Less than 1500 for men?
SeanD2021
Posts: 7 Member
Im only 5 foot 7 and currently 160lbs. I fit in mens size small shirts and have 30 inch waist jeans. Though i have no belly at all i still have back rolls or love handles that i read will disappear last or not start going away until im under 150.
I want to lose weigt but cant get below 160lbs. Yes i log. Yes i use a food scale. No i dont need to fo see a doctor.
My question is why wont the ap let me set calories at 1300 or 1400? That shouldnt be too low for a man. I only need it for a couple weeks to lose weight and once i do get to say 150lb i can THEN set it to .5lb a week.
Men in other countries who live healthy lives arent all eating 1500 .
1350 to 1400 would be perfect. And more than likely I'd still be at 1500 given label or logging in accuracy. Ive increased dumbell exercise. The last few months from 25lb hammer curls to 45lb so i am increasingly in strength. Though BMI still says im overweight and i should drop to be in healthy middle of weight range.
Why is eating 1350 to 1400 considered too aggressive and dangerous? That's nowhere close to a starvation diet.
Thats FOUR small 300 calorie meals plus a scoop of protein powder mixed with almond milk shake a day.
I want to lose weigt but cant get below 160lbs. Yes i log. Yes i use a food scale. No i dont need to fo see a doctor.
My question is why wont the ap let me set calories at 1300 or 1400? That shouldnt be too low for a man. I only need it for a couple weeks to lose weight and once i do get to say 150lb i can THEN set it to .5lb a week.
Men in other countries who live healthy lives arent all eating 1500 .
1350 to 1400 would be perfect. And more than likely I'd still be at 1500 given label or logging in accuracy. Ive increased dumbell exercise. The last few months from 25lb hammer curls to 45lb so i am increasingly in strength. Though BMI still says im overweight and i should drop to be in healthy middle of weight range.
Why is eating 1350 to 1400 considered too aggressive and dangerous? That's nowhere close to a starvation diet.
Thats FOUR small 300 calorie meals plus a scoop of protein powder mixed with almond milk shake a day.
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I'm one of the first people to say that BMI is a good enough indication of approximate fat level for most people.
However size small shirts and 30" waist and no belly argue against you being overweight.
Remember all the time you spend at the gym increasing your muscle mass and strength?
Wouldn't it suck to lose some of that because you lost fast instead of keeping your muscles and watching them become more defined as you remove the tiny bit of fat that may be hiding some of your definition?
In any case. You don't have a health reason to lose fast and it doesn't sound as if your body has the fat reserves that would support fast loss.
All you're going to achieve my cutting too hard is to make it even more difficult for you to control the rebound when you call it a day.
You should probably be trying to lose at half a pound a week (-250 Cal), not the 2lbs a week you've probably selected.
Ok, since you're just starting out maybe 0.5% of body weight per week which would be a target of -400 for you. With month long breaks every couple of months...
You need to finesse this; not sledgehammer it!
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You can select any calorie target you wish as long as you don't use the guided setup.0
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I'm not sure why you think less than 1500 would be the right target.
I am shorter than you (not quite 5 ft 4 in) female, probably older than you, and I started at 72 kg - nearly 160 lb.
I had 10kg or 22 lb to lose to get to goal so I set rate at 1/2 ;lb per week - and MFP gave me 1460 calories.
Hard to believe your right calorie goal would be less than mine was.7 -
Pics?
I'm one of the first people to say that BMI is a good enough indication of approximate fat level for most people.
However size small shirts and 30" waist and no belly argue against you being overweight.
Remember all the time you spend at the gym increasing your muscle mass and strength?
Wouldn't it suck to lose some of that because you lost fast instead of keeping your muscles and watching them become more defined as you remove the tiny bit of fat that may be hiding some of your definition?
In any case. You don't have a health reason to lose fast and it doesn't sound as if your body has the fat reserves that would support fast loss.
All you're going to achieve my cutting too hard is to make it even more difficult for you to control the rebound when you call it a day.
You should probably be trying to lose at half a pound a week (-250 Cal), not the 2lbs a week you've probably selected.
Ok, since you're just starting out maybe 0.5% of body weight per week which would be a target of -400 for you. With month long breaks every couple of months...
You need to finesse this; not sledgehammer it!
My TDEE is 1980.
So half a lb a week puts it at 1700 which means I'm one or two logs away from maintenance?
Are you suggesting that eating at 1480 for a month cut, then eating at maintenance for a month is way to go? How is that different than .5 a week after 2 months?0 -
Hi Sean,
have you considered an actual recomp, and not losing more weight?
Otherwise: yeah, so close to goal weight loss will be slow and should be slow. Why not eat less: it's unhealthy. Hair loss, muscle loss, too little nutrients. Pick what you'd like.4 -
Instead of lowering calories beyond 1500, it might be a better idea to up the weight lifting.
Not only will you burn extra calories but also build muscle so it's a win/win.0 -
Hi Sean,
have you considered an actual recomp, and not losing more weight?
Otherwise: yeah, so close to goal weight loss will be slow and should be slow. Why not eat less: it's unhealthy. Hair loss, muscle loss, too little nutrients. Pick what you'd like.
Got a good link for recomp threads here?
I actially was a member here from 2017 to 2020 went from 220lbs to 170lb. I deleted the ap mud pandemic. When i rejoined i was 165ish so i have been doing something right without logging ect... But yeah this close to goal weight is insane.
Especially losing the lower back fat/love handles. The only visible spot i see fat left. Of course my family and girlfriend "dont see it" or think having them is normal. But it does bother me.0 -
I'm sure someone will chime in with this. There are some pinned recomp posts somewhere. I just don't know where as I follow my own sports programme.
Oh yeah, the lower back fat will likely be very slow. And maybe it just refuses to go while you lose elsewhere. I decided I'm happy with my body as otherwise my face becomes very thin and sick looking. Apparently that's where I lose easily. The dreaded bra strap fat accumulation though.. But yeah, everyone got them.0 -
I’m a chick, but much of this has applied to me. At 5’7” I am currently 133.
As @PAV8888 wisely points out, I dropped too much, eating at 1900 per day, and lost muscle, which I had worked damn hard to build. It was crushingly disappointing. I bumped calories back up in November and again a couple of months later. I have made an effort to put on four or five pounds. I average 2500 or so a day now. It has taken me this long to rebuild some of the “visual” muscle I had lost.
I also have a small waist, and the appearance of unsightly love handles. Chances are very good it’s not love handles, but accumulated extra skin. I have a very tight core, and lats that are hard as a rock, if I may say so myself, but have accepted that the very soft, gooshy, floppy ring around my waist is extra skin. The extra skin is slowly- and I do mean sloooooooowly- going down, but it mimics fat.
At the risk of sounding gross, do a plank either nekkid, or with waistband pulled down low on hips. If you have what looks like (sorry for the visual) a giant wrinkly momma dog teat hanging down, it’s extra skin. No amount of weight loss is going to get rid of that, only time and continued exercise and patience.
@ninerbuff has an excellent thread about stomach vacuums. I have been doing those while I walk and feel like they’ve helped tremendously with both loose stomach skin and posture, which also emphasizes it.
That’s the female POV (and from onky ine femal) but I think it’s pretty universal once you reach a certain stage.4 -
Pics?
I'm one of the first people to say that BMI is a good enough indication of approximate fat level for most people.
However size small shirts and 30" waist and no belly argue against you being overweight.
Remember all the time you spend at the gym increasing your muscle mass and strength?
Wouldn't it suck to lose some of that because you lost fast instead of keeping your muscles and watching them become more defined as you remove the tiny bit of fat that may be hiding some of your definition?
In any case. You don't have a health reason to lose fast and it doesn't sound as if your body has the fat reserves that would support fast loss.
All you're going to achieve my cutting too hard is to make it even more difficult for you to control the rebound when you call it a day.
You should probably be trying to lose at half a pound a week (-250 Cal), not the 2lbs a week you've probably selected.
Ok, since you're just starting out maybe 0.5% of body weight per week which would be a target of -400 for you. With month long breaks every couple of months...
You need to finesse this; not sledgehammer it!
My TDEE is 1980.
So half a lb a week puts it at 1700 which means I'm one or two logs away from maintenance?
Are you suggesting that eating at 1480 for a month cut, then eating at maintenance for a month is way to go? How is that different than .5 a week after 2 months?
Your TDEE number is questionable unless you're fairly sedentary and you're adding all sorts of exercise to it, in which case it is not TDEE. Are you in bed or house-bound without getting off the computer or couch most of your day? I am the same height, older, weight less lbs and have a larger waist, so less muscle mass... and would be losing >1lb a week eating 2000... I am NOT sedentary because of deliberate effort; I am also NOT on my feet most of the day.
So everything is subject to you getting correct numbers for yourself somewhere in there.
Everything you say (30" waist, other people not seeing what you're seeing) says that you don't actually have a lot of fat available to lose. Therefore the correct goal would be a very small deficit (-250).
You asked about the 8 weeks loss aimed to create a 0.5% of body weight per week followed by four weeks maintenance. There exists some solid research that when trying to finesse a loss such a setup will actually result in less issues/better results.
Having said that. If you're coming from a large loss background. I remind you that sleeping dogs are not dogs that bite you in the *kitten*. Every loss attempt carries risks including rebound gain.
Recomp = hard training to maximize muscle while eating at or near maintenance.
Unless you're already several years into maintenance... see above about evaluating your risks vs benefits. With small esthetic changes as a goal, recomp=old fashioned getting in shape=not a most terrible idea for most people in that position.1 -
This sounds like body dysmorphia to me...things that nobody else sees but you perceive as a flaw...not particularly a-typical for someone who's lost a lot of weight. A size Sm shirt and 30" waist pants isn't fat on any dude. As far as less than 1500 calories per day goes...my 11 year old child eats that much or more. I'm a couple of inches taller than you and old and I'm losing about 1.5 Lbs per week on around 2300 calories per day...to that end, I sit most of the day at a desk and while I do engage in deliberate exercise, it's not a substantial amount.4
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I'm not endorsing this, but if you are sure you know what you're doing, you can manually set your calorie goal to whatever you want it to be. From Goals, go to Calories, etc. and enter what you want it to be.0
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Hi Sean,
have you considered an actual recomp, and not losing more weight?
Otherwise: yeah, so close to goal weight loss will be slow and should be slow. Why not eat less: it's unhealthy. Hair loss, muscle loss, too little nutrients. Pick what you'd like.
Got a good link for recomp threads here?
I actially was a member here from 2017 to 2020 went from 220lbs to 170lb. I deleted the ap mud pandemic. When i rejoined i was 165ish so i have been doing something right without logging ect... But yeah this close to goal weight is insane.
Especially losing the lower back fat/love handles. The only visible spot i see fat left. Of course my family and girlfriend "dont see it" or think having them is normal. But it does bother me.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat1 -
Recomp is definitely the way to go.3
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Thanks everyone1
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I often go down to 1200 cals a day for short periods of a week or two - but with where you are at I agree with the weight lifting suggestion0
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