Calories question?

TonyNeedstolooseweight wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

What is your height, weight and activity level

170cm / 145kg , power walking 3 times a day , morning noon and night sometimes 4 or 5 times a day! 2mph on incline of 4 to 8 , i increase the incline as i get further into my walk. Been doing this for a month now , lost 20 pounds so far.

Figure how many calories you've been taking in and how the weightloss has gone in the last few weeks. if you've lost 20 lbs in a month that's amazing so don't try to re invent the wheel calorie wise. Some of that was probably water weight though. Shoot for 2 ish lbs a week of loss. At 320 you could shoot for a bit more though until you lose more.

^ Sounds like you've got a great plan, and you're on a good path. I would say good luck, but it doesn't seem like you need it.

Do consider starting to add some weights in the near future though.

TonyNeedstolooseweight wrote: »

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

So you're 5'7" and 320 pounds currently.

Yeah, you'd lose weight at 3,000 calories, but nowhere near as much as you are. Even assuming some pounds from initial water loss, that looks like an aggressive loss rate. Not too high, but high.

How much protein are you getting? This site recommends 175g for you, which would be 40% of your current intake. You may want to consider going to 2,000 calories, while getting that much protein, and keeping up with your walking. A less aggressive loss plus a good amount of protein will help retain your muscle mass as you drop, so more of your losses will be fat.

https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/

I'm getting about 150grams of protein a day , i make sure both my lunch and dinner have a good amount in them . eating a lot of chicken and turkey. But its good to know i can go up to 2000 , my general rule of thumb is if im not hungry i don't eat , if i feel hungry drink water or a diet drink , and if the hunger remains have around 20grams of nuts. Its a good system , i get hunger but im learning to embrace it rather than suffer from it , its not painful or anything , it normally means my next meal is due in about a hour. I never go to bed hungry either , once the day is done im happy and content and go to sleep , and i start the morning off with a protein shake (diet version) , all of the meals are freshly prepared and home cooked to , and i knock 5 pounds off my total loss as water more than likely , but im just going by the scale. I guess i could find a diet protein bar of some kind , ill do my research on a suitable one to bump the protein up a little , maybe add some jerky into the mix. I also got a battle rope off amazon , thing is massive , ill add that into the mix very soon! Thanks for your reply

Losing weight fast increases health risk. Obviously, it's your call how much risk you can tolerate, but I'd argue that actual weight loss rate is a better gauge of risk than perceived hunger. Many of us (like me) who've been obese got there partly because our hunger cues are screwed up. "Screwed up" isn't necessarily just "we feel OK eating too much". It can turn into "we feel OK eating too little".

A common rule of thumb is to avoid losing more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week, with a bias toward the lower end of that range unless under close medical supervision for deficiencies or health complications. That would be something like 0.75-1.5kg (1.5-3 pounds, roughly) per week maximum for you, for a while. (Yes, I did some fudge-y rounding in there.)

Very fast weight loss can risk losing more muscle mass than minimum, fatigue that bleeds calorie burn out of our day, weakness (ditto), hair thinning . . . at the mild end. At extremes, which of course are statistically less likely but still in the picture, fast loss can trigger compromised immune system, gallbladder problems, heart damage, etc.

Like I said, your risk tolerance is up to you. As someone who accidentally lost too fast at first, got weak/fatigued, then took multiple weeks to recover back to feeling normal, I'm a fervent believer in keeping risks moderate. Things were much better after I realized that MFP dramatically underestimates my calorie needs, a thing that's rare but possible. It was much better once I set my goals based on my actual loss rate. Much.

On top of that, weight loss tends to have a honeymoon period where motivation is high, fast loss feels motivating, and all systems are GO. But losing a meaningful total amount of weight is not a quick project with a nearby end date. Even at a fast loss rate, it's a many weeks to months to even years kind of effort. And after that, most of us want to stay at that healthy weight, which is a forever endeavor.

Consider the sustainability. Ideally, sometime during weight loss, we experiment, find, practice and groove in a new set of habits, routine patterns of eating and activity, that we can happily keep up forever to stay at a healthy weight. If we do that during loss, maintenance becomes just the simple addition of a few hundred daily calories, not some radical thing. Lots of people fail out of maintenance because they arrive there without a practiced plan. "Go back to normal" is a common maintenance approach . . . sadly, since that's the on-ramp to yo-yo regain, perhaps the least healthy lifestyle.

Honestly, we see a lot of people show up in the Community who are gung ho, losing fast, feeling motivated . . . then in a few weeks, they disappear. Maybe they disappear because some of us weren't supportive, from their perspective, no way to know. But I have suspicions. On the flip side, there are exceptions, but many of the people who are in the Community as long-term weight maintainers now trying to help others . . . well, seems like the most common pattern is that they went with a slow and steady, change routine habits kind of approach.

For myself, I decided not to do anything during loss I wasn't willing to continue long term to stay at a healthy weight, except for a sensibly moderate calorie deficit. Other than that phase where I accidentally lost too fast, that's worked out OK. I've been at a healthy weight now for 7+ years, after about 3 previous decades of overweight/obesity. YMMV.

Regardless, I wish you excellent long-term outcomes, whatever route you choose, because IMO being at a healthy weight is a huge quality of life improvement.

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

At an obese weight losing the extra weight quickly can be better than taking it slow and staying very overweight for longer. Once a good amount of the weight comes off then it can slow a bit.

I agree.

There's nothing wrong with quick weight loss when obese. This of course flies in the face of the icons of nutrition like the CDC or the USDA that say slow and steady weight loss is the best strategy for long term successes. This of course is reductive thinking like most of their recommendations simply because individual health measures are singularly in the hands of your personal medical Dr. and saying otherwise would leave the CDC et al open to litigation, and they're simply not in the business of individual health advice, full stop. Also there's really no science that supports that assertion, but plenty that actually says the opposite to be true. You have to keep in mind that if you decide to be aggressive in your weight loss, that that is the plan for short term and the journey down from your particular weight will probably entail a few different strategies along the way. Focusing on protein would be advisable and your energy is your own body fat, so I would be cutting back on carbs and I would try and consume as much whole nutrient dense and calorie sparing foods for overall satiation (lower fat). Of course the best thing you can do is your own research and not believe anyone on the interwebs, which is generally my approach. cheers

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20443094/

The association between rate of initial weight loss and long-term success in obesity treatment: does slow and steady win the race?

Conclusion: Collectively, findings indicate both short- and long-term advantages to fast initial weight loss. Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11707557/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25459211/

Good grief, Tony! How are you feeling?