Am I doing this right?

ccartwright8300 wrote: »

So, my overall aim is to lose weight and tone up the wobbly bits- I'm 41(f) and 5ft 7. I started this journey recently (8th Jan). My first weigh in with the gym machine showed 84.2kg / 29.1 BMI/ 35.7% Body Fat/ 30kg Body Fat Mass.

I do 3 or 4 x 45min full body strength classes a week involving weights/ circuits etc led by an instructor. I also do 3 cardio workouts including 10 min treadmill fast walk on 10-12% incline, 10 min rower highest level, 10 mins cross trainer level 3/4 and 10 mins stair climber on level 6/7. I am dripping sweat after this (sorry tmi.. but trying to show how much effort I'm putting in).

I track calories and always have a deficit of at least 750 kcal. My job is fairly active.

I decided to weigh in last week (around 5 weeks after starting) and my results were 80.5kg/ 27.5 BMI/ 33.3% Body Fat/ 26.8kg Body Fat Mass.

Is there something else I should be doing to improve my results? I want to ideally get down to 65kg by 1st August for an amazing holiday.

This post may come across as mean, but that's not where I'm coming from, sincerely. I started out around your weight, 83 kg at 5'5" (at age 59-60), lost around 23 kg, have been at a healthy weight for 9 years since (59.6 kg this morning). It took a bit under a year, and that was with some negative health consequences from losing too fast for a bit in there, something no one needs.

In my mind, reaching a healthy goal weight is great, but the golden prize is staying there long term, ideally permanently. That's been a huge quality of life improvement for me. I want that for everyone, including you. That's where I'm coming from.

So you started at a BMI near the top of the overweight range, but not technically obese. In that situation, losing ultra-fast isn't a great plan, honestly. Even someone severely obese would IMO be well-advised to limit loss to no more than 1% of current body weight weekly, especially if not under close medical supervision to monitor for deficiencies or complications. One of the possible issues with fast loss is losing unnecessarily much lean mass alongside fat loss. In a calorie deficit, muscle mass gain is an iffy proposition, less likely with age, and slower for women than men in kg/week terms even under the best conditions.

There are other possible complications from fast loss, some of them severe. Guaranteed to be bad? No. But faster loss increases health risks.

It's been around six weeks, right? You've lost a total of 3.7 kg, so about 0.62 kg per week. (For other USAians like me, I'll translate: You lost about 1.36 pounds a week, for a total of 8.14 pounds, starting at about 185.2 pounds, ending at about 177.1 pounds.) That would be around 0.74% of your starting body weight per week, so above the 0.5% lower minimum I suggested above, and pretty close to the 1% that might be suitable if obese. That's actually a good, maybe even fast, loss rate at your current size.

The gym machine's body composition estimates are unlikely to be precisely accurate, maybe not even super close. But if we believe them, you went from 35.7% body fat at 84.2 kg (54.1kg of lean mass, roughly) to 33.3% body fat at 80.5kg (53.7 kg of lean mass, roughly), so your lean loss is estimated only around 0.4kg, or about 11% of the total weight loss, when typical would be more like 20-30% lean mass loss.

We technically want to lose a bit of lean mass, realistically: There's tissue we don't need for a smaller body. We probably need less skin to cover less territory, less blood volume, etc. We don't want to lose any more muscle than necessary, of course, but you're doing good things to avoid that. (I hope you're also getting good overall nutrition on the reduced calories, especially but not exclusively adequate protein.)

You have a bit over 5 months left until the beginning of August, let's call it 21 weeks. If you average half a kg loss per week - which would still be over-aggressive as you get lighter, IMO - you'd lose another 10.5kg, and weigh about 70kg, BMI 24.1, upper end of the healthy weight range, by vacation time.

Assuming I did the arithmetic correctly (which I don't always do ), you've been losing at a moderately aggressive pace, but have lost less lean mass than would be typical . . . but you're not happy. I don't personally think the calendar is a good weight loss tool, but you'd be fairly close to your goal weight by vacation time. I doubt that going faster would make your appearance better by the beginning of August, because fast weight loss can lead us to look haggard, be more listless than vivacious, maybe even result in thinning hair, and more. You could be lucky on that front, of course.

Here's a thing I'm concerned about: The way you describe your routine, the exercise and calorie reduction, makes it sound like you're finding it pretty difficult, maybe unpleasant. Can you keep it up for 21 more weeks? Can you keep it up, with a few more calories in the mix, to stay at a healthy weight after August?

I'd strongly recommend thinking about finding sustainable new habits, rather than laser focus on X weight by Y date, though it's up to you whether getting healthier and staying healthier (and with presumably better physical appearance) is an important permanent priority for you. I'd encourage that, but it's your call.

Best wishes, sincerely!

P.S. I should leave this alone, but I can't. If you're using a flywheel-type rowing machine such as a Concept 2, the setting isn't resistance as it might be on other machines. That's not how those rowing machines work. You get a more intense workout by using proper technique, and putting more energy into the flywheel. The faster the flywheel spins, the harder the next stroke becomes. It's not about the setting, which is more analogous to boat-feel; and it's not solely about shooting up and down the slide at max strokes per minute, either. The Concept 2 specifically has 1 to 10 as its damper settings. For normal workouts, even elite rowers - like the Olympic teams - usually set the damper at 4-6ish. Ten is for a few specialized drills, not regular rows. For regular rows, it's overuse-injury territory. I'm saying this as someone who's rowed machines and boats for over 22 years, including doing both competitively, and who got certifications in rowing coaching. Even most gym trainers don't use or teach correct technique, sadly. If it's that type of rowing machine, don't set the damper on max. Set it middling, and learn to use technique to create an intense workout. That's more effective, and less risky.