New to CR (set point)

[Guest guest]

Hi Iron Marshal 2003 and welcome to the group.

Set point is a really fuzzy concept that most of us choose to ignore, I think. Supposedly, fat loss releases toxins that are stored in adipose cells, so the faster you lose weight, the more of these toxins are presumably released all at one time. Probably not a good thing. Rather than focusing initially on how much weight to lose, the better focus might be on how soon to lose it. By emphasizing nutrition first and eating a reasonable caloric budget for your height and activity level, your weight will gradually stabilize somewhere in the lean-and-mean range. From there, you would be in a position to determine whether or not to further reduce calories.

Easy does it, but do it. You mentioned the possibility that you would need to lose 25 pounds of fat and 25 pounds of muscle to achieve a weight of 160, assuming 160 to be a reasonable goal for you, which I doubt. I suggest you focus on quality of nutrition and slow FAT loss, hoping to preserve as much muscle as possible. There's no point in turning 120 if you can't get in and out of a chair by yourself! Muscle is life-giving, IMO...no science to back that up, just common sense. Muscle loss, sarcopenia, renders us weak and accident prone as we age. Keep the muscle, lose the flab.

Good luck. Just optimizing your nutrition, for starters, will bring you immediate benefits. You'll even be more handsome. (No reeallly! It's truuuue!)

Suz