Is it too much?

[jmess]

Looking for feedback.  So I started a plan to get healthier and lose a Lot of weight in March.  52 years old, male.  Was 5' 11" and 297 lbs (several reasons for the gain).  Plan was to lose 120 lbs to get to a past healthy weight & fitness level. Wanted to lose at moderate pace of 1-2 pounds by reducing calories, increasing protein consumption and increase activity and exercise gradually. 

So far it's going ahead of plan and Versa is really helping in terms of mindfulness on several aspects of the goals.  Hoping to get feedback to see if maybe I'm overdoing or losing too fast (muscle loss etc)?

So far in the 4 1/2 months have lost 71 pounds (about 3.5 lb a week which is faster then expected).

-Eat ~1500 calories a day, about 120 grams of protein. 

-In terms of exercise, 5 hours of hard cardio/week, 4 hours of swim/week, 2 hours of weights/week and 4 hours of walking/week  

-On fitbit avg about 100K step and 900-1000 active min/week, it's calorie tracker has me avg 3800 calories a day (for what that is worth, but it's actually tracked fairly well to weekly loss).

I feel good, have good energy, i'm certainly not gaining muscle (couldn't really on that calorie amt) but don't feel weaker and doesn't look like I've lost muscle.  Joints can get sore but otherwise all good.

Will eventually a transition plan to better sustain health/weight but just wondering if what is described seems healthy? 

Thx!

[lavabelle]

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I feel good, have good energy, i'm certainly not gaining muscle (couldn't really on that calorie amt) but don't feel weaker and doesn't look like I've lost muscle.  Joints can get sore but otherwise all good.

Congrats on your decision to better your health 🙂 and your success so far.

If you feel good, and have good energy, that to me an indication that what your are doing is great! I very much go by how my body feels and listen to it. But I am not a medical professional.

I think the reason they say 1-2 lbs a week is that research has shown the percentage of people losing more than the average 1-2 lbs gain is back more often that those whose lose slower. The key to sustaining your weight loss is to make a permanent change...Have you changed your lifestyle forever? or do you plan to revert back to the habits that made you put on weight in the first place?

I've lost 70 lbs 13 years ago and regained 40 of it over the last few years...and in time of great stress I eat more and exercise less, so I need to commit to a lifestyle of monitoring my food intake and managing stress using exercise forever...oh and I typically lose more than the recommended 1-2 lbs on some weeks, and it does not concern me, sometimes I lose nothing for weeks, so it all averages out anyhow.

Again Congrats 🙂

[Baltoscott]

@jmess — this seems a little fast to me and likely to lead to unnecessary muscle loss, which will make maintenance harder once you get there.

The NIH has a pretty good weight loss calculator.  I guessed your age as 40, put in 230 as your current weight and 180 as your goal weight and 180 days to get there, and their calculator allows you to eat about 2200 calories/day to get there.  That’s a lot closer to what you will be eating at maintenance (probably close to 3000 cal/day if you keep up the exercise) and to me, at least, it makes sense to approximate maintenance as early in the process as possible so that it is easy to transition to.

Check out the NIH calculator with your real numbers and see what you think.  

[jmess]

Thanks very much guys, I appreciate the link as well, very helpful.  I should do by body fat %, and logically really should be eating prob at least another 500 calories a day to moderate the loss....your brain can be a funny thing though-seeing the loss comes faster is hard to give up even if you know it's not the best long term option for you.

[Baltoscott]

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@jmess wrote:

Thanks very much guys, I appreciate the link as well, very helpful.  I should do by body fat %, and logically really should be eating prob at least another 500 calories a day to moderate the loss....your brain can be a funny thing though-seeing the loss comes faster is hard to give up even if you know it's not the best long term option for you.

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That is so true.  Seeing a big loss is very motivating, and once you've had one or two big weekly losses, it is a bit of a disappointment when you only lose a little bit.  It shouldn't be, but psychologically it sure is. 

When I lost weight last year I lost pretty much every week, and even kept losing for a while after I hit my initial goal and tried to stop (my weekly loss was usually in the 1-1.5 lb range).  I worried a lot about maintaining without having the weekly positive boost of seeing a loss on the scale.  I think a large part of my coping mechanism has been to focus on improving body fat percentage, and all the while just building and reinforcing daily habits (daily exercise, whole foods, three or four satisfying meals and no snacks, veggies at every meal, limiting liquid calories) that tend to keep my food intake, food quality, and my exercise at levels that make maintenance within a healthy weight range easier.