I started to exercise and change my eating habits 4 weeks ago, I was 351 when I started and I am now 323, am I dropping weight too fast?  I lift weights three times a week for about one hour, I take in about 1200 cal. a day with slimfast products, and real food.  I am 23 years old and 6'7".  Does my age factor into this?  I am not dizzy, no bruises have formed on my skin, and I seem to be more healthy than ever before.  I sleep less and have much more energy.

thanks for all of your help up to this point and in the future.
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Quoted: At your weight - rapid weight loss in the beginning is going to be pretty normal. 1200 cal a day is really light for someone your size with any activity.  As long as you feel ok, and are motivated... keep it up. Great job.  Do you have a goal weight?  You should set yourself a goal... and a couple intermediate goals... and celebrate each one along with way.

my first goal is 300 lbs, then 275 over time.  I do treat myself from time to time, I had a piece of pizza last friday, little things like that.

I also want to get to a 44 waist, I am about a 45", that was the belt size I ordered from the wilderness and it fits good until I tuck in my two t-shirts that I wear always.
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When you are that  heavy, there is nothing wrong with loosing that much weight right away.  Its probably mostly water.  Also bump your cals up to atleast 2500 cals.  otherwise you will start to loose muscle and store fat.  

Dont drink any fruit juices, booze, or pop.  Any kind.  Its all sugar.  Drink 2-3 gals of water a day.  keep your protien high, and the carbs you do take in should be whole grain. No processed grains or sugar, ie wonder bread, candy.

Ill add more later.

Quoted: I started to exercise and change my eating habits 4 weeks ago, I was 351 when I started and I am now 323, am I dropping weight too fast?  I lift weights three times a week for about one hour, I take in about 1200 cal. a day with slimfast products, and real food.  I am 23 years old and 6'7".  Does my age factor into this?  I am not dizzy, no bruises have formed on my skin, and I seem to be more healthy than ever before.  I sleep less and have much more energy. thanks for all of your help up to this point and in the future. Icon

Keep it up, Your AR must look like a Toy!!!

I personally think your calories are dead on, you might loose some muscle but you WONT gain fat. Eat only enough to not fee like crap if your goal is purely to lose bodyfat.

Quoted: I personally think your calories are dead on, you might loose some muscle but you WONT gain fat. Eat only enough to not fee like crap if your goal is purely to lose bodyfat.

But eating too few cals, your body will want to keep the fat, and will go in to a mode in which you will loose just about as much muscle as it does fat.  this is not what you want.  Muscle burns fat.  So the more you have, or keep the more fat you will loose and not preacous muscle.  Im guessing that your physical activity wasnt very great to begin with, so you prob dont have that much muscle to start out with.

I am a firm believer than heavy lifting staves off muscle loss.  You cannot stop the body from decreasing T3 levels via enzymatic pathways.  If you diet it will happen sooner or later. Might as well just drop the fat as fast as possible and worry about building muscle mss later IMO. Then again I am a crash dieter and obsessive compulsive accoring to people around me.

Quoted: I started to exercise and change my eating habits 4 weeks ago, I was 351 when I started and I am now 323, am I dropping weight too fast?  I lift weights three times a week for about one hour, I take in about 1200 cal. a day with slimfast products, and real food.  I am 23 years old and 6'7".  Does my age factor into this?  I am not dizzy, no bruises have formed on my skin, and I seem to be more healthy than ever before.  I sleep less and have much more energy. thanks for all of your help up to this point and in the future. Icon

What a great job,  keep up the good work

Don't exercise too hard; that too will burn muscle.  You really want to try to stay at your target heart rate.  It's much easier for the body to turn muscle to energy than fat to energy, so if you are overdoing it and your body can't keep up then it will stop burning fat and start burning muscle.

Or so I've heard. hink
But I do think 1200 calories is too little.  At 6'7", your caloric intake just to maintain weight must be incredible.  I would think that 2000 calories would be the lowest you would want to go.  If you lose the weight too fast, and starve yourself doing it, you'll just put it all back on.  Losing weight is not a race, unless you're on TV.

There is no reason losing weight fast means it will all be put back on.  If he eats like a pig after he looses the weight he will put it back on no matter what.

height=8

Quoted: height=8 Quoted: I personally think your calories are dead on, you might loose some muscle but you WONT gain fat. Eat only enough to not fee like crap if your goal is purely to lose bodyfat. But eating too few cals, your body will want to keep the fat, and will go in to a mode in which you will loose just about as much muscle as it does fat.  this is not what you want.  Muscle burns fat.  So the more you have, or keep the more fat you will loose and not preacous muscle.  Im guessing that your physical activity wasnt very great to begin with, so you prob dont have that much muscle to start out with.

I would agree with you.  I have a feeling that since he has such a high % body fat right now that he can lose the weight pretty easily with his ultra-low calorie diet.  I'll bet once he get closer to 20% bf and lower that his body is going to start fighting back.

I'm nowhere near the size of this guy (5'9"), but I went from 176 lbs to 155 lbs (22% to 10% bf) on a 2300 kcal/day diet.  I was doing cardio and lifting at the same time, burning probably an extra 400 kcal/day over my basal metabolism.  Once I got around 10%bf, I stop losing fat pretty quickly.  I had to change my diet to keep going.

The other problem is that by not eating real food (AKA Slimfat products), he missing he oppourtunity to create a healthy diet that he can eat long term.  He can't eat Slimfast products for the rest of his life.

NN

Seems to me you are doing aood job.   Here are a couple suggestions:

First IMHO don't keep on a steady diet with reduced calories.  Try to reduce your intake, but vary the caloric intake, even sometimes splurging - but when you have those days that you will eat more calories - pay attention to the calories you are eating i.e. don't make it all ice cream.  This will prevent your body from developing a new caloric consumption setpoint.  Your body wants to retain fat and will drop the amount of calories you burn in order to do that.  By reducing but varying your caloric intake you will stave off that natural adaptation.

Second, Lift Weights.  This will also increase your lean muscle mass thereby increasing your basal metabolic rate and increasing the number of calories that you consume throughout the day.  Aerobic exercise is important but don't lose sight of the fact that the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you need to burn every day.

Good show and good luck.  Cheers.  

I was 313 on January 1st and I'm 230 as of this morning. I went on a 1000 calorie a day diet with light exercise. I feel great, I've lost 10 inches off my waist and another 8 off my chest. I want to get down to 200 by the end of the year. You need to be careful about skin sag and make sure that you're getting enough fiber to keep your body going. Constipation is no picnic !!!! I've got great muscle tone coming along without heavy lifting and I'll bump up my weight workouts as I continue to lose more weight.

You're doing great !!! Keep it up and say focused on your goals.  

Good Job, watch the calories.

Your BMR will require at least 2000 calories. Do starve yourself, you will become catabolic and loose muscle. That will reduce your matabolism and that is not good.