Who has successfully ignored common MFP advice re: rate of loss?
Options
Replies
-
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.
Exactly my thoughts. I'm scared to post here with some of the know-it-alls on this site... here it goes... please don't jump on me, guys.
I lost over 70lbs once on a VLCD and was back down in the 90s within the blink of an eye. Definitely didn't look or feel malnourished. Looked and felt phenomenal. My weight loss never slowed down, either... it stayed consistent the entire time. I lost "too fast" and "unhealthily" according to this site. Had 0 issues maintaining for quite a long time and continued to lose weight while maintaining.
So... long story short. Brain injury + moving to the city + huge drop in activity = me eating 4000 calories a day. I know... yikes. Seems impossible now that I look back on it. Anyone would gain weight eating like that... right? It was ridiculous. So I gained weight and now... I'm the size of a small whale once again. This time is the last time.
Had bloodwork taken. Scary results. VLCD once again with the supervision of my GP. Supposed to stay on it until I'm in my healthy BMI and my bloodwork goes back to normal. I'm not hungry and have TONS of energy. I feel fantastic!
I'm not going to go around recommending it to people, as that would be wrong, obviously... but I also can't follow the advice thrown around on here. I feel alone here. But I like to waste time on forums, so here I am.
0 -
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.
Exactly my thoughts. I'm scared to post here with some of the know-it-alls on this site... here it goes... please don't jump on me, guys.
I lost over 70lbs once on a VLCD and was back down in the 90s within the blink of an eye. Definitely didn't look or feel malnourished. Looked and felt phenomenal. My weight loss never slowed down, either... it stayed consistent the entire time. I lost "too fast" and "unhealthily" according to this site. Had 0 issues maintaining for quite a long time and continued to lose weight while maintaining.
So... long story short. Brain injury + moving to the city + huge drop in activity = me eating 4000 calories a day. I know... yikes. Seems impossible now that I look back on it. Anyone would gain weight eating like that... right? It was ridiculous. So I gained weight and now... I'm the size of a small whale once again. This time is the last time.
Had bloodwork taken. Scary results. VLCD once again with the supervision of my GP. Supposed to stay on it until I'm in my healthy BMI and my bloodwork goes back to normal. I'm not hungry and have TONS of energy. I feel fantastic!
I'm not going to go around recommending it to people, as that would be wrong, obviously... but I also can't follow the advice thrown around on here. I feel alone here. But I like to waste time on forums, so here I am.
You are not alone
0 -
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.
Exactly my thoughts. I'm scared to post here with some of the know-it-alls on this site... here it goes... please don't jump on me, guys.
I lost over 70lbs once on a VLCD and was back down in the 90s within the blink of an eye. Definitely didn't look or feel malnourished. Looked and felt phenomenal. My weight loss never slowed down, either... it stayed consistent the entire time. I lost "too fast" and "unhealthily" according to this site. Had 0 issues maintaining for quite a long time and continued to lose weight while maintaining.
So... long story short. Brain injury + moving to the city + huge drop in activity = me eating 4000 calories a day. I know... yikes. Seems impossible now that I look back on it. Anyone would gain weight eating like that... right? It was ridiculous. So I gained weight and now... I'm the size of a small whale once again. This time is the last time.
Had bloodwork taken. Scary results. VLCD once again with the supervision of my GP. Supposed to stay on it until I'm in my healthy BMI and my bloodwork goes back to normal. I'm not hungry and have TONS of energy. I feel fantastic!
I'm not going to go around recommending it to people, as that would be wrong, obviously... but I also can't follow the advice thrown around on here. I feel alone here. But I like to waste time on forums, so here I am.
Why would anyone jump on you, you were working with your gp. I think the forums get bad press but loads can be learned here0 -
This post comes across a little bit like a little kid sayinf, "But I don't wanna eat my vegetables!" You don't wanna follow advice? Then dont. The people on here are just sharing what they've learned from their hard-earned experience.
0 -
I have always followed the advice that losing 1% total body weight per week is appropriate.
In other words, even when I was let's say 120 pounds trying to get down to 115 My goal was 1.2 pounds per week.
I found this to be sustainable and easily achievable through a calorie deficit.0 -
I ignored the advice. I was competing in a bodybuilding competition and lost 1-2 lbs per week throughout my entire prep. That was very strict food intake and tons of working out.
Then I switched over to maintainance and I struggled a lot. Like a lot. I yo-yo'ed weight. It took me a long time to get sorted out.
I will not go this route again. It was not worth it. In the end, I lost weight the recommended way and found it far easier in the long run.0 -
Successfully ignored MFP advice? the use of "successfully" in the tile is a bit deceiving to me.
This is like asking have I successfully lied to my parents and gotten away with it? or have I successfully forgotten to pay for something at the check out counter? or in this case have I eaten under the recommended calories for the day? Or even worse, not eaten back any exercise calories? Then yes to all of these.0 -
MFP has its goals set low. I adjusted my calories and macros under goals. I'm currently trying to maintain my weight and it consistently was telling me I would gain weight if I ate as much as I am eating, so I corrected it. I'm pretty active - I workout every day and eat pretty clean. So my metabolism is burning pretty fast. If I ate the number of calories set by MFP, I would hit a wall metabolically. For me, it's not about cheating MFP, it's about eating what I need to eat to be healthy. There are some really good articles on BodyBuildiing.com related to both losing weight and the number of calories you should consume, depending on your goals and vital statistics. Check it out.0
-
I kept off at a pound a week until I hit my goal, then dropped to 1/2 pound when I hit maintenance until I was sure it would stick.
BTW, even though my calories were there, my body wasn't. It took me as much time to drop the first 35 pounds as the last 5, even though calories were the same. Old fat takes longer to leave. 0 -
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.
Personally I did not pay any attention to any weight loss advice on MFP but I didn't seek any weight loss advice on MFP either.
It is important to mention that I am one of those people who believe that my body "knows" what it should weigh and once it reaches that it'd automatically stop losing. Therefore I did nothing different once I reached GW#1 & GW#2. Overall, I organically arrived at my CW which I have maintained VERY comfortably & effortlessly for 2 yrs now. SO nope - I have not had any negative ramifications for ignoring the popular advice.
Logically it just doesn't make sense to purposely slow down progress. Towards the end of my losing phase I was literally losing FRACTIONS of a pound - can't get any slower than that! LOL So to me it's not about being 'impatient' it's more about what made common sense.
I disregarded the advice because personally like to get my information from as close to the source as possible for my own knowledge base sake. So I have and continue to invest a good amount of time Google everything myself. I accumulate the information and compared & contrast what so-called experts recommended then adopted what works for me & my specific goals. And based on my research the rate of weight loss has zero impact on how successful someone will be in maintenance.
Check out my two holy grail maint articles:- BEST TIPS FROM LONG TERM MAINTAINERS (NATIONAL WEIGHT CONTROL REGISTRY)
- KEY TO SUCCESSFUL MAINTENANCE
Weight loss and the ideal weight for any one person is as individualized as the method of reaching GW. SO I highly recommend to go beyond MFP and do your own research then assess which theory or approach you believe in and can incorporate into your lifestyle as seamlessly as possible.
Best of luck to you!0 -
Those posting with their "success" stories while ignoring advice from MFP all seem to have started from severe obesity. That changes the whole equation. When you have 200 lbs to lose, you can obviously lose 2 lbs a week for a whole year. But that's not the average crowd here. People who have say, 30-50 lbs to lose simply cannot sustainably lose 2 lbs a week.0
-
I stuck with the goal reduction, but I never lost at the steady rate they said I would. I would lose a little, lose a little, woosh lose all at once. So like .5lb, .5lb, 4lbs. Something like that. Not exact, but you get the idea.0
-
I only had 20lbs to lose, I chose mfp way after years of extreme VLCD and not being able to sustain it. This time round was going to be different.
I set my loss to 1/2lb a week and lost slowly over the period of a year...have maintained my goal weight for 2+ years yet never feel deprived. Everyone is different.0 -
I lost 34b and it took a year to lose 29 of them. I lost the last 5 this year, but am working on gaining them back. What is the rush? If the movement is down, that's all that counts.
I've maintained for 2+ years and have not limited my food choices. Ever.0 -
I lost 100lbs, with the exception of the last month I lost 2-4lbs every single week until I hit 178 then it came off a pound at a time for the next month and now I'm maintaining and working on recomping while I sit at 175.0
-
When I needed to lose 15 or so pounds, I did it as fast as I possibly could 1.5 - 2 pounds per week. I hated being hungry all the time and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. And I gained it all back within a year. Rinse and repeat half a dozen times or more. The latest time, I went from 155 to 135, then up to 174.
I finally realized if I was going to keep it off, I needed to find a different way. So I lost at a reasonable rate of 1 pound per week, and dropped to 1/2 pound a week for the last 7 pounds or so. My transition to maintenance was seamless, and I have kept the weight off for almost a year - which is an all time record for me by about 10 1/2 months.
Just my experience.0 -
I ignored all the advice, listened to my body, "ate intuitively" everything I wanted, so my body would stay out of starvation mode. I don't weigh myself because I feel the scale oppresses me, I'm sure I have a BMI of 10 (although I'm also sure the BMI is microaggressive) and I my HAES doctor tells me I've never been healthier in my life.0
-
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.
Yes - and it's much slower to build back the muscle than to not lose it in the first place and take your time with the fat.0 -
When I needed to lose 15 or so pounds, I did it as fast as I possibly could 1.5 - 2 pounds per week. I hated being hungry all the time and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. And I gained it all back within a year. Rinse and repeat half a dozen times or more. The latest time, I went from 155 to 135, then up to 174.
I finally realized if I was going to keep it off, I needed to find a different way. So I lost at a reasonable rate of 1 pound per week, and dropped to 1/2 pound a week for the last 7 pounds or so. My transition to maintenance was seamless, and I have kept the weight off for almost a year - which is an all time record for me by about 10 1/2 months.
Just my experience.
The fact that gained weight back had absolutely nothing to do with the way you lost it. After you lost it you went back to eating more calories then you burned. I mean seriously thats like blaming the credit card company because you paid off your credit cards then charged it all up again.0 -
personally,i use mfp when want to lose max 14 lbs and prefer to lose as quick as possible-ie all over in at most 7 weeks.(say after holiday trip/xmas/new year break,etc when for a few weeks just really enjoy eating!).
then back to usual maintenance diet.
it is important though to exercise to keep metabolism burning that fat, as metabolic rate slows 15-30% within 48 hrs of strict calorie deficit
it would seem to make sense to lose more slowly from a large weight simply to try to give your skin time to contract with your weight loss.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.5K Introduce Yourself
- 43.5K Getting Started
- 259.7K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 391 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 926 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions