Who has successfully ignored common MFP advice re: rate of loss?

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marathon_44
marathon_44 Posts: 62 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.
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  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    It sounds like you're looking for justification to ignore that advice and stay at a steep deficit all the way to the finish line. And I'm sure you'll get it, 'cause a post like this is *always* going to get a few people chiming in saying "yeah, I did that". But consider the following:
    • Your deficit doesn't actually stay consistent as you get closer to your goal. Since you get lighter, your steady deficit actually increases as a percentage of body weight. So to really keep a steady deficit percentage-wise, you have to reduce your deficit calorie-wise.
    • Most people lose quickly at first (first 10-15lbs), but a lot of that could be water weight. That pace is unlikely to continue no matter what you do.
    • The closer you get to your goal weight, the less fat you have available to lose, so the risk of losing lean muscle mass gets higher. You can hang onto that lean muscle mass as much as possible by lifting weights and eating at a slight to moderate deficit. But once you lose it, it's much harder to re-gain than to maintain.
    • There's no finish line. Once you stop losing weight, you'll be maintaining weight, which is really the same thing at a higher calorie goal. What's the rush?
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    Despite someone keeping their goal at 2 pounds per week, they more than likely were not at a 1,000 calorie deficit per day (especially since MFP lowers calories as you lose weight).
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    usmcmp wrote: »
    Despite someone keeping their goal at 2 pounds per week, they more than likely were not at a 1,000 calorie deficit per day (especially since MFP lowers calories as you lose weight).

    ^ That's a good point, too. MFP won't go below the calorie "floor" of 1500 for men or 1200 for women.

    So, for example, let's say a woman with a NEAT of about 2200 says she wants to lose 2lbs/week. MFP will give her 1200 calories to eat, giving her an 1000-calorie daily deficit. But then she loses some weight and now her NEAT is only 2000 calories. Well, MFP is still giving her 1200 calories, so even though her goal says 2lbs/week, she's actually targeting an 800-calorie defict, or 1.6lbs/week. And so on, and so forth.

    Not that I'd ever suggest that a woman with a NEAT of 2200 target 2lbs/week, mind you. That's a deficit of 45%, which is quite extreme. A 1lb/week rate would be a better starting goal for her. But I'm just illustrating the math.
  • 123juliaj123
    123juliaj123 Posts: 75 Member
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    I am not sure what I am going to do now that I am at target weight and have decided to lose another 7lbs just to see if it feels even healthier.

    Its tempting to keep reducing at the rate I have been doing which is about 1 to 2 lbs per week just to get it over with and I am struggling to switch to maintaining mentality as I still feel very overweight even though the scales say Im a healthy bmi now
  • PegMoffat
    PegMoffat Posts: 24 Member
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    Set MFP to loose 16lb @ 1lb per week. MFP gave me 1480 calories per day. Lost my 16lb between mid September and December 1st last year. I did not program to slow down my Weight loss as I got closer to goal. When I hit my goal on December 1st, MFP upped my calories to 1880. I continued to lose for a few weeks and MFP upped my calories, again to 2220 so I trusted that and ate up to that then deducted my exercise calories, which vary daily. I bottomed out at 9lb below my goal weight so worked to put a of pounds back on. I've been maintaining at 5-7 lb below my original goal since April. I didn't seem to have a problem with the glycogen weight gain that so many people talk about.
  • PegMoffat
    PegMoffat Posts: 24 Member
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    PegMoffat wrote: »
    Set MFP to loose 16lb @ 1lb per week. MFP gave me 1480 calories per day. Lost my 16lb between mid September and December 1st last year. I did not program to slow down my Weight loss as I got closer to goal. When I hit my goal on December 1st, MFP upped my calories to 1880. I continued to lose for a few weeks and MFP upped my calories, again to 2220 so I trusted that and ate up to that then deducted my exercise calories, which vary daily. I bottomed out at 9lb below my goal weight so worked to put a couple of pounds back on. I've been maintaining at 5-7 lb below my original goal since April. I didn't seem to have a problem with the glycogen weight gain that so many people talk about.

  • hekla90
    hekla90 Posts: 595 Member
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    I wanted to lose 10 lbs and lost it in 5 weeks. I didn't see a need to drag it out for 4 months at a rate of 1/2 lb a week. I've kept it off since June with out any issue. Whatever floats your boat though. If it was more weight probably better to take it slow. I've always been an active and healthy weight individual I wasn't trying to build good habits as I already had them established.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Who has successfully ignored common MFP advice re: rate of loss?

    Mixture really - lost the initial weight at roughly 1lb a week as recommended. Worked OK but some loss of LBM.

    Then lost a bit more weight much slower (roughly 1lb a month) and not only lost fat but gained LBM.

    Generally speaking either a rapid weight loss for a short duration or a slow rate of weight loss for a long duration would both work (as in lose fat with minimal LBM loss). But a large deficit for a long duration isn't a good idea unless you have a medical/health imperitive.


    PS - I also followed the other important aspects of what I would call optimal weight loss, adequate protein intake and strength/weight training.
  • Therealobi1
    Therealobi1 Posts: 3,261 Member
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    Can't help answer as i stuck to 1 pound per week. 2 pound per week was too agressive for me. Friend of mine lost a significant amount of weight in a blink of an eye just by diet. Now she doesn't want to wear her bikinis because of the loose skin.

    Why do you ask this question?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    marathon_44 wrote: »
    The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

    Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.

    I stuck to the advice and found transitioning to maintenance and keeping the weight off fairly easy

    Sorry can't help
  • NJCJF
    NJCJF Posts: 134 Member
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    I'm kind of a mix. I followed loosely. I was too hungry at 1200 cal/day so I ate around 1500. I only had 18 lbs to lose and I did it very slowly. It took me 6 months! Like another poster said... "What's the rush!" The best advice I followed was to weigh everything! I exercise almost every day, and continue to weigh and log my food.
  • Lena1967
    Lena1967 Posts: 94 Member
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    I did that. I lost the first 10 lbs using alternate day fasting, where you eat 500 calories every other day, and it came off quickly. Then (ironically, since I was losing weight to lower my cancer risk), I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Due to stress and complications from chemo, I quickly lost another 10. I am now down to my high school weight but I think it's a healthy weight (BMI of 21) and I like the way I look. So now that my treatments are finally over, I am working on recomp and staying at maintenance.

    I don't blame you for wanting to lose quickly since cutting is hard. I believe I've seen studies cited on here showing that the speed of weight loss does not affect how successful people are at keeping the weight off.

    IMO, the most important part is training yourself to eat at maintenance, which you will eventually have to do one way or the other. You can't go back to your pre-dieting ways or you will have to start all over (speaking from personal experience!) Best of luck.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    marathon_44 wrote: »
    The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

    Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.

    In the past before MFP, I did ignore advice to lose weight in a slow and sustainable way and I ended up gaining all my weight back because I did not know how to manage maintenance, and I had not created some sustainable eating habits.

    The MFP advice to slow weight loss down as you reach goal is good because it makes the transfer into maintenance so much better--it's either a big old jump or a gentle walk into maintenance, and I prefer the gentle walk. :)
  • jessicarobinson00
    jessicarobinson00 Posts: 414 Member
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    I am on week 2 of maintenance...I blew past my maintenance goal and am now nearly 3 lbs below...not because I'm not eating more but because I'm still not eating enough! It's more mental than anything simply because I know that I probably should be eating more, but the shear difference in the calories is mind-blowing: pretty much equates to an entire extra meal a day and I'm terrified to go back to where I was. So for now I'm still working the teeter-totter to figure out where I should be sitting at, but in hindsight I wish that I had upped my calories as I had gotten closer to make this transition a little bit less extreme...and to allow my mind and body a chance to adjust to the difference. So my answer is this: every person is different, but for me transitioning into maintenance (from 1400 to 1700) has been extremely difficult.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    The problem with losing fast isn't that you wont lose, it is that a larger % of your weight loss will come from lean muscle, meaning at your goal weight you would have a higher BF% than if you ate more.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    marathon_44 wrote: »
    The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

    Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.

    I personally don't think that advice has a whole lot to do with maintaining...that advice is given because as you lean out, bigger deficits are going to burn a higher ratio of lean mass to fat mass. as you lean out, you simply don't have the fat stores available for steep deficits.

    as far as maintenance goes, most people fail regardless of what diet plan they used or if they lost weight fast or slow. people fail at maintenance because they fail to truly adopt a new "normal" and fail to adopt the healthier lifestyle they talk so much about.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    marathon_44 wrote: »
    The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

    Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.

    Why would one want to?

    I didn't undertake this journey to end up looking like a stick thin weakling. Though I guess if that's one's goal, then ignore away.
  • Tedebearduff
    Tedebearduff Posts: 1,155 Member
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    marathon_44 wrote: »
    The advice to slow down your weight loss as you get closer to your goal is frequently given on MFP. For example, you might start with a 2 pound per week goal, but then lower that to 1 pound then 1/2 pound per week as you get closer to goal.

    Please post if you ignored this advice, and have been successfully maintaining despite your impatience. Please post why you ignored that advice, and if you think maintenance has been any harder because you ignored it.

    Because none of the people giving advice on here are experts and allot of the "advice" is horrible and uneducated.

    I also ignore all the generic CICO /IIFYM uneducated advice, it's just bad... these people know nothing about hormones and how the/your body works.

    regarding the speed of weight loss, I had ALLOT to lose (started at 355lbs, could of been more as that's where the doctors scale maxed out) I lost 30lbs in a month, that's 1lb a day kiddies. Obviously I made drastic changes, however I wasn't eating 1200 calories I was consuming around 3500-3000 per day.

    In a year I lost 156

    When I stopped tacking, I had lost 172lbs, I got smaller after this though but never got on the scale .. like a bit too much I went from a 5XL to a small... I didn't like being that small (and COLD!) so I started eating more and incorporating different foods.

    I follow a bodybuilding regiment so I bulk and a cut a few times per year, I don't weight myself but for measurements I wear a large to medium, one bulk I got to the point where i needed to be a XL but turned that around quickly.

    No idea if this helps but I got to vent a little ;)
  • HowlinAl
    HowlinAl Posts: 277 Member
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    I lost 155 pounds in about 10 months. I ate around 1600 calories a day for a large part of this time and felt fine. I'm eating 1800 now and adding 150 a week until I find my maintenance level.

    Did I lose too fast? Probably. Even though I did a pretty good job of eating a ton of protein, I've possibly lost more muscle than I intended. Does that bother me? Not in the slightest. You know what else is bad? Being 400 pounds. I have zero regrets.

    On the other hand, I can honestly say I very rarely, if ever, felt deprived at such a low calorie level. I ate great foods. But that's me. Most people might feel like they are constantly hungry at that level and that can't be possibly be good for the long term.
  • BurnWithBarn2015
    BurnWithBarn2015 Posts: 1,026 Member
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    I did

    But this was because i was supervised and worked with a medical team.
    So for some time when MFP advised to slow down i kept it on 2lbs a week.
    Till my doctor started to change it.

    Now i have it the other way around. While i still can lose 20 pounds to get to the lower weight range of my healthy BMI ( i am just in the healthy weight range now). i slowed it down to half a pound a week and even less than i think when i see my data.
    But time will tell.

    I am happy the way i am and when i indeed eat at maintenance at this moment that will only be handy for the near future when i indeed want to take off another 5 to 7 pounds.

    I feel fit, healthier and happy and that was the goal, the numbers are just.....numbers.

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