BMR seems like a wild guess to me
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Why post if you don't want an answer?
My apologies if I came off flippant, but...advice and facts are welcome - being called extreme and illogical is not really helpful, it came off kind of patronizing, which I have had enough of in half a lifetime of obesity. When a post starts with an insult, even a mild one, it kinda clogs my ears. But I read it anyway, and I'll try not to respond in kind. I've actually had several nice bits of input on this thread, very helpful.FWIW - while calorie burns are definitely specific to individuals and are not uniform by any means, I can almost guarantee that it is physically impossible for a 6 foot male at 300 pounds to have a maintenance calorie level of 1600 calories per day. It's likely that you are not logging or measuring properly.
Glad your guarantee came with an "almost", because that is indeed the case. I weigh and measure very carefully, log everything, and based on the best information I can get on the calories burned by the exercises I am doing, this is the situation. It was very frustrating, so I posted hoping someone else out there had encountered the same problem and could offer some insight.
As to the fasting weight loss being "real" - well, that weight is still gone, along with a little more, but it took several 1400-calorie days to get there. It seems in my situation the math is just strange. I have friends who fast regularly, sometimes for days, have for years, and swear by it. I am new to it myself, but willing to give it a shot now and again as needed.
I took this all up with my doctor last week, and his opinion is that I have reached a metabolic slowing caused by extreme weight loss over the past nine months. His advice was to increase my calories to about 1800 cal/day, weigh myself after two weeks to avoid a water weight shock, and then look for continued loss in the 1-2 pounds per week range instead of the 3 pounds per week I did over the past nine months. His opinion on fasting is that some studies have shown that it can not only speed weight loss, but help prevent or diminish some cancers and other "high metabolic" diseases, and since I'm not hypoglycemic he sees no issues if I don't overdo it.
I intend to follow his advice and see what happens. If my weight shoots up after two weeks at 1800/day, I will throttle back on the food again, because I am NOT going back.
The exercise routine continues - it is actually quite moderate compared to the routine I had 30 years ago, before all of my weight gain, and specific to my hobbies now.
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Did you read this yet, OP?
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations3 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Did you read this yet, OP?
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
YES...and thank you! Excellent resource, I signed up for the regular emails. Much appreciated!1 -
I noticed that for myself after a fast I would gain weight. It seemed that I was picking up a lot of water weight. I have read that to burn fat the body needs 2 molecules of water for each molecule of fat. Is is almost counter-intuitive, but your body would store up enough water to metabolize fat before starting. Fasting can lead to dehydration, exacerbating the problem. It reasons you would lose a few pounds of water, then regain as you started eating again. Safe weight loss is supposed to be 1 to 2 pounds a week. As you seem to be nearly twice that at 3.7 pounds average, you will have nearly put yourself into a starvation mode and your body may be trying to store every last calorie it can in an effort to save itself. I am no expert, nor claim to be. I have lost nearly 50 pounds in 5 months using some of the information I ,and others, have outlined.7
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Everyone seems to know all the scientific stuff. I don’t. But I do know this. Every time I severely cut calories, I lose about 10 pounds in a very, very short time. Every time I go back to higher calories after a while on fewer calories, I gain about 10 pounds in a very, very short time. Then my weight levels out.0
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jim_pipkin wrote: »
As to the fasting weight loss being "real" - well, that weight is still gone, along with a little more, but it took several 1400-calorie days to get there. It seems in my situation the math is just strange. I have friends who fast regularly, sometimes for days, have for years, and swear by it. I am new to it myself, but willing to give it a shot now and again as needed.
Hi again,
This is one of the reasons I invited you to the group. Your math is not strange and neither is your impatience I am afraid. You are trying to strangle results that you need to allow to happen. I once waited 7 weeks for a new low weight but I knew it was coming because I am a numbers person. My weight loss is ridiculously predictable if I give it enough time to show up on the bathroom scale. In my spreadsheet I have a weight track that is labeled 'Lowest'. Each day it updates based on the calorie deficit from the day before. My weight can be in many other tracks on my curve but I always eventually visit the lowest one. I would prefer to never leave it but that is not how the human body works.
Sustainability will not come with overreaction and overcompensation. You have to trust the process and find a lane and stick with it unless/until there is no choice but adapt.
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jim_pipkin wrote: »
Sustainability will not come with overreaction and overcompensation. You have to trust the process and find a lane and stick with it unless/until there is no choice but adapt.
I know my impatience is my biggest obstacle at this point, TRYING to trust the process.0 -
jim_pipkin wrote: »
I believe I understand. You have all this energy and you have gotten yourself addicted to the progress. When you start and you have a lot to lose that scale pays out like a broken slot machine. The problem is you are close to where I am now and progress gets less and less linear on the bathroom scale.
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You have all this energy and you have gotten yourself addicted to the progress.
Exactly. I have to throttle back, keep the workouts going, and increase my calories to a sane level - which means I can expect a bump in the short term, but should start seeing steady progress once my body figures out we're not in a Gulag.2 -
I find if you just eat BMR you’ll lose weight IF YOU DONT EAT BACK calories lost from any day to day activities or exercise
The whole idea of eating back is to slow and steady out weight loss. In my opinion if you exercise then eat it back. Just stick to calorie deficit 🤷♀️
I’ve always set goal to BMR for calorie intake as what my goal weight will be. If I am going to be at 1120 for BMR at goal Wright then if I just stick to this as my intake amount during the diet journey, will hit goal weight for sure. Once you get to goal. Then work on increasing calories to suit your desired maintenance weight works better than any diet plan out there.13 -
jim_pipkin wrote: »"
FWIW - focusing on single muscle exercises will eventually lead to an imbalance which can lead to injury. Be careful.
Good luck.
Was thinking about this last night. I just skipped right over it as I was reading these posts yesterday, but last night in aerobics class as we worked every part of our legs, I realized how unbalanced 3000 abductors and no other leg exercises is.
Just thought it was worth another read and some thought.1 -
SPARKLES0883 wrote: »I find if you just eat BMR you’ll lose weight IF YOU DONT EAT BACK calories lost from any day to day activities or exercise
The whole idea of eating back is to slow and steady out weight loss. In my opinion if you exercise then eat it back. Just stick to calorie deficit 🤷♀️
I’ve always set goal to BMR for calorie intake as what my goal weight will be. If I am going to be at 1120 for BMR at goal Wright then if I just stick to this as my intake amount during the diet journey, will hit goal weight for sure. Once you get to goal. Then work on increasing calories to suit your desired maintenance weight works better than any diet plan out there.
There is a huge problem with what you are posting. Unless you are in a coma you are burning considerably more than your BMR every day. My BMR is only around 1100 calories yet I maintain on closer to 1500 calories BEFORE I add my intentional exercise calories.5 -
There is a huge problem with what you are posting. Unless you are in a coma you are burning considerably more than your BMR every day. My BMR is only around 1100 calories yet I maintain on closer to 1500 calories BEFORE I add my intentional exercise calories.
Yet this has been the case. My doc says I restricted my calories too much chasing weekly scale results, instead of being patient and just trusting the math. Others have helped me see this as well. I have started raising my calories this week after my doc advised me to do this, and to expect a weight bump as my body adjusts.
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I realized how unbalanced 3000 abductors and no other leg exercises is.
Just thought it was worth another read and some thought.
The best exercise anyone can do...is one that they will DO. I am gradually working more things into cardio, like ellipse and HIIT sessions, but the abductors have greatly increased my endurance over the past few months.
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jim_pipkin wrote: »There is a huge problem with what you are posting. Unless you are in a coma you are burning considerably more than your BMR every day. My BMR is only around 1100 calories yet I maintain on closer to 1500 calories BEFORE I add my intentional exercise calories.
Yet this has been the case. My doc says I restricted my calories too much chasing weekly scale results, instead of being patient and just trusting the math. Others have helped me see this as well. I have started raising my calories this week after my doc advised me to do this, and to expect a weight bump as my body adjusts.
That bump may not even happen and if it does it should be very temporary like 3-4 days. I definitely would not expect it to last longer than 8 days.
What will change is how often you see a new low weight and how short-lived it may be before you uptick again. If you view your weight loss over a larger period of time though you should be quite satisfied with your progress. I still lose 8-9 pounds a month which is not too shabby. It is less than when I started but so am I. I am not sure how I will feel when that drops to 4 pounds a month as I get closer to my goal range but I am sure I will adjust.3 -
jim_pipkin wrote: »
I realized how unbalanced 3000 abductors and no other leg exercises is.
Just thought it was worth another read and some thought.
The best exercise anyone can do...is one that they will DO. I am gradually working more things into cardio, like ellipse and HIIT sessions, but the abductors have greatly increased my endurance over the past few months.
I'm sorry, I'm honestly not here to disagree with everything. I hope you understand I have your best interests in mind when I say these things. But...
I don't disagree that doing something is better than nothing in most cases, but in this case I think you are seriously setting yourself up for issues down the road. When one strong muscle over compensates you risk injury. Even just the change in the way you move daily with one muscle overpowering everything else can change your gait and cause problems in other areas of your body. As someone who pushes their body further than I should I can tell you that it is a delicate balance to keep everything working together. I'm sidelined right now with an injury I never saw coming. Out of the blue I got a sports hernia and can't run. I'm working through it now with my PT and getting things back in balance is our main objective (that and getting me back to running before I lose my mind
).
Have you considered doing squats?5 -
Have you considered doing squats?
Previous injuries limit my ability to do this until I shed another 50 pounds, but I see your point. I'm dealing with a battered old body that has issues with broken bones, atrophied joints, and an old belly injury that almost killed me a couple of years ago. I do what I can.
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