How does my calorie break up look?

[Damien1981]

I lose at minimum 2lbs a week on this, if not more.

I've gone from over 300lbs to 265lbs in 3 months.

My exercise routine is walking 6-9 miles a day.

My goal weight is 200lbs (with weight lifting included).  I'm 5'10".

I understand such a low fat in-take is unhealthy when you are 'normal' weight, but anything terrible about this while I am very much overweight?  I've had no ill effects to speak off.

I run a 1,000-1,500 deficit every day.  Once a week I go over 2,000 calories, but thats because its cocktail night with my wife and vodka is to blame. 

[Mukluk4]

---

@Damien1981 wrote:

I lose at minimum 2lbs a week on this, if not more.

I've gone from over 300lbs to 265lbs in 3 months.

My exercise routine is walking 6-9 miles a day.

My goal weight is 200lbs (with weight lifting included).  I'm 5'10".

I understand such a low fat in-take is unhealthy when you are 'normal' weight, but anything terrible about this while I am very much overweight?  I've had no ill effects to speak off.

I run a 1,000-1,500 deficit every day.  Once a week I go over 2,000 calories, but thats because its cocktail night with my wife and vodka is to blame. 

---

Could you define weight lifting included?  To me, you are cutting way too many calories a day and will eat into your muscle and overall strength.  I would reduce the deficit to 250-500ish and increase that cardio from a regular walk.

If all you want to do is hit that target number and not worry about anything else, then you are on the right path.

[MagsOnTheBeach]

Based on what you shared, is there any way to cut your sodium down to 1500?  2300 is the max, and you are over double that number.

[bourby]

i've been trying to work this out too. i do alot of walking and weights with around 800 calories a day. i take a protein shake after workout so my body should feed on that instead of canabilising muscles. i want to lose fat, not muscle. 

the sodium.... experts say around 1500 a day. thats hard if you enjoy bread and eggs. 

what i found out is the sodium levels in your body will be roughly matching sea water. so the more sodium in your body means you will retain more water to get that seawater balance. from what i have read, if you reduce the sodium, you retain less water which means less weight. 

[Damien1981]

Not gonna lie, I don't think I will ever regulate my Sodium.

I've already cut back to fat free or carb free everything, I'm not gonna micromanage myself into a diet failure. I am a hot sauce kind of guy, have a shelf in my kitchen just for all the different types of hot sauces I use.

Sodium will always be my vice (and it helps bland food not be bland)

To me water weight is that magical unicorn people always trying to catch and manage - so I'm not interested.  Whether I weigh 200lbs or 300lbs, water will always weigh something and will always be present.

[bourby]

i actually agree. my poison is coffee. i gave up smoking and other stuff, rarely drink now. i try to eat better and do exercise but coffee is my vice and i have given up so much that i liked. no matter what ppl say about coffee...i'll be enjoying it still.

[Dominique]

---

@bourby wrote:

i do alot of walking and weights with around 800 calories a day. i take a protein shake after workout so my body should feed on that instead of canabilising muscles. 

---

Unless you are really tiny and thin, 800 calories sounds very low for someone reasonably active, especially if that level of intake lasts for several months. A protein shake after workout may not be sufficient to prevent lean tissue loss.

[bourby]

sorry...should have been 1800 a day. 

[Dominique]

---

@Damien1981 wrote:

I understand such a low fat in-take is unhealthy when you are 'normal' weight, but anything terrible about this while I am very much overweight?

---

Yes, your fat intake seems low (given your size). You may want to supplement with fish oil (if you aren’t doing so already), to make sure you get the  essential fats you need for health. I’m enclosing below an excerpt from Understanding Healthy Eating, an e-book I’ve mentioned previously in this other post, as well as here.

Fat Needs:

Just as with protein, the human body can make most any kind of fats from eating most any kind of other fats (and from eating most any kind of carbs and proteins too, in fact). However, it can’t make all of the fats needed for survival and health from just any other food and two types of fat must be taken in from the diet alone; alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. They are, respectively, omega-3 and omega-6 type polyunsaturated fatty acids. If they are not eaten in sufficient quantities, health starts to suffer and eventually death can result.

Failing health and death are clearly serious conditions we want to avoid, so how much fat do we need daily in order to meet our minimum needs for the essential fats? In parts of the world where people are in poor health from too little fat intake, they are also not getting enough protein, calories, and many kinds of vitamins and minerals, so it’s difficult to precisely scope out the effects of fat in that milieu. In the modern world, obesity is the leading nutritional malady and outside of medically-documented special problems with fat absorption, fat under-eating is incredibly rare. However, based on the available research, a minimum intake of fats to the tune of 0.3g of fat per pound of bodyweight per day (or at least 40g per day for most people) is probably a very safe bet.

How do we know this? Well, the minimum recommended intake for Omega- 6 fat is just around 0.1g of fat per pound of bodyweight per day (otherwise listed as 2% of your total calorie intake or around 5-7g per day). Because most people in modern countries consume a good deal of vegetable oils, omega-6 deficiency is exceedingly rare. The needs for Omega-3 fats are even lower, but most people fail to consume the minimum recommended amount of around 0.6-1.2% of daily calorie intake (or around 1-3g per day). However, not all fat consumed - by a long shot - is composed entirely of the essential fats, so any average daily figure must take into account that many other kinds of fats will be eaten as well. Thus, the figure of 0.3g of fat per pound of bodyweight per day covers nearly all cases. Yes, it is possible to eat much less fat than this if you are intentionally eating sources heavy in the essential fats, but eating as little as 0.3g per pound per day will almost certainly give you enough essential fats to nearly optimize health.