What is happening to me?

lisamsanford1229 · June 4

I am not ok friends
I have lost 65 pounds in 7 months. I did that by doing 1200 calories a day and being active. I was losing 3 pounds a week until 2 werks ago. In the last 2 werjs I have only lost 2 pounds. What is happening? Why is it slowing diwn now after 7 months? I have 20 pounds to go. I am currently a size 8 and at 163 pounds. Has anybody had this happen to them and if so did you find a reason and solution? Thanks guys.
- Lisa

Lietchi · June 4

I don't think you need a solution. You've been losing at a crazy fast pace, and you're complaining about losing 2lbs instead of 3 lbs per week? Losing more slowly as you approach goal weight is good and healthy. Even 2lbs a week is probably too fast for your current weight. And 1200 calories is very little.
The faster you lose, the more muscle you lose along with bodyfat.

sollyn23l2 · June 4

Your weight loss has slowed as you have less weight to lose. This is natural and expected. Just keep staying the path. 1-2 pounds per week is a healthybrate of loss.

PAV8888 · June 4

Your TDEE was higher. Your body was preferentially losing fat. Your rate was fast even then. More than six months have gone by. You are a human being subject to body limits.

Slow down. Smell the coffee. Your world will not change for the worse if you lose your last 20lbs in either 22, or 32, or even 52 weeks instead of your desired 10 or 12. In fact I can convincingly argue that you're better off losing your last 20lbs in 52 weeks than in 10 weeks.

When I wanted stack the odds in my favor and maximize my chances of maintaining my weight loss I decided to make the smallest possible number of changes between the last 10-15 lbs of weight loss and the first year or two of maintenance. And you can't do that while simultaneously losing 2lbs a week.

You've had a good run with the sledgehammer. Time to develop your skills with a rubber mallet...

mtaratoot · June 4

PAV8888 wrote: »

You've had a good run with the sledgehammer. Time to develop your skills with a rubber mallet...

Maybe the watchmaker's toolkit.

rileysowner · June 4

People have already said what I would. You can lose fast when you have lots to lose. The less you have to lose, the slower the weight loss speed will be and should be. I lost 90 pounds, give or take, over the span of a little more than a year. The last 10 pounds or so have been at a very slow pace compared to how fast I lost at the beginning. Half a pound a week is a good week. This is when patience is vital. It is also a good time to focus on other measures of progress rather than weight. Things like athletic performance, activity levels, or the like.

AnnPT77 · June 4

Lietchi wrote: »

I don't think you need a solution. You've been losing at a crazy fast pace, and you're complaining about losing 2lbs instead of 3 lbs per week? Losing more slowly as you approach goal weight is good and healthy. Even 2lbs a week is probably too fast for your current weight. And 1200 calories is very little.
The faster you lose, the more muscle you lose along with bodyfat.

And the more muscle you lose, the harder weight loss becomes, little by little, because a pound of muscle burns a few more calories even at rest than a pound of fat (not to mention making it less fun/easy to be active, maybe reducing calorie burn that way, too).

On top of that, super fast loss, as you've been creating, is likely to cause more adaptive thermogenesis. That means it slows down things like hair growth (may experience thinning), immune system function (more vulnerable to infection or other illness), efficiency of some organs (could get gallstones, among other things), and more. You might feel cold (reduced core body temperature), too.

Adaptive thermogenesis also reduces calorie needs. That isn't the mythical "starvation mode" where a person can't lose weight at low calories, but it can make calorie needs lower than would be expected for a certain size/activity level . . . and that effect has the potential to last for years after reaching goal weight, making it harder to stay at goal. Your body doesn't know the difference between an extreme diet and a famine. It down-regulates trying to keep you alive longer.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1

Do your health and future a favor. Slow the bus down.

JeremyM0510 · June 4

It’s not good to get accustomed to a certain number of lbs per week. Body fat % is a better metric long term. It can be read a number of different ways. I suggest going off of that rather than lbs/wk. as others have said the body will shut itself down at a certain point and adapt metabolically to keep you alive. As it adjusts, you will need to as well. Your progress has been incredible though. Don’t stop

PAV8888 · June 4

By the way and for the record based on your own experience your numbers as stated are not quite correct.

In the big scheme of things I'm picking nits. But when you eventually try to establish maintenance it might be useful for you to understand

You seem to be using activity and tdee. I'm assuming activity level you have selected on MFP and tdee as estimated based on exercise you add or device that estimates for you.

Doing 1200 doesn't mean much. The actual calories you consume matter.

They could be 1400 on average or 1150 on average for all I know of even exactly 1200. Only YOU have the actual data.

Take a month of that. That's calories in

Take a month of your weight trend change (not direct scale weight but weight trend)

Multiply by 3500 per lb of weight change as a first approximation and divide by number of days (number may be a bit higher for you then 3500 due to speed and length of loss--there's some dynamic adjustment in all this)

Calories logged + weight change calories are what your body and logging together think that your tdee has been over the time period.

lisamsanford1229 · June 5

PAV8888 wrote: »

By the way and for the record based on your own experience your numbers as stated are not quite correct.

In the big scheme of things I'm picking nits. But when you eventually try to establish maintenance it might be useful for you to understand

You seem to be using activity and tdee. I'm assuming activity level you have selected on MFP and tdee as estimated based on exercise you add or device that estimates for you.

Doing 1200 doesn't mean much. The actual calories you consume matter.

They could be 1400 on average or 1150 on average for all I know of even exactly 1200. Only YOU have the actual data.

Take a month of that. That's calories in

Take a month of your weight trend change (not direct scale weight but weight trend)

Multiply by 3500 per lb of weight change as a first approximation and divide by number of days (number may be a bit higher for you then 3500 due to speed and length of loss--there's some dynamic adjustment in all this)

Calories logged + weight change calories are what your body and logging together think that your tdee has been over the time period.

Thank you very much for taking the time tow answer me. That was very informative and I will do that.

Wynterbourne · June 5

lisamsanford1229 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

I don't think you need a solution. You've been losing at a crazy fast pace, and you're complaining about losing 2lbs instead of 3 lbs per week? Losing more slowly as you approach goal weight is good and healthy. Even 2lbs a week is probably too fast for your current weight. And 1200 calories is very little.
The faster you lose, the more muscle you lose along with bodyfat.

Thanks for the comment, but I'm not complaining. Don't be jealous. Everybody's body is different and we all lose weight at a different pace. I eat 3 meals day at 400 calories a meal, and I actually have very good muscle tone.

Umm, wow. Lietchi's response to you is based on facts. I'm not sure why you are assuming they have anything to do with "jealousy". I've seen Lietchi in these forums for a long time and can safely say that jealousy has nothing to do with their response to you.

Lietchi · June 5

Wynterbourne wrote: »

lisamsanford1229 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

I don't think you need a solution. You've been losing at a crazy fast pace, and you're complaining about losing 2lbs instead of 3 lbs per week? Losing more slowly as you approach goal weight is good and healthy. Even 2lbs a week is probably too fast for your current weight. And 1200 calories is very little.
The faster you lose, the more muscle you lose along with bodyfat.

Thanks for the comment, but I'm not complaining. Don't be jealous. Everybody's body is different and we all lose weight at a different pace. I eat 3 meals day at 400 calories a meal, and I actually have very good muscle tone.

Umm, wow. Lietchi's response to you is based on facts. I'm not sure why you are assuming they have anything to do with "jealousy". I've seen Lietchi in these forums for a long time and can safely say that jealousy has nothing to do with their response to you.

Yup, thanks!

FYI: I lost nearly 75lbs between August 2019 and 2022. Currently up 4 lbs from my lowest weight and working my way down again very slowly.

Nothing to do with jealousy. I actually chose to lose weight at a slower pace (to lower the risk of loose skin, lose weight while still eating an amount of food that satisfied me etc) and also slowing down as I got closer to goal. I'm very glad I ate 1700kcal (often more, with exercise calories) while losing weight and not 1200.

Losing fast/eating very little carries risks, while losing as well as afterwards (regain 'with friends'). So I stand by my opinion that slowing down is a good thing.

MargaretYakoda · June 5

lisamsanford1229 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

I don't think you need a solution. You've been losing at a crazy fast pace, and you're complaining about losing 2lbs instead of 3 lbs per week? Losing more slowly as you approach goal weight is good and healthy. Even 2lbs a week is probably too fast for your current weight. And 1200 calories is very little.
The faster you lose, the more muscle you lose along with bodyfat.

Thanks for the comment, but I'm not complaining. Don't be jealous. Everybody's body is different and we all lose weight at a different pace. I eat 3 meals day at 400 calories a meal, and I actually have very good muscle tone.

I don’t think anyone here is “jealous” of your worryingly fast pace of weight loss.

You’ve posted multiple times stating that you are concerned that you’re no longer losing 3 pounds a week.

Standard medical advice for weight loss is not to lose more than 2 pounds per week.
Many people have expressed concern. That’s not jealousy.

You asked for advice.

You have been given great advice

No one here is jealous.
Some might be a bit frustrated that you are not listening to any of the advice you asked for.

You have been losing weight at a pace that would be best done under the care of a medical professional. Something typically reserved for people whose starting weight is closer to three times what you have reported as your starting weight.

I’m not jealous.
I’m concerned about your long term health.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/losing-weight-too-fast#TOC_TITLE_HDR_4

I’m particularly noting that one side effect of too extreme weight loss is irritability
Just sayin’

PAV8888 · June 5

Margaret its not irritability it's hAngry from being too hungry.

To lose at 65lbs over a 7 month (213 day) time period, she has hit ACTUAL EFFECTIVE deficits of 1068 Cal a day.

That's a LOT if her TDEE is in the 2500 range--it is in the 40% to 50% of TDEE deficit range -- a far cry from a still aggressive 20% to 25% cut while still obese. And while she may still be overweight as she states, she is no longer obese.

As I've sometimes said, we often seem to want to repeat the Minnesota semi starvation experiment except for our starting and ending points being at higher BMIs which of course blunts the effects.

I will give you a counter example. Even though in retrospect I consider it to have been at the edge of too fast, my first YEAR on MFP I lost 72.5lbs while EATING 2560 Cal a day on average. That was an effective deficit of 21.35% of TDEE. And I would say it took a good two additional years before I would consider my hunger and satiation related hormones to have stabilized.

I often ask people who tell me that that they know how to lose weight fast... why are you back to losing weight again? What was your loss-regain trajectory last time? and the time before?

Look: we ALL have to fight regain. Slow losers just as much as fast losers. The question however does remain as to how we can best position ourselves for the fight.

Saving calories for a large meal is always "a" strategy. But if you are actually trying to NOT eat too many calories during the potentially large meal, getting to it starved is probably a worse setup than spending a few hundred calories on a couple of large apples ahead of time.

The couple of apples lets you get to the meal (or to the supermarket) in a not ready to kill I am so hungry state. And, at least for me, the investment of extra calories ahead of time is more than offset by avoiding going off the rails at the all you can eat feast.

Just food (ha ha) for thought: time at reduced weight is our friend in terms of health outcomes. anything that makes the time at reduced weight longer is better than things that may decrease that time.

ddsb1111 · June 5

@lisamsanford1229 How have you been feeling lately? Early March Ann wrote you a response and I have a feeling it might apply to what’s happening here. Reposting if it’s okay. I hope this helps and gives some insight.

Fatigue is a bad sign. Fatigue is also counterproductive.

Why?

Think about it: Fatigue usually makes us drag through the day. We move less, burn fewer calories than we would if properly fueled. Researchers have found that a fidgety person can burn low hundreds of calories more per day than an otherwise similar non-fidgety person. I'm not encouraging you to fidget, but saying that the fatigue-created difference in calorie burn can be that subtle, but that large. When fatigued, we rest more, maybe make simpler meals, lose interest in leisure activities that involve movement, put off energy-intensive home projects, and more.

And that's in addition to the risk of depressed immune system, gallbladder complications, muscle loss, hair loss, etc. Mood can suffer, affecting relationships. It's not guaranteed that any bad thing will happen, but the odds shift in a bad direction.

I assume you'd like to keep this 81 pounds off once you lose it. Are your current methods helping you find and practice habits you can continue forever almost on autopilot to stay at a healthy weight long term when other parts of life get challenging (because they will)? I'm doubtful.

Weight management is not a quick project with an end date, after which things go back to normal. That's a recipe for yo-yo weight regain, which is even a less healthy alternative than staying somewhat overweight permanently.

If you feel terrible now, eat more, lose slower but feel better. Be healthier. Learn some habits that will work for you in maintenance. (You may even find that adding a hundred or two hundred calories a day perks you up enough to keep weight loss close to the current rate, given your current fatigue.)

Please give this a rethink. Even if you lose fast, you have many weeks to go. Yes, 40 more weeks is a long time. They'll feel even longer if they're miserable weeks, and that's assuming you don't hit a breaking point before those weeks are over. Would it really be worse to take 50 or even 60 weeks, but feel decent, energetic, even vivacious? You're not on a path of thriving now. There is such a path available, I'm betting.

Whatever you decide, I wish you well, sincerely.

MargaretYakoda · June 5

PAV8888 wrote: »

Margaret its not irritability it's hAngry from being too hungry.

To lose at 65lbs over a 7 month (213 day) time period, she has hit ACTUAL EFFECTIVE deficits of 1068 Cal a day.

That's a LOT if her TDEE is in the 2500 range--it is in the 40% to 50% of TDEE deficit range -- a far cry from a still aggressive 20% to 25% cut while still obese.

I don’t get a lot of steps in daily due to a mobility issue. So the space between losing weight and gaining weight is a bit thinner for me. I have to be very cautious not to be too aggressive. I really feel it, because it exacerbates my balance deficit.

I can’t imagine living like that for months.
I would be absolutely miserable.
And very lonely too, as I’m sure my partner would not put up with it.

What is happening to me?

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