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Trying to Drop Fat Too Fast
Trying to Drop Fat Too Fast
People are impatient due to various shows like "The Biggest Loser" where the expected rate of fat loss is over a pound per day. So when it doesn't happen for them, they're ready to pull out their hair...
The majority of women really think that losing five pounds of fat per week and doing two hours of cardio on 800 calories per day is normal and productive. Hello ??? It's not normal. The body can only lose fat so fast, yet there are few people willing to accept a loss of a 1/2 pound to a pound a week of consistent fat loss.
Although the idea of your metabolism shutting down is refuted among many, in one study two groups of people were put on very low calorie diets. Group A ate 720 calories per day with no exercise. Group B ate 720 calories per day and did an hour of cardio. Most would agree an hour of cardio per day is no small amount. However, over a four-week period, Group B failed to lose any additional weight compared to Group A.
If their metabolisms didn't shut down, what happened?
Metabolism does seem to adapt negatively to extremely large deficits. How much of a deficit is too much? Very overweight people can get away with more, but if you're closer to 150 lbs. than 300 lbs., once you've reached a 900-calorie daily deficit through diet and exercise, any more won't do anything other than slow your metabolism to a crawl and burn up muscle.
So learn to accept a 1/2 pound to a pound per week of actual weight loss. Remember, one pound on the scale could equal more than a pound of fat lost and an increase in muscle mass. If that's the case, you've only increased your metabolism! Remember, in most cases if someone has lost 3 or more lbs. in one week, much of that lost weight is water and muscle too.
This mental hurdle is one that many of my clients have crossed, and are now being rewarded with fantastic bodies. Patience is more than a virtue; it's a tool.
Things like butter, ketchup and other various condiments can be diet killers by easily adding up to an extra several hundred calories per day. Make sure you know how much you're really consuming!
Calorie discrepancies also pop up when we DON'T weigh our food.
A typical 1/2 cup of oatmeal and two heaping tablespoons of peanut butter can be off by as much as 200 calories. Average that out over five meals and that's an extra 1,000 calories per day! And you wonder why you aren't losing fat. Make sure for example that when you get a tablespoon of a nut butter that you even out the top and wipe off the excess... if you don't you could be adding hundreds of calories a day unnecessarily.
Ya good point.. i get so annoyed when hearing people talk about stuff like that. If you are 400 lbs. over weight, then yes by all means expect some rapid loss. But if your 20 lbs. overweight be prepared to wait a while. So many people think the key to loose weight is to not eat. Bad idea!!!
Very nice post, i enjoyed reading it very much.. will be watching for some more...
Great post!
Great blog and key reminders! We women do tend to get inpatient and don't like to see anything increasing on the scale. I have learned over the years to hide the damn thing and just weigh in once a week same time of day to be consistent. Its all about body composition :)
Shows like that don't affect some of us (I don't watch any of them), but having SO much weight to lose is pretty depressing when you drop 1 lb. - and you have 50 to lose...
That lack of progress due to over-deficit even occurs for some of us at 2000+ calories! I'm pretty sure I've been too low on calories due to the quantity of cardio and lifting I do, even at 1900-2000 calories. :( It gets frustrating.
Excellent post. I would sure like to lose 1/2 pound of fat a week as opposed to 3 pounds of muscle. Slow and steady wins the race!!
Fantastic entry! We all need a reminder that it is okay to eat, but eat healthy. Thanks for the post.
I finally started writing down everything I was eating and I WAS eating way more calories than I thought because of not measuring things like peanut butter, ketchup, etc...what an eye opener!!
...and now I'm eating the right amount of calories and losing weight again :)
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Hi,
I really liked your post as I am getting married in a month and am freaking out that I am no the weight that I want. I've been working out and eating healthy for the past few years but since working out I put on a lot of weight and went up a few clothing sizes. I'm sure some of it is muscle but a lot of it probably isn't. Maybe working out made me hungrier. So right now I'm the fittest I've ever been, but also the largest, which is depressing. Can you give me tips on what I can do in a few weeks to look great for my big day? I'm thinking more like toning exercises and such, since obviously dropping a significant amount of fat is neither practical nor safe at this point.
Thank you so much, love the article!
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