I’m very happy my wife has joined me in the MFP world. She is logging now too. Yay. We have adjusted our goals a little. Originally I had entered to lose 2 pounds per week. Not seeing much progress, so far, so I have adjusted to be 1.5 pounds per week, and my wife’s goal is 1 pound per week. This is giving us a few more calories a day, and maybe our bodies will adjust a bit better. She has seen no results over the past month from us overhauling our eating habits, and I’m not seeing much either. But because we did such an overhaul, our bodies may have been in shock, and slightly gone into “starvation mode”. I use that term lightly but something wasn’t quite working for her, and it was having bumps in the road for me. It seems like I have been doing this forever, but it has only been a little over a month, hard to believe. In the end though, in that month I have lost almost 4 pounds, which averages to one pound per week. For the last weigh in, I was in PMS mode so I imagine I am retaining, which is why I I think didn’t lose more than an ounce.
So now that my wife has joined me I’m trying to do a bit more research on the “starvation mode”. So I’m looking into my body fat content. Some sites are saying 29-32%. I know that isn’t true. I think that has to do with the fact my wrists and forearms aren’t that big. I have super size upper arms though, wings that are almost ready for takeoff. One Fat2Fit site seems possibly a better (Or worse, depends how you look at it) rate at 67%. I am short, I am fat. I have a fair amount of muscle in my thighs, but I am NOT top average which most sites set me at (30%). But that would lead to much confusion. As bad as the second rate is, I think it is closer to real.
Next step is calculating BMR. Technically that is supposed to be the amount of calories to keep you alive, if you were basically in a coma doing nothing. Once again many websites are using different formulas, hence more confusion. Even on Fat2Fit there are two calculations. On average it seems most websites use the one calculated in the early 1900’s, the Harris-Benedict formula. Some say tried tested and true, but if I calculate that, I would need to be eating 2000+ calories to stay alive. I think times (activities and diets) have changed so that formula would probably only work for the lean and fit people of the world. Lately I’ve been consuming around 1650. That would put my body into sever shock based on the Harris-Benedict formula. However also on the Fat2Fit website they show the Katch-McArdle formula. By these calculations I should be having 1352 to stay alive. To lose weight Fat2Fit says I should eat 2010 calories per day. However they have a warning that even this amount is below my BMR with light activity. Your body does need fuel, the trick is figuring out how much.
The usual hype about dieting though is calorie deficit. The basic is 1000/day to lose 2 pounds per week. This is a basic formula. But the problem is figuring out where you started to create the deficit. That then includes what your metabolism has been up or down to. The more efficient your metabolism is the fewer calories you burn. In the process of losing weight you don’t want to starve your body and in the process make your metabolism slow down to compensate. Everything is a mathematical formula, but the variable is your metabolism.
With that being said, on days I work out in the evening, I will try and eat 2000 for the day. Then my net would be around 1800, which is around the recommended “Net” calories calculated by MFP. Many people that are having success on losing a lot of weight on MFP, are big on the fact, you need to eat your total Net calories. I will try this for a week or two and see how things go.
I do recommend Fat2Fit though, to have a look. I found it informative.
So here are my stats as best I could find.
§ Body Fat: 67.4% (Eek),
§ BMR 1352,
§ TDEE 2559.
§ BMI is 52.96 (I Finally reached the 52’s, still bad though.)
§ Current Weight 306
§ Goal Calories 2000/day with 200 calories of extra activity.
The biggest thing with losing weight, is figuring out what works for your body, for the long term, not short term. I guess I’m still working on that. This weight didn’t get here over night, and won’t leave as quickly either. I guess I’m a SAMWIP. Sam, work in progress.
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