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Is this bad?

Old 11-19-2010, 06:51 PM
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Question Is this bad?

I've lost and re-gained my extra 25 lbs. so many times, and I really want to do it right this time. I started on the 15th - just 5 days ago - restricting calories to 1300 and making very deliberate healthy food choices, and I have dropped 4 kg (8.8 lbs.) In 4 days. Now, I am certainly not complaining, but everything I read says this is too fast, and I am afraid that this will backfire, plateau, my metabolism will adjust, etc.

I'm not even exercising, at all.

Is that too big a calorie restriction? Fit Day says my calories burned in a day is something like 2300, but that seems like a high estimate to me, being a 42-year-old female with little activity. I was thinking 2000 is more realistically what I burn in a day without exercise. So a 700 cal restriction didn't seem extreme...or am I wrong?

Edited to add:
I just went over to caloriecount and it calculated my daily caloric need as 1940. Who do I believe?

On the up side, I am feeling GREAT. I feel mild hunger a few times during the day, but then I have my healthy snack. I'm getting all my nutrients except I seem low Vit d, e and calcium somehow. I'll get supplements today for those.

Please help! I don't want to shoot myself in the foot again. Thank you!

Last edited by VitoVino; 02-02-2012 at 02:24 AM.
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Old 11-20-2010, 01:57 AM
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Do you log the hours you sleep into fitday's activity calculator? I've found that if I do that, my BMR is fairly consistant with other sites. If I fail to log my sleeping hours, fitday tells me I burn waaaay more calories than my lazy self actually does.
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Old 11-20-2010, 02:30 AM
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The other thing is, almost everyone who is just starting tends to lose like that for the 1st 10 or so pounds mainly because it is water weight. So I would stay close to what you are now, however if you DO add in some activity then maybe up those calories a little.

I had the same problem you did in getting all kinds of crazy numbers depending which site I believed... and so finally I went to a dietician. Considering I was doing aquasize twice a week and at that time was also doing cardiac workouts the other 3 days.. her number for me was 1500 - 1600 calories a day. She had said ( and my doctor had also said) if I was doing nothing, then the basic diet to lose weight at a healthy rate should be between 1200 - 1400 a day.

My suggestion for you is.. for a few days eat the way you have always eaten ( without the thought of a diet) ... or if you remember what a typical day was, use that and log it to see how many calories you HAD been consuming a day. Then realize it takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound. SO if you had been consuming lets say 3500 calories a day, to lose 2 lbs a week, you need to drop 7,000 of those every week. So that would bring your daily caloric intake to 2,500 a day. I just pulled those numbers out of my head.

If you had been eating 2,500 a day and still want to lose 2 lbs a week, then your daily intake should be 1,500.

And also, just so you dont get discouraged in advance.. in the beginning you will drop the water weight quickly. But once underway, there will be days/weeks that because of many things, you will gain a little weight because of water weight. I personally, gain and lose close to 10lbs a week in water weight.. granted my case is not typical ( I have health issues) but what I am trying to prepare you for is ups and downs. They happen. Don't give up.

Good luck on your journey!
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Old 11-20-2010, 02:44 AM
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Hi!
Thanks for your reply - I tried adding in the 7 hours of sleep, but it was still wacky somehow. And would I ahve to add it manualy every day? That would just be a pain. If it even worked.
In the end, I went back and checked the most sedentary lifestyle possible, which set my caloric need at about 1700. The Harris-Benedict BMR calculation says 1736 for me, so I think that's going to work on here.

Thanks for the suggestion!
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Old 11-20-2010, 02:48 AM
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Hi Gamegal!
Thanks for the encouragment and the clarification. I figured this inital loss was not fat, but it's still a little alarming. I'm glad to know I'm not really doing anything wrong here!
As for the way I used to eat - well, the problem was that it was uncontrolled overeating and gaining weight, and I have no idea how many calories I ate in a day. I don't even want to think about it.
I'm thinking if I can stay at about a 500 calorie deficit daily, I should theoretically lose a pound a week. Which is a healthy rate of loss, right? I think it should be doable.

Thanks again for the info and encouragement!
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Old 11-20-2010, 05:21 AM
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The first 4-5 months I did this I lost maybe 15-20 pounds/month, I just rode that out until it ended. I knew I was getting enough nutrition, so I enjoyed the honeymoon while it lasted.
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Old 11-21-2010, 05:10 AM
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Yes, dramatic weight loss very quickly is bad. It is hard on your heart, but so is the extra weight. You lose and regain because you are dieting. When you get to the weight you want you go back to your old ways and the weight comes back. This is also bad for your heart. I recommend lifestyle changes, including activity. Try walking daily, start for 15 min a day and increase it by 10 min weekly. Get a friend to go with you and it won't seem like a chore. Also, the calories your taking in is low. You may feel good now and losing weight but at some point your body will rebel and hold on to the fat for survival. I'm not good at the metric system, but the healthy weight in pounds times 13 should give you more of realistic calorie intake. If you increase activity level times the weight in pounds by 15.

Good luck and let us know how your doing.
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Old 11-21-2010, 05:30 AM
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Hi Heritagehunter!

Thanks for your reply! I did the healthy weight x 13 and it came out to 1742 cal, so that's good! (I wonder, though, shouldn't age be factored in, too?) I'm now eating between 1150 and 1400 cal a day, which shouldn't be too drastic a restriction. It was a big sudden change for my system, though, since I was probably eating about 3000 a day prior to that. Which is way too much by any calculation!

I'm figuring that I will lose a maximum of a pound a week (500 cal less x 7 days = 3500 cal = one pound) once this initial water loss is over, so I'm setting my goals accordingly.

I'm not sure what people mean by "lifestyle changes". Maybe you or someone else could help me understand. I sense that it means permanent changes in how you approach eating and being healthy, rather than short-sighted fads and deprivation. Am I understanding that right?

I'm also not sure how to make sure a change becomes permanent. I know how and why to do what is good for me. I love all foods, including healthy ones, so eating the healthy stuff does not leave me feeling deprived at all. And yet, I go back to overeating. Maybe this is an eating disorder, I don't know. But my "lifestyle changes", or whatever they are, have never stuck permanently. I would like to know how I can change that. Unfortunately, where I live, there are no programs or counseling available for eating disorders, so I don't think I could even find someone to talk with to determine whether that's what's going on.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement!
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Old 11-21-2010, 05:14 PM
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Is it certain times of the day or anytime? Is it just mindless eating without portion control? Is it binge eating after not eating all day? Is it emotional eating?

I think if you figured out why you overeat you would probably be able to control it better.
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Old 11-22-2010, 03:22 AM
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Yes, lifestyle change means something you can live with the rest of your life. As opposed to making drastic changes for a few months and then reverting back to what you did before.

It takes a long time for it to become '2nd nature' or a lifestyle. It took most of us many many years to get to our habits and weights. It will take time to learn the correct proportions of foods, the right amounts, the ideal frequency. The perfect mix of exercise.

You can make small changes at the start and still get there. Thats what I did. When I started, I only made 2 main changes. I stopped eating a pound of candy a day ( down to a handful ).. (and now its just a few every once in a while)... and I started getting up off my butt and started walking. I found out very quickly, I could not walk more than 1/4 of one side of the street. (So not even 200 feet).

I decided I needed cardiac rehab (most people arent that extreme and can add a gym or DVD's etc) but I went from being able to walk on a treadmill on the slowest possible speed with no incline for 3 minutes... to 45 minutes on level 4 with a 3.0 incline. I am still walking though.. eventually I will get to the running stage.

It's those kinds of lifestyle changes we are talking about. Finding out what a correct portion is, finding healtier foods, getting up and moving.

Hope that made it clearer to you
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