How do you know when to stop losing weight?

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bleepboop8422
bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
When I decided to lose weight this year I originally set a goal weight of 110lbs. I’m now 5 lbs away from that goal but I still think I look chubby. For reference, I’m a 5’1 woman and I carry most of my weight on my stomach. I have a 28” waist.

I’m trying to figure out whether I should just keep lowering my goal weight or try body recomp to start building more muscle. I do some strength training but I’ve heard you can’t build much muscle if your calorie deficit is too big. Anyone have any advice on this? What did you feel when you reached your original goal weight? Do you have a goal weight in mind or are you more focused on certain body measurements as a better indication of health?

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  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

    There are a couple of things to unpack in your post, but I want to touch on the idea of recomp. Recomping is the idea of eating at maintenance, not at deficit... while using a progressive lifting program. It's a slow process, but it works over time if you are consistent with sticking to your maintenance calories and to your training.

    Thanks for linking that post! There’s a lot of good info there. If you feel comfortable sharing, could you speak a bit about your transition into eating at maintenance? My intake is pretty inconsistent so I struggle with the concept of eating a consistent amount of calories a day. Or are there any resources you’ve found useful for keeping calorie intake consistent?
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    sardelsa wrote: »

    When I reached my original goal weight after having my first baby, I was not happy with my results at all. I lost without doing any lifting and I lost a lot of muscle. After many years of building cycles I have fixed that but it can take a lot of time (depending on your starting point and goals).

    Right now, I am losing the last few lbs after a bulk cycle. I kind of have a goal weight range in mind, and to be honest it is lower than I thought I would have to go. I try to focus more on what I see in the mirror. I am fairly close to goal but still kind of struggling with the idea of transitioning into recomp myself.

    If you feel comfortable sharing, could you talk more about struggling to transition to recomp? Something I’m worried about is keeping my calories consistent and being accurate enough with my logging. I do use a food scale but weighing everything tends to make me a little anxious. I’d be interested in hearing what you struggle with and your plans to overcome those struggles.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
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    The last five pounds could make the difference you want. I know five pounds near my goal weight makes a big difference, and I'm tall. Especially since you don't have much more to lose, five pounds will have a dramatic impact visually. It isn't like the first five pounds lost of 40.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
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    bleepboop8422 wrote: »
    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

    There are a couple of things to unpack in your post, but I want to touch on the idea of recomp. Recomping is the idea of eating at maintenance, not at deficit... while using a progressive lifting program. It's a slow process, but it works over time if you are consistent with sticking to your maintenance calories and to your training.

    Thanks for linking that post! There’s a lot of good info there. If you feel comfortable sharing, could you speak a bit about your transition into eating at maintenance? My intake is pretty inconsistent so I struggle with the concept of eating a consistent amount of calories a day. Or are there any resources you’ve found useful for keeping calorie intake consistent?

    The idea of a consistent intake day to day isn't important, but as long as you average out over time, things will be okay. In fact, when I maintain, I tend to eat at deficit a lot and then have days where I go over to balance them out.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    bleepboop8422 wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »

    When I reached my original goal weight after having my first baby, I was not happy with my results at all. I lost without doing any lifting and I lost a lot of muscle. After many years of building cycles I have fixed that but it can take a lot of time (depending on your starting point and goals).

    Right now, I am losing the last few lbs after a bulk cycle. I kind of have a goal weight range in mind, and to be honest it is lower than I thought I would have to go. I try to focus more on what I see in the mirror. I am fairly close to goal but still kind of struggling with the idea of transitioning into recomp myself.

    If you feel comfortable sharing, could you talk more about struggling to transition to recomp? Something I’m worried about is keeping my calories consistent and being accurate enough with my logging. I do use a food scale but weighing everything tends to make me a little anxious. I’d be interested in hearing what you struggle with and your plans to overcome those struggles.

    Usually after losing I go to a bulk cycle, so that is part of my hesitation to recomp, kind of unknown territory for me since I am either losing or gaining. Also for recomp leaving some fat/leanness to work with can actually help the process so that is a consideration and struggle for me to not get too low in bodyfat%.

    You don't have to be very accurate in your logging, you don't even have to log if it doesn't work for you, but do want to make sure you use other ways to measure progress. I don't track at all, I weigh almost daily and plot it on a trend weight app to make sure I am reaching my goals over time. Also using measurements, the mirror, photos. In terms of transitioning, adding calories (can be snacks, increased portions, adding a bit of nuts or fruit etc) each week over time until your weight stabilizes is how I have always done it.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    Depending on how fast you lost your weight it may take your body and mind a little bit of time to catch up with your new normal... Your body--as in skin tightening up--and your mind--in getting accustomed to seeing your new size...
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    elisa123gal wrote: »
    The last five pounds could make the difference you want. I know five pounds near my goal weight makes a big difference, and I'm tall. Especially since you don't have much more to lose, five pounds will have a dramatic impact visually. It isn't like the first five pounds lost of 40.

    That’s a good point. I did notice a dramatic difference in my shape when I dropped from 130 to 120. Perhaps I need to be more patient and make a decision once I reach 110.
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »

    The idea of a consistent intake day to day isn't important, but as long as you average out over time, things will be okay. In fact, when I maintain, I tend to eat at deficit a lot and then have days where I go over to balance them out.

    That’s pretty reassuring for me. I usually jump back up to around maintenance or a little over one or two days of the week while I’m losing. I guess I built maintenance up to be something totally foreign but I can still use a lot of the same patterns I’m using now to lose weight.
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    sardelsa wrote: »
    Usually after losing I go to a bulk cycle, so that is part of my hesitation to recomp, kind of unknown territory for me since I am either losing or gaining. Also for recomp leaving some fat/leanness to work with can actually help the process so that is a consideration and struggle for me to not get too low in bodyfat%.

    You don't have to be very accurate in your logging, you don't even have to log if it doesn't work for you, but do want to make sure you use other ways to measure progress. I don't track at all, I weigh almost daily and plot it on a trend weight app to make sure I am reaching my goals over time. Also using measurements, the mirror, photos. In terms of transitioning, adding calories (can be snacks, increased portions, adding a bit of nuts or fruit etc) each week over time until your weight stabilizes is how I have always done it.

    Thanks for sharing your process! I think the idea of introducing more snacks really appeals to me, as opposed to altering the size of my regular meals. I think I’ve become really intimidated by maintenance, but there’s a lot of ways to get there beyond pure weighing.
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    mitch16 wrote: »
    Depending on how fast you lost your weight it may take your body and mind a little bit of time to catch up with your new normal... Your body--as in skin tightening up--and your mind--in getting accustomed to seeing your new size...

    That’s a good point. I haven’t even lost quite as much weight as others on here but I still have trouble mentally adjusting to my new size. Especially after being overweight for most of my life. I think I still see myself as that same chubby girl some days.
  • bleepboop8422
    bleepboop8422 Posts: 21 Member
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    CarvedTones wrote: »
    I would go a step further and say for all practical purposes you can't log very accurately in recomp or when dong a lot of cardio. Exercise is always a double edged sword; it's awesome and one of the best things you can do for yourself, but there are widely varying estimates on calorie burn. The more frequent, lengthy and/or intense the exercise is the greater the potential logging error is. Log the best that you can to stay reasonably close, but the bathroom scale trend and tape measure are going to be the real indicators that you can put a little more faith in.

    That’s a good point. I think somehow I convinced myself that maintenance consisted of logging even more strictly and being perfect all the time. But in the end it’s all a balancing act and there are ways to strike that balance that use the same skills I used losing the weight.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    5lbs can make a really large difference - especially when you are petite like you are. Think you shouldn't try to guess what you will look and feel like.

    The last few pounds were really noticeable for me in term of muscle definition and reduction in my problem areas.
    (My profile picture actually came about when I was approaching maintenance and was moaning to my wife that I couldn't see any progress in my stomach area and she said "have a look at your back - it's improved massively".)

    "I’m trying to figure out whether I should just keep lowering my goal weight or try body recomp to start building more muscle."
    I would say stick to your goal, learn to maintain there for a couple of months and then reassess with the simple decision of stay the same/lose a bit more/regain a bit. Recomp is just training effectively while eating at or around maintenance calories - you can do that right now with a small deficit.

    "I do some strength training but I’ve heard you can’t build much muscle if your calorie deficit is too big."
    Correct although it varies massively depending on the person's individual circumstances so the "too big" part is individual too. First thing to consider perhaps is changing what you describe as "some strength training" to be an effective training regime suitable for your goals, it's your training that drives recomp, it all starts there.

    "What did you feel when you reached your original goal weight? Do you have a goal weight in mind or are you more focused on certain body measurements as a better indication of health?"
    I felt absolutely elated as my goal weight had eluded me for 20 years. I tracked measurements but my goals were weight, strength and performance markers.
    I did end up nibbling off a few extra pounds after a period of months in a series of steps of slow loss and maintenance. Eventually I deliberately reversed some of that additional loss as I recomped successfully even though recomp was just a byproduct of my training goals rather than a standalone aim.

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