Thread: hard question to answer

Do you realize that at a rate of 5 lbs per week you're losing more muscle than fat?

You should never lose more than 1-2lbs per week.

If you continue at this rate you will have virtually no muscle left, your metabolism will be at a crawl, and you will not lose any more body fat. Then as soon as you start eating again you will re-gain the weight twice as fast as you lost it.

You need to re-evaluate your diet, which will definitely be in need of a calorie increase, and stop losing weight so quickly!

I suggest that you post your exact diet here....actually post it in a new thread in the diet/nutrition forum please.

If thats the case then how come i have lost it around my stomach area and no where else I was 241 when i started working out and now i am 211. I take in about 1,200 calories a day before i could seriously eat a whole box of twinkies everyday for breakfast and sometimes i could eat whole pound of bacon and also i used to drink a 12 pack of coke every day. I think that i have lost most of my weight due to proper eating habbits now. And yes i have no clue when it comes to nutrition, but i have made some great sucess in the last past 6 weeks.

I think Prince is trying to explain to you that, while you have every reason to feel positive about setting and achieving a goal by changing some bad eating habits, you'll eventually slow your metabolism down to the point that you could regain the weight easily. And while you may notice the biggest difference in loss in your stomach area, he's trying to explain that you are losing muscle mass too - which in the end could sabotage your whole point in wanting to look and feel better.

Prince is a very experienced trainer, so he knows a lot about these things...he isn't telling you not to be positive about having success...he's trying to help you manage it successfully so that you can make the permanent changes you want.

I'm not an experienced trainer, but I think the exception to "You should never lose more than 1-2lbs per week" is if you're really, really obese. The more overweight you are, the smaller a difference each pound of weight loss would mean. Well, I don't think I ever actually heard that, but it seems that way to me. What I have heard is that extremely obese people loose alot of water weight quickly when they're admitted to the hospital for treatment, and that's acceptable, though I don't remember the exact rate. 241 pounds isn't extremely obese, but I figured I'd mention this for educational purposes.

I also heard that 1-2 pounds per week is recommended, so I have no problem with that advice, especially for someone of 211-241 pounds. You could still cut out all of the junk food, but you might want add some extra nutritious food to what you're eating now.