Is this ok?

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  • binabodu
    binabodu Posts: 120 Member
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    danibabs wrote: »
    Yeaaaa I don't think you're an alcoholic either. Calories from alcohol add up quick and it's easy to do a lot of damage in one day, never mind a whole weekend.

    I work in the beer industry and am just trying to cut back on having a beer every day. It just comes down to daily choices - do I want a burrito or a salad + a beer for dinner?

    I generally agree with the pack though that your calorie defecits are way too low. Take a look at some of the intro threads on here about healthy calorie defecits for sustainable loss. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
    The blogs that MFP puts out are pretty helpful too.

    If you're committed to making a change, it's gonna be slow s adjust your expectations. But if you stick with it it'll be so much more worth it, and more sustainable.

    For a personal example, I currently weigh 200.4 lbs at 5'6" with 45.6% body fat. My average caloric intake is 1635 to lose ~1 lb per week. I eat more than that on days I strength train, less on days I don't (1870 & 1437 respectively). I always try to be within 100 cals of that, but I definitely have my splurge days, and if I'm slightly low I consider it a bank against those. I keep a separate spreadsheet with my defecits and keep an eye on my weekly average.

    Thanks for the link. I'm jealous of your job already. :) Do you mind me asking how long you have been losing & how much you've lost?
  • keepupwithjack
    keepupwithjack Posts: 44 Member
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    One more thing. I think we all have to work on a sustainable strategy for the long term. It's not about numbers...it's about health and changing your relationship with food.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,952 Member
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    emmycantbemeeko wrote: »
    binabodu wrote: »
    I_Will_End_You wrote: »

    Your husband didn't lose 8lbs of fat last week. Most of that was probably water weight. He would have to burn around 28,000 more calories than he ate to lose around 8lbs of fat. That's a ton of calories to burn in one week.

    It was 8 weeks ago, but I know. I just feel like my 3.8 was water weight too! Not fair he got 8. :)

    I actually can do math but I seriously wondered if this was sustainable as long as I averaged somewhere close to 1200 per day for the week. It is really 4 low cal days and 3 higher cal days.

    What is the difference in hitting 1200 a day vs. 1200 average for the week?

    Your body needs energy to function 24 hours/day. Over short periods of fasting, like overnight or for one day, despite not having new food to digest, your body can draw on glycogen stores in your muscles and liver to function. Once those stores are depleted, your body starts breaking down its own tissues to run. Some of those is fat, some is lean tissue. The higher the deficit, the more lean tissue lost.

    When you go for *days* at a very high deficit, not only are you not taking in the micro and macro nutrients you need day after day (not enough vitamins and minerals, and not enough protein to help preserve and repair lean muscle), but you place a lot of stress on your body. Nothing is replacing those glycogen stores, no protein is coming in to repair your muscles. Eating more every weekend won't change the fact that on Tuesday-Friday you weren't putting any new fuel or building blocks in to your body. Going for five days at a net of just a few hundred calories a day and then eating a ton on the weekends is *not* the same thing as averaging calories across two days, or restricting by a small amount each day to bank those extra calories for a big event.

    Your body needs its TDEE every day, whether through food or breaking down its own tissue. By going for days at a time at a very very low intake level, you increase the amount of lean tissue lost as you lose, and eating more on Sunday isn't going to make up for all the muscle lost on Wednesday or Thursday.

    Think of it like sleep. Staying up late one night isn't the end of the world for functionality, but you wouldn't expect to be able to sleep just two hours a night all week long, then make up for it by sleeping in on the weekends and not still feel like hell, even if you managed to get the same total number of hours averaged. Sleep just isn't *that* fungible a resource for your body. Neither is nutrition.

    Intermittent fasting is a legitimate strategy, but five days fasted, two days eating is not the recommended approach for a good reason.

    Well said.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,952 Member
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    binabodu wrote: »
    TeaBea wrote: »
    If you are losing a little over a pound a week, you are losing at a good pace. Losing faster is not realistic.

    The problem I see is not your average calories (likely a little higher than you think) as weight loss is respectable, but weekends must be a lot of calories to make up for several days at 600-800.

    Lifestyle changes and maintenance come to mind. How will you manage the weight you lose using this method? Many people will have a cheat day....but they typically don't eat very low calories for several days to achieve it.

    I guess it is possible I am underestimating casing a 1,not 2 lb loss. I definitely over estimated my alcohol last weekend because I wanted to be accurate but eating out was hard.

    I just don't understand why this worked so well for my husband who dropped 8lbs in one week. That is not realistic, I understand that.

    Lots of reasons:

    1. What's his height and what's yours?
    2. What's his TDEE and what's yours?
    3. Calorie deficit he created vs yours?
    4. Etc.
  • danibabs
    danibabs Posts: 298 Member
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    I've just restarted after a few years of slacking. This time around, I've lost five lbs in 8 weeks, though my exercise regimen is focused on building strength, so to that end I've lost 7 lbs body fat and gained 4 lbs in muscle (according to my scale and rough math). I've also had quite a few over eating days that I'm still trying to get better at regulating.

    My calories are roughly the same as what I did a few years ago, but then I was doing more cardio and eating back my calories. Then I lost 35 lbs in 5 months, before I got lazy.
  • brekober
    brekober Posts: 40 Member
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    For me it was realizing that alcohol isn't worth the stall in my weight loss. I still allow myself to have a vodka soda every once in awhile (which is hard, because I was a red wine drinker) but it came down to which is more important for me. Losing weight > pointless calories
    The way I see it is by the time I'm at maintenance I can fit it in my daily calories easier and a little more often, plus have a lower alcohol tolerance.

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