Which I qualified by saying "eating too much in relation to energy
spent".

Agreed.

The BMR always goes down with weight loss (the extent of it is
variable). It is, more or less, agreed that serious weight loss and
muscle gain are incompatible. As a person is losing weight, they
require fewer calories to maintain it. It is all normal.

I agree though that it is good to explore ways of eating that could
raise BMR etc, if it is at all possible. Maybe the OP has low thyroid
function and proper hormone supplementation could normalize his
functioning etc. Only his doc can explore this possibility.

Fair enough. I agree.
I was just checking.  The odds are greatly in favor of dietary problems (as
you pointed out).  I just think it can (or at least SHOULD) be assumed that
unless a poster is asking about a medical problems, that they are getting
proper medical treatment as needed--if they aren't, suggesting so is likely
to fall on deaf ears.
Yes, you did say that it was the most likely excessive calories in, I am not
arguing here (really, I am not ;-), nor am I trying to quibble.  I just
wanted to make sure you were on the up and up, and you seem to be (like I am
the judge of everyone).
I do get tired of the media dragging out the old (she has a glandular
problem) when talking about someone's excessive weight. It is a serious and
real eye-opener when most people realize just how little they need to eat to
maintain a healthy weight.  And too often doctors are willing to let someone
remain delusional, because it is too much effort to straighten them out.  So
people shuffle along blissful in the thought that it is not their fault that
they are fat, the have a "medical problem."
Since the norm (due to evolution) is that our bodies WANT to put on fat, and
HATE to give it up, that means a huge majority to people have a hard time
maintain a healthy weight in world of ready and calorie rich food; and only
a very small minority have an easy time with it.  Such is life, I know
nothing of the alternative (John Edwards may think he does) so I am trying
to stay here for as long as I can. That means sucking it up, and carrying
on! (though I do miss peanut butter ;-)

Sounds like we actually agree on the substance.

To me, "dramatic" means more than 1,000 cals per day deficit, to you,
dramatic means about 1,000, but we both agree that the OP needs to take
control of eating and cut calories down in a serious manner.

It's dramatic if your intake is 2000 or less per day but if you're eating
3000+ it becomes much less dramatic :) However I do agree with you that a
1000 cal per day *cut in intake* is dramatic.  OTOH a 1000 cal/day *deficit*
is not as difficult for a larger person to accomplish since all you'd need
to do is cut 500 cal from intake and increase your output by 500 cal.

Sounds like what Gwendal always says about learning to live like a slender
person and having the body follow along.  The group of people I socialized
with changed completely during my weight loss phase from the bar/fish fry
crowd to a more athletic/active group.  Even now when I meet new people, if
it turns out they don't work out or like to do a lot of outdoors activities
the relationships go nowhere.

I still hang out in the bar once a week but now it's an hour with my
volleyball team after the games and I limit myself to one beer and maybe
will split a sandwich with someone for dinner.  This is compared to the
hours each Friday night I used to spend sitting around drinking pitchers and
splitting many orders of cheese curds and chicken wings with my sedentary
friends.

Jenn

What you say makes sense to me.

Muscle gain is also a slow process, something that cannot occur to a
large degree over a few weeks.

Polar Light schreef:

I have often heard that for *beginning* weight lifters, it *is*
possible. In fact, it's what I did myself, when I went down from 100+ kg
to ~80. I lost a lot of fat, and I was able to lift more & more weight,
so I must have gained muscle, no?

Berna (101.5/76/~68 kg - starting weight training again RSN)