Questions about weight loss

[Droopy]

I recently found out that to maintain my current body weight I would have to eat 3500 calories a day. That's for a fairly active 287 pound man. So I figured that if I limited my consumption to 2000 calories a day then I would lose about 2-3 pounds a week. So I embarked on my weight loss journey.

Last week I lost 6 pounds while eating said 2000 calories a day. Anybody know what the deal is with that? Have I just miscalculated my level of activity? It would be cool to think that I could lose 6 pounds a week every week, but I'm not sure if that's healthy. Do you think my weight loss will level out at the 2-3 pounds a week mark if I continue on my current path?

[Bryn]

1. It's hard to tell because

I have read about sugar blood. It has to do a lot with sugar blood. You can tell which food will spike it by getting on scale everyday. For example: it's said that white bread and whole wheat bread will spike it, but pumpkin bread won't.

[hippywife]

2. I'm going to venture a guess

that it has to do with the fact that you began drinking all that water, as you stated in another post. The first several pounds come off very fast because it's all water that your body has been holding onto because you weren't giving it enough. Now that it is getting enough, it releases what it has been storing. That will taper off and you will begin losing at a more reasonable rate.

[Guava Jelly]

3. Wow ..I would have never thought of that.

It makes total sense.

I found this interesting as well
http://health.howstuffworks.com/question447.htm

Does drinking ice water burn calories?

For anyone trying to lose weight, this question is an exciting one! If you simply want to know if your body burns calories warming up the water, the answer is yes. But if you want to know if drinking a lot of ice water can help you lose weight, or keep weight off, this "yes" needs to be qualified with some calculations.

First of all, calories are case-sensitive. There are calories and then there are Calories. Calories with a big "c" are the ones used to describe the amount of energy contained in foods. A calorie with a little "c" is defined as the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius.

[Droopy]

4. That might be it, hippywife

I don't drink anything but water now- a little over a gallon a day. I knew that was better for me, but I did not know that it would do what it apparently has done. Thanks for remembering!

[hippywife]

5. If you're very active

or sweat alot, be careful not to do much more water than that. You'll lose alot of potassium which isn't good and can even be dangerous.

[flvegan]

6. The deal with that is twofold:

1. Your body hasn't realized this "starvation" yet, and hasn't regulated your metabolism;

2. Most of that "weight" is/was most likely water.

2,000 calories a day is perfectly healthy, if done responsibly. Especially if done in numerous, smaller meals.

Depending upon your activity level, 2k calories a day will probably work itself out to be 1-2 pounds per week.

[Bread and Circus]

7. Here's what you really need to know:

1.) First and foremost, most of the weight you lost is water weight.
2.) Secondly, you should set your "fat loss" for about 1 to 2 pounds per week.
3.) Losing more than two pounds per week will likely mean you are losing weight too fast, which will promote muscle loss.
4.) Your primary goals should be fitness promotion, lean body massive preservation (or growth), and fat loss (not "weight loss").
5.) To achieve the goals in number 4, you need to focus on strength training, an aerobic program, and adequate protein, vitamins, and minerals (trace elements).
6.) You will need about 100 to 200 grams of protein per day divided about 5 to 6 times per day (your body doesn't store protein well)
7.) If I were you, I'd get your body assessed for your fat%, from this you can calculate your lean body mass - you will want to preserve or grow your lean body mass. Remember, the goal is to shrink your fat while growing lean body mass because that's what is going to increase your level of fitness and health and make it easier to keep the fat off long term.
8.) Expect very modest changes in the short term and plan for at least 2 years to see any big changes. Ultimately, fitness and proper lean body mass/fat mass ratio is a lifelong commitment.
9.) Your diet should be something you can live with without feeling starved or ultimately it will fail.
10.) You also should find/participate in some sort of sport or activity that you really like and use your fitness training to enable to do that in a way you enjoy.
11.) If all you think about is "weight loss", you will likely fail - just like 10's of millions of adults do, mostly because they are duped by the media and quick fix schemes that focus on weight loss through seemingly easy (though fraught with error) gimmicks.

The best thing you can do is get some good books on fitness that are tailored for men and talk about health diet, strength training, and aerobic fitness.

Also, if you give me your height, it would help to figure out some paramaters that might help.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. how tall, old, active? Weight Watchers uses a point level for

the food rather than calories, and tons of resource info to help with calculating that. You could drop real fast, then just stop losing, that is why crash diets are no good.

I have gone from 196 to 137 in 22 months. I dropped 6 my first week, and had other occasions where I lost 2 pounds in one week. Then I would plateau, then start to drop again. Everybody has a pattern. Now I am just dropping .2 to .6 pounds per week, the closer I get to goal the less I can afford to lose.

You would lose weight on 3000 calories a day, just less per week,

Do eat complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, and vegetables instead of white bread, pasta, etc
eat fruit and veg, fresh or frozen
take a good multivitamin with minerals
try to avoid processed foods.
when you eat out, stick to grilled or broiled items. less beef, more poultry and seafood
watch portion size! I split meals with a dining companion, take home leftovers,
apples and carrots are wonderful snacks when you have a snack attack.

And good luck to you!

[The Inquisitive]

9. 1-2lbs a week is the ideal range

be sure if you begin dieting to add in exercise, especially some sort of resistance training, otherwise your body composition won't change and you'll find you just have more difficulty keeping weight off.

[applegrove]

10. Could be water. Give it another week and see if you loose less weight.