Weightloss: How much is OK and for how long? -- Do I need to worry?

[with_joerg]

I wanted to share my story. I March I was 1.75m (5ft7) and 210lbs. Then I bought a fitbit and changed everything:

Started to work standing rather than sitting.

Watched my calorie intake and ate less, esp. at late hours (used to have the last meal around 10pm, now it is around 7pm).

Sleep more (now 8 - 9h in place of previously 5h).

Walk more w the dog (Fitbit shows on avg 45min intense exercise per day)

Do on avg 30 flights of stairs per day.

Now, seven months later I am 180lbs, have reache my weight goal (I did not plan to become a thin/sporty body) some 10lbs ago _but_ it does not stop! It goes still down every month by 4lb/month. Without me doing "anything" (means I continue to work and walk as above). That sort of scares me. I have seen the Dr , got all sorts of blood counts and tumor markers done but without result. My liver even seems better than in the past decade.

Do I need to worry? Can you share your experiences and thoughts?

[TCG]

The body still burns calories hours after you stop certain activities, this will add to the weight loss also you are probably at the stage that the body is losing fat and gaining muscle. Have you measured yourself since starting your workout program. I lost a lot of weight at first then I stopped now I am losing weight again but at a slower rate. When I stopped losing the weight I noticed that my clothes were more loose, I had to buy shoes at a smaller size and I was losing more inches on my legs and mid section. As long as you are not feeling ill, your body will level off on it's own. Congratulations on your success

[Dominique]

OK, your BMI went down from 31 (starting range of obese) to 28 (mid-range of overweight). You could still afford to lose another 10-15 kg, to aim for BMI between 23 and 24.5 (= upper range of normal weight). BMI would be relevant for you, since you don't appear to be an athlete (based on your self-description). It wouldn't be for someone like Sylvester Stallone, who's about the same height as you, but very muscular.

What you'd want to avoid is becoming "skinny fat", ie. lose a significant amount of muscle mass besides the fat. This is what tends to happen if your weight loss comes mostly from nutrition (eating at a calorie deficit) and moderate cardio (your walking). You may therefore consider adding some strength training to your routine, so as to minimize muscle loss during further weight loss and make the weight loss as much fat as possible.

In itself, having your last meal at 7 pm instead of 10 pm doesn't really matter, but having increased your sleep from 5 hours (way too little) to 8-9 hours is definitely a good thing.

[Heybales]

4 lbs a month still lost.

If that is all fat (and this close to goal weight, if not doing strength training, it is not, you are burning off some muscle mass, so the following math is incorrect), then the following would apply.

4 x 3500 / 28 days = 500 calorie deficit between what you eat and what you are truly burning.

So eat 500 calories more than you currently do - simple solution.

As to why is the Fitbit that far off?

It underestimates ALL non-moving awake time, which is given sleeping BMR level burn.

But awake you burn more, standing you burn more, eating/digesting/processing food you burn more - all not given credit.

Also, if you aren't manually logging non-step based activity, you are given underestimated calorie burn for those workouts.

Also, you may have your stride length wrong, and your steps actually cause more distance and calorie burn than given credit for.

You may also be underestimating your food intake by decent amount. So when you add 500 calories, make it a real 500 calories of weighed food.