Quote from: Keira on June 07, 2007, 03:13:52 PM
If your eating low enough calorie for losing muscles, its not maintenance level eating Melissa.

I'm not trying to maintain my weight, I'm trying to get smaller...and it's working.   Oh, and I'm 176 today.

Don't worry, I trust you as being knowledgable since it correlates well to what I know about it.  By the way, in 2004, I used to weight 210.  I lost 20 pounds in about 2 months just on willpower and changing eating habits (I had just watched the movie, Supersize me).  Then while maintaining 190 for a month or so, I was offered an opportunity for a 6 week program with free gym membership which included working side by side with a personal trainer the whole time and a highly optimized diet plan for weight loss.  I applied and was accepted and at the end of that, I weighed 172.  I still have a photo of me the day after.  Over the next 9 months, I slowly went up to 180 due to reaquiring some bad eating habits, but I still maintained some good ones.  That's about when I started hormones.  So, weight loss has been something I have been doing in stages over the past 2 1/2 years.  I would say it's been pretty successful since I have not ever gone up to the weight I started at.

Another great tip is to search for foods that are very healthy that you enjoy eating.  Definitely include those and you will feel much better about eating choices.  I love lemon juice and tabasco and both of them are 0 fat and 0 Calories and make excellent (and strong) food flavoring.  For sweetner, I typically choose splenda if I must, but overall I try and avoid foods that would require sweetner such as coffee (which is a diuretic and should be avoided anyways).  Over the past 2 1/2 weeks, I have not been really avoid all bad foods.  For instance, I occasionally have an alcoholic beverage in the evening and I have a supply of saltwater taffy I got on memorial day (5/28) from which I munch on some pieces every night.  I also had some cake on my son's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  The point is, I'm not completely depriving myself of foods I like, yet I'm continuing to lose weight rapidly.  It's amazing what some simple changes to eating habits will do.

Oh, I generally choose water for a drink.  Especially while going out to eat (yeah, I do that too sometimes).  Water is quite cheap and very good for losing weight.  In fact, I've never seen a diet that does not recommend drinking lots of water.

I graduated high school at 5'-8" and 150 pounds.  It seemed no matter what I did that didn't change.  When I was building my house I spent the weekdays at work and evenings and weekends working on my house.  I was going all the waking hours of the day because I was really excited about building the house.  I only ate when hungry.  By the time the house was done I had dropped to 128 pounds and I felt better than I ever had in my life.  I was full of energy and I looked great in a skirt and heels!

I'm convinced being active all day and eating many small portions during the day was the formula that enabled me to lose weight and not gain muscle mass.

Julie

Okay, I've been trying to consume 1500 calories a day for a while now. It's been closer to 1600-1700 the last couple of weeks, as I don't want to let my body starve and my body's been wanting more calories. According to the base metabolism rate thing I found on google, 1700 and some change is where I should be so 1500-1700 is pretty healthy, especially as I've been dropping weight like a rock (well, as much of a rock as one can drop when you're already thin.)

I just started a new job that will have me moving a lot of stuff, some of it heavy. I'm concerned about adding muscle mass while doing this. It's probably a stupid concern, but who are we but always concerned with keeping our bodies the "right" way?

Am I correct that just maintaining my current diet will pretty much keep my body stable? I have very little fat and muscle over all.

You need extra calory to add muscle mass.
Usually that happens because when you exercise you appetite increases.
The body indicates to you that it needs more energy for the increased activity of current muscles and building the new muscles.

IF you don't respond at all to its invitation  and don't up the calory intake, you'll do the opposite of gaining muscles, probably lose some more, and some fat too.

When you lift weight your expending energy, your base metabolism is increasing, so you need more calories to sustain your body.

It depends on how are big the weights are and how frequent the reps (like all exercises). You need substantial resistance to increase muscles. But, to sustain them you need less.

If you want to be sure not to increase muscle mass no matter what, eat the minimum proteins that is needed to sustain your current body. There are tables about that on internet. Proteins are needed to build muscles, that's why

My diet is unfortunately pretty high in protein. Probably too high, like most americans. Though I'm glad that the calorie intake i was feeling out on my own ended up being what's considered right for weight loss. It was certainly getting results without crisis.

I don't really want to lose what I've got muscle wise. I hardly have any as is. I don't think there will be considerable resistance in general, mostly just a largely increased amount of physical activity. So it sounds like I'll be burning through the remainder of my fat and wanting to eat more, but as long as I don't start eating cheeseburgers all the time my current diet should be relatively sufficient. Yay!

Since I last posted on here, I discovered that reduced appetite and weight loss are actually very common side effects of taking a medication that I'm on.  That being said, I just confirmed this weekend that much of the weight I lost was actually muscle.  I had done some strength tests within the last couple of months and it took me by surprise that I had actually lost a lot of strength even in just the past few weeks.  I also noticed certain muscles are visibly smaller such as my calves.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on how you look at it), one of the effects of losing weight is that clothes no longer fit and so buying new ones becomes necessary.  The downside is that this can be costly.  I bought a bra a few weeks ago.  I had a choice between a 38B or 36C (which have the same size cups, but different bands) with the 38B fitting me on it's tightest band setting or the 36C fitting me on it's loosest setting.  Due to me knowing I was going to lose weight, I decided upon the 36C because I figured I could tighten it as I lost weight.  Well, now I wear it at it's tightest setting and it's getting pretty loose on me, so it looks like after such a short time I may have to buy even more bras!  Strangely enough, my breasts have NOT shrunk with the weightloss.   I figure it's most likely due to most of the weightloss being muscle and not fat.

So, one of the things I have been doing to save some money is I brought my girlfriend's sewing machine down to my house and I am going to take some of my clothes in.  The safety pins are just not cutting it.  At least I don't have to get rid of some of my favorite items this way.

Ah, the joys of losing weight.  Oh, one of the unfortunate effects I have been feeling lately is I have felt a bit dizzy and nauseous in the mornings and my muscles have felt really weak.  My girlfriend has also been saying I look pale.  The thing is, I'm not really trying to lose weight that much, I just forget to eat a lot of times.

Melissa, I think you should slack off on the weight loss rythm; from what your describing, its too fast. Hope you've kept your proteins over the minimum for your body weight.

Its not good to lose weight fast, and especially lose that much muscles fast.
If you lose too much muscles, there is a bigger chance you will regain the weight later if your appetite comes back.

One or two pounds a week is a good rythm to lose weight, about 6-8 pounds a month (unless your very overweight, then you can lose more, but its not your case). On a slow diet, you lose a bit of muscle, but mostly fat. If you cut the calories too much, its the opposite, you can lose more pounds from muscles than fat (or the same).

Well, I'm trying to slow it down, but unless I pig out (which results in a stomach ache), I lose about a pound a day.  The thing is, I hadn't loss any muscle mass during the previous 16 months on HRT, but I'm finally losing it.  I'm not eating too little on purpose.  Most of my weightloss occurs during the week while I'm at work.  I just get wrapped up in what I'm doing and forget to eat.  Then I try and eat and I'm too stuffed and get a stomach ache and the cycle repeats.  It was cool at first how well it was going, but I can't seem to slow it down much.   Anyways, what's wrong with finally losing my muscle mass?

     Thank you Kiera for pointing that out to her. I just found this thread.
     Hey sweety too much too fast and all you'll do is make yourself sick with the risk of gaining the weight back. Weakness and paleness are not good signs.
Rashelle

I don't have any food with me today.  I guess I'll eat when I get home.

If your truly losing one pound a day and eating normally, then get yourself checked. If you don't have any appetite for any food. Same thing. Get yourself checked. Anyway you look at it, one pound a day is too much.

To lose a pound a day, you need a 3500 calorie deficit to burn one pound of fat; that's very improbable since your base metabolism is probably around 1800 and you are eating a bit. So your probably almost exclusively accessing muscles as fuel (they are heavier, but a much less efficient energy storage since that's not their purpose). The body does that to match the body's base metabolism to the food intake.

I wonder if your thyroid is not overactive? (that increases metabolism substantially).

Yeah, I truly have been losing about a pound a day, minus the days I pigged out.  I figured most of what I have lost has been muscle as denoted by the decreased strength, smaller muscles, but about the same amount of fat.  I really don't feel like eating and unless Rashelle is over, I tend to eat less and less.  I know I should eat more, but I'm not sure what to do.  I really don't want to gain the weight back that I have already lost, either in fat or muscle.  I know that I will need to eat far less Calories than before to maintain this due to having less muscle, which burns less fat and to maintain the current amount of fat.  I'm actually starting to look pretty good in terms of how my face looks.  According to Dr's charts, I'm still technically over weight though.  Even SRS surgeons have told me to lose weight.  So now here I am miraculously dropping to where I want to be without much effort and even though I know it's not really healthy, I don't want it to go away.  I know I am being REALLY bad today by not eating anything but 3 reduced fat ritz crackers, some iced tea and water.  I just forgot to bring food with me and I don't really have money I want to spend.  Plus, I know if I eat even a little, my stomach will demand more food and I won't be able to supply it and I really hate feeling hungry (ironic, isn't it).

As for an overactive thyroid, I doubt it.  I did some web searches and it seems fairly common that people taking Adderall will have very little appetite and lose weight.  That's why I updated that the weight loss was not caused by my "diet plan", but rather as a natural occurence of taking my meds.  I have also heard that this effect may only last a certain number of weeks.  I also just started taking prozac for my impusivity problems (symptoms like OCD) about a week and a half ago.  I guess it can also help with depression, which I have a mild case of.  It seems like an ideal combination to me for my particular symptoms.  However, loss of appetite is another side effect of prozac.  The effects of prozac shouldn't be apparent for something like 3-5 weeks after starting it though. 

I guess I need to figure out how to slow my weight loss down without feeling sick and over/under eating.  However, my problem has always been overeating.  One of the effects of hormones was supposed to be loss of muscle mass, which I REALLY looked forward to.  Unfortunately, I seemed to not have much loss and it seemed no loss of strength, so I was SO disappointed.  I figured it was probably due to other factors of my body.  So, I when started dropping weight knowing a bunch of it was muscle (hence posting in this thread), I was delighted and it just seemed like something so wonderful.

Anyways, I have another Dr. Appointment on Friday.  I already emailed her, but I'm going to talk to her about getting a karyotype done.  I seem to possess many (like 80-90%) of the symptoms for Klinefelter's syndrome (including ADD, impulsivity, high IQ, physical symptoms, etc.) and want to get tested.  That's more to ease this in my own mind.  I can talk to my doctor about the weight, but I REALLY don't want to be taken off the meds.  I'm finally focusing so much better than before.  I'll eat in a few hours I guess (when I get home).  Of course it's not like I'll have much choice, since my sweetie is making sure I eat then.

You know, I think this is the first time I have gone this long with eating as little as I have in any recent memory.  I think I have had maybe 50 Calories today.   Yeah, I know, I am SO bad. *pout*

   Im still 180 and I have changed my diet . low carbs low protien, eat in minamal amounts work out first then eat. I have to loose about 5 lbs. fat and 15 lbs. muscle. I`m thinking maybe do something unhealthy to loose it. then rebiuld from there.

Its much easier to lose muscle mass if you exercises at a level high enough that converting fats to energy is not sufficient, carbs are all used up and thus muscles get used (the intensity of the exercise must be high enough).

To do that, make sure you carb intake is low enough to run a deficit during the day. You know your carbs stores are low, when you get this spaced out feeling in your head (the brain also needs carb); obviously, during the work day you need to get enough carb so you can work efficiently.

So I have been eating low carb for about a year now. I used to weight 340 lbs and I am now down to 224. Losing weight has been a great experience but since I'm staring my transition (I'm taking anti-androgens now) I would like to lose some the bulk muscle. I know that once I  am on estrogen I might lose some. I was reading through some of the posts on losing muscle but I didn't see anything specific on low carb diets and muscle loss. My diet is high protein, low carbohydrates. I don't really count the grams, but I mostly eat meats, eggs, cheeses, nuts, and certain low carb vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce). My question is this. Can I lose muscle on high protein, low carb diet?

Quote from: Melissa on June 11, 2007, 04:55:21 PMI guess I need to figure out how to slow my weight loss down without feeling sick and over/under eating.

Well, my weight has been holding for a couple weeks now.  I think it's about time to start throwing in exercise.  Also, I do need to get my fat % down.  I got a body fat analyzer scale a couple weeks ago  and it's a bit on the high side.

Yes you can lose muscvle on high protein, low carb, if you exercise with enough intensity that the body cannot access fats for food and has to burn muscles. But, in your case, since you've got still substantial amount of fats, its possible the body will burn visceral fats instead of muscle when you exercise (visceral fat is easier to use for energy than the outlying fats).

To use visceral fats and muscle, you need something varied like interval training, intense exercises (weights or resistance) with lower intensity, even cardio, in between.