Thread: Very weird. Explaination needed.

Hi. First off, great forum you guys have here. I found the links and a few threads I cycled through quite helpful. Now, what brings me to this place is something that has me spellbound. There is no explanation to this to my knowledge. So here goes;

I've been on a diet for almost a year now and lost quite a few pounds. I was at 235, now down to the late 160's. Obviously you reach a point where it is quite difficult to lose the pounds now that you've lost so many already and don't require as much calories, or burn as much calories as before. I'm quite happy with this weight as of now, but I want to keep to my goal and lose that last few pounds. I've not been able to keep to my diet, which is supposedly something like 55-25-20 (protein-carbs-fat) and there are times when I pig out, and how! The thing is, for the last few days I've been doing my usual pigging out, eating much more fats and carbs and little protein. I do work out lightly and walk 30 minutes atleast 5 days a week. I've noticed that everytime I pig out, I tend to lose more weight than when I stick to something around a 1400-2000 calorie diet. My pig out's can go up to 4000 cal or more. This statement of losing weight isn't justified by the scale, I just feel it. What I'm thinking is, it has something to do with my fat intake. For the whole time my ave. fat intake would be 20-30 grams. But now that it spikes to normal 40-85 grams, I feel like I'm losing a lot more fat and weight. It makes absolutely no sense to me. I eat sensibily for trying to lose my fat % and that last few pounds with some workouts here and there, and now I'm seeing that a diet that isn't quite the right type, makes me feel like I'm losing more, leave aside the fact that I don't think I'm gaining weight. I've been eating everything from fried chicken, to oreo cookies, etc; you catch my drift.

Anyone want to take a crack at this one? If anymore information is needed, I will reply as soon as I can. I need all the opinions I can get on this one. Thanks, and it's appreciated.

Thanks for all the replies thus far.

Fat (healthy fat) is needed and actually helps to lower body fat.

I get most of my fats out of chicken. Is this somewhat of a healthy fat, or are nuts and the sort my only options? And the one thing that has me so put off is I don't know how much would be appropriate as an intake when I'm trying to lower my bf%. (Which will be quite a shocker as you read on) An brief estimate would be very appreciated.

you have been dieting for too long. you need to over-eat for several weeks to jump start your metabolism again.

Over-feed or eat right? Over-feeding would defeat the whole purpose of losing weight, wouldn't it? You eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight, yata, yata... I exercise quite regularly, so doesn't that help with raising my metabolism? I eat lots of protein, a thermogenic as it seems. Do I still need to rethink my diet? The only thing I'm afraid of, are my cheat meals. If I do eat normally for maintainence or close to it anyway, I kind of gorge off on a couple of days which gives me almost the next days worth in calories. So if I did that, it's not going to work out very well.

I have never actually had my bf% measured as such, but using a calculator it's estimated to be around 28%.

long term dieting can definetly have an adverse effect on the BMR. most people will eventually cause their bodies to go into starvation mode and that's when weight loss stops.

So how many calories a day would be on the safe side if my requirement is 2200-2700. That is, without having to go into that horrible starvation mode thing. However, might I add, it was that horrible starvation mode thing that made me lose 65 pounds over 8 months in the first place. The only reason I conclude to why it might have stopped as of now and is cycling up and down the 160's, is that I haven't been able to stick to my diet as off late and started sufficient weight training. So I eat more, and I'm sort of building muscle which makes me heavier, and then I go into my ridiculos diet thing lose calories and some muscle, and lose weight.

well unintentionally i am trying this method, had 9 days of the diet and weighed myself and had gained 5lbs unofficially( weighed in at same time of day etc etc) so now am gonna see the results and see if my losses are greater for the next month or so

Great! Let us know how this turns out!

All in all, you can tell I'm confused. Let me just set this straight out. My primary objective is to lower my bf% considerably and gain some muscle. Getting the bf down is more of a priority to me. Whatever should I do ! Absolutely any help would be great! Thanks to all again.

[EDIT]- I did learn an awful lot reading the Refeeds and Leptin post among the other very well written articles. Looks like I got part of my answer. However, any elaboration/other opinion would be great, if not desperately needed.