35M 5’8” SW 199.4 CW 187.0 Soft GW 164.0 Actual GW: be good example for my kids
I’ve been doing IF (16:8, a few OMADs here and there) for about 7 weeks now while making a good faith attempt at CICO tracking with the goal of consuming 500 less calories than my maintenance, so currently about 1600 calories for my height/weight. In addition, I’ve increased my physical activity so, at least according the best data I have available from my smart watch, I am fairly regularly coming in probably 300-500 net calories under my 1600 goal when taking into account calories burned.
I’m not in any hurry to lose weight for actual physical health concerns (though flirting with “obese” instead of just “overweight” was a bummer), and my understanding is that up to 2 lbs lost per week is generally considered “healthy,” but I just want to make sure I’m not in danger of causing my metabolism to slow down to compensate. Should I be eating a little bit more and still shooting for a net of 1600?
Thanks! And a side note, lurking in this subreddit has been an inspiration and definitely helped me stay on track.
Should be fine sticking with it. It’ll take however long it takes. People get metabolically damaged when they get impatient and want it off now or no later than April, etc. Can’t put timelines on the body to get it back to a desired state. Most people have spent their whole lives slowly getting fatter and sicker. Reversing it in a healthy and sustainable way takes time, too.
In general, don’t count back exercise calories. They should be factored into overall activity not on a one to one.
Otherwise, you’re no where near cutting enough to slow down your metabolism, eat into lean body mass, or anything like that. Though note that all weight loss is going to involve some natural metabolic reduction, even fat uses a certain amount of calories per day. When you weigh less you burn less, so be sure to recalculate every now and then.
If you want a rule of thumb, aim for about .5-1% body weight per week - or slower if you prefer. This helps to ensure you’re maintaining muscle and only losing fat, and it’s easy to adjust calories up to down as needed based on how the scale is moving.