in terms of how you eat and move.
Hey: maybe that won't work either... but we already know for sure the first game seldom works!
Anyway: my $2 worth of info is quite simple:
Eat 10% to 20% less than TDEE (up to 25% less than TDEE while obese).
Make sure that this adds up to at least your BMR.
Dip below BMR for short periods of time; but not for months or years at a time.
Eat at least 0.45g of fat per lb you should weigh at a BMI of 22
Eat about 1g of protein per lb you should weigh at a BMI of 22.
(hey these things are approximate and stand in for % of body fat: if you know that BMI is not accurate for everyone you also know why I picked 22)
Also, while extra protein does preserve lean mass, eating high levels of protein is hard on the kidneys, could contribute to gout and might even contribute to skeletal calcium loss. So you want to increase protein, but not to insane amounts.
Eat a good 25g of fiber a day as a woman, 38g of fiber for guys.
Engage in strength training in addition to cardio.
Start easy and protect your joints (esp knees) while you weigh a lot... you will have plenty of opportunity to engage in more strenuous cardio when you weigh less.
There are no bonus points for losing weight while eating the least amount possible! I would like to argue that there might be some bonus points for losing weight and learning how to control your weight while eating as much as possible and continuing to live life with friends and family as fully as possible.
Good luck and congrats on your success so far!
PS: Scale weight is an extremely unreliable indicator of your actual weight level.
You are much better off to start using a weight trend tracking app such as Libra for Android, Happy Scale for Iphone, or www.weightgrapher.com (allows for manual entry or integration) and my favourite: www.trendweight.com (integration with free fitbit account).
These apps show you your weight overall weight trend and are less sensitive to daily water weight variations.0 -
theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
It is excellent news that you are doing this while still obese because your body can actually tolerate these deficits (and associated loss rate) without significantly impacting your lean mass. You may or may not trigger issues with your gallbladder (a common problem for women and associated with rapid weight loss).
You may or may not be comfortable with such a large deficit long term (for the amount of time it will take you to reach normal weight) and, based on what you said, for fear of over-indulging you are definitely avoiding goods you will eventually want to eat again.
I actually never intend on eating fried foods or soda ever again. I don't miss soda and while I do miss fried foods, they're terrible for your heart's health.
In other words you are not yet learning how to move and eat at maintenance.
I will learn how to eat maintainace when I get to the point where I need to maintain.
Hey: I can't blame you: I did the exact same thing when moving from 280 to 230 before joining MFP!
I joined MFP when looking for a longer term solution, after coming to the realization that the rates of weight loss I was subjecting myself to by eating subway and salad every day and moving around for multiple hours at a time were not going to be sustainable forever.
My first discovery was that the olive oil I was using in my salad was more calories than the can of Salmon... and that the subway subs were not as filling as a lot of other food that was just as few/many calories.
But I also slowly discovered that I don't have to starve myself to lose weight.
Yikes! I'm not starving myself at all. I've been there done that- never again!
And that I SHOULD NOT starve myself to lose weight if I don't want to throw away lean mass I don't have to!
And as to these consistent 2lbs a week... what's the plan on the week the two lbs don't roll around as expected?
Oh, it has happened several times. I actually plateau for 3-5 days ever month while I ovulate. Sometimes I even gain in that time. Doesn't bother me- I just keep on keepin on. /quote]0 -
To do it would make a 100%+ regain likely by May 2016.0
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theawill519 wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »_flawedperfectly_ wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
Not often, because 1,200 usually fills me up. Like I mentioned, I try to stick with low cal stuff like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I find that if I endulge in higher calorie foods, it's definitely hard to stay full because you can't eat as much.
If I'm feeling particularly hungry and have earned exercise cals, I'll eat some, but never more than half of them.
Thanks!
The closer to goal you get the more important it becomes to eat enough to support existing lean muscle mass. You body won't "trigger hunger signals" because it's catobolizing existing lean muscle. So not eating because of hunger signals....isn't terribly relevant.
Not everyone will be a volume eater. Plenty of people need calorie dense foods to stay full longer. Low fat diets are satiating for me (they are for some).
1200 gross calories AND 5'10".........is less than MFP guidelines, not a good idea IMO.
I'm still 241 pounds. I think I'm okay for now.
I didn't suggest that anyone do exactly what I'm doing or that it would work for everyone else. The OP asked us to share what works for us- that's what I did.
MFP calculated 1,200 cals a day for me, so how could it be below the MFP guidelines? I put in all of my stats, including my height and that I work at a desk 9 hours a day, and that's what it gave me.
MFP calculated 1200 BEFORE exercise. It's a default. That means a 5' tall woman is assigned 1200 and a 6' tall woman is assigned 1200.
That also means you log your workouts & eat back some of the calories. That "ideally" gets you back to your original deficit. Not all your exercise calories, because calorie burns are estimates (and often generous).
If you've got a ways to go, 1200 + (50-75%) of exercise calories is fine. 2 pounds a week is appropriate for 75+ pounds to go.
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krazykarenn wrote: »Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.
I don't see negativity. I think a lot of people just choose unrealistic goals and then they get frustrated and quit when they can't come close to achieving them. Then they drown their sorrows in a gallon of ice cream and it all gets to be a miserable mess.
If you can be of the mentality that you're happy with the results no matter what then that's fabulous for you! You're probably going to be much more successful than those who aren't satisfied with less than perfection.
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Well I concur with most in saying that the two pounds per week is most likely not good for most. However, for me I have been on a four pound per week loss. But realize I started with A LOT TO LOSE. I started at around 540 (yeah I thought it was 490, but my doctor recorded it correctly but the nurse said 490). I've lost 58 pounds in 13 weeks and expect it to continue at this rate through the end of the year.
I would rather see people talking about accuracy of their food tracking or added exercise increase. Hey even I upped my daily movement about 15% (a big challenge for someone by size and physical issues with knees and hips).
So whatever you choose to close out the year make it meaningful, obtainable, and sustainable.0 -
Well I concur with most in saying that the two pounds per week is most likely not good for most. However, for me I have been on a four pound per week loss. But realize I started with A LOT TO LOSE. I started at around 540 (yeah I thought it was 490, but my doctor recorded it correctly but the nurse said 490). I've lost 58 pounds in 13 weeks and expect it to continue at this rate through the end of the year.
I would rather see people talking about accuracy of their food tracking or added exercise increase. Hey even I upped my daily movement about 15% (a big challenge for someone by size and physical issues with knees and hips).
So whatever you choose to close out the year make it meaningful, obtainable, and sustainable.
That's great progress! Congratulations!
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Well I concur with most in saying that the two pounds per week is most likely not good for most. However, for me I have been on a four pound per week loss. But realize I started with A LOT TO LOSE. I started at around 540 (yeah I thought it was 490, but my doctor recorded it correctly but the nurse said 490). I've lost 58 pounds in 13 weeks and expect it to continue at this rate through the end of the year.
I would rather see people talking about accuracy of their food tracking or added exercise increase. Hey even I upped my daily movement about 15% (a big challenge for someone by size and physical issues with knees and hips).
So whatever you choose to close out the year make it meaningful, obtainable, and sustainable.
That's great progress! Congratulations!
Agree. Way to go!!0 -
theawill519 wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »_flawedperfectly_ wrote: »theawill519 wrote: »I'm consistently losing 2 pounds a week by sticking to a 1,200 calorie diet and exercising everyday (mostly cardio). I started at 299 and am now at 241. I eat a lot of low calorie foods so I can stay full. I also try and eat "healthier." I cut out all soda and fried foods and greatly cut back on fast food, sweets, and red meat. Just sharing what works for me! Good luck to you!
Do you eat back your exercise calories? I'm 218 and I don't think I'd survive on 1200 Cal lol. Great job on your weight loss!
Not often, because 1,200 usually fills me up. Like I mentioned, I try to stick with low cal stuff like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats. I find that if I endulge in higher calorie foods, it's definitely hard to stay full because you can't eat as much.
If I'm feeling particularly hungry and have earned exercise cals, I'll eat some, but never more than half of them.
Thanks!
The closer to goal you get the more important it becomes to eat enough to support existing lean muscle mass. You body won't "trigger hunger signals" because it's catobolizing existing lean muscle. So not eating because of hunger signals....isn't terribly relevant.
Not everyone will be a volume eater. Plenty of people need calorie dense foods to stay full longer. Low fat diets are satiating for me (they are for some).
1200 gross calories AND 5'10".........is less than MFP guidelines, not a good idea IMO.
I'm still 241 pounds. I think I'm okay for now.
I didn't suggest that anyone do exactly what I'm doing or that it would work for everyone else. The OP asked us to share what works for us- that's what I did.
MFP calculated 1,200 cals a day for me, so how could it be below the MFP guidelines? I put in all of my stats, including my height and that I work at a desk 9 hours a day, and that's what it gave me.
MFP calculated 1200 BEFORE exercise. It's a default. That means a 5' tall woman is assigned 1200 and a 6' tall woman is assigned 1200.
That also means you log your workouts & eat back some of the calories. That "ideally" gets you back to your original deficit. Not all your exercise calories, because calorie burns are estimates (and often generous).
If you've got a ways to go, 1200 + (50-75%) of exercise calories is fine. 2 pounds a week is appropriate for 75+ pounds to go.
Ohh, I gotcha. I'll keep that in mind the closer I get to my goal 0 -
Well I concur with most in saying that the two pounds per week is most likely not good for most. However, for me I have been on a four pound per week loss. But realize I started with A LOT TO LOSE. I started at around 540 (yeah I thought it was 490, but my doctor recorded it correctly but the nurse said 490). I've lost 58 pounds in 13 weeks and expect it to continue at this rate through the end of the year.
I would rather see people talking about accuracy of their food tracking or added exercise increase. Hey even I upped my daily movement about 15% (a big challenge for someone by size and physical issues with knees and hips).
So whatever you choose to close out the year make it meaningful, obtainable, and sustainable.
That's great! Go you! How did you calculate your daily movement increase - fitbit or something? It's nice to be able to quantify progress like that.
I know my knee pain situation is not the same as yours, but once I got under a certain weight while strengthening them with various exercises, I very rarely have knee pain anymore.
I did have some crazy hip pain yesterday after transplanting strawberries for over two hours the day before. Oy, it hurt every time I moved.
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krazykarenn wrote: »Wow, so much unexpected negativity here. I'm of the "reach for the moon and you will land among the stars" mentality, but if everyone picks the goal they are comfortable with and shares what helps them reach it we will all win. I have added more weight training to my routine and I'm curious as to how it will help me.
Please realize that it is not negativity to advise people not to net ~800 calories or so. a 2 lb loss per week requires a deficit of 1000 calories per day, every single day. Take myself for example. My maintenance calories are around 1650 per day. I know this to be true. To lose 2 lbs per week, I would have to net 650 calories per day. MFP and most experts advise a minimum of 1200 calories per day NET for safe weight loss, excluding the obese who are under medical supervision. In the face of that kind of deficit, the body will turn to consuming muscle as well as fat, as your muscles are a great source of calories.
Make smart choices, and don't get into a panic. There is nothing wrong with a slower rate of loss, in fact, you'll probably end up happier, as you will hopefully lose less muscle in the process.0
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