A question about my situation
Okay, I posted about my recent weight loss on another, less mature board and got replies that made me surly. So I present it here to ask if what I've done is "unhealthy".
I had a birthday in March. I don't usually make a big deal of them, but a lot of friends and family did this year, so I did too. I had noticed in some recent pictures thta I was looking a lot more doughy than usual. Weighing myself, I realized I had topped 305 lbs (I'm 5'11"). I've been at least a little overweight since college, but that's nuts.
So, the day before my actual birthday (but after the celebration, whether that's good or bad, not sure), I decided to make some lifestyle changes to be healthier. Not a diet, but a change to healthier eating. Not an exercise regimen, but a commitment to be more active.
I didn't know what to expect with weight loss, and it didn't matter. If I ate better and was more active, it would come. Well, 4 weeks later, my weight was 235 lbs. Kinda blew me away, I didn't expect anything so dramatic.
So, the question: too much, too fast? I'm being told that I've screwed my metabolism, that losing that much weight so quickly is bad for me, not to mention that I'm obviously lying because doing that is next to impossible.
All I did was decrease my calories (to 1500-1800, increasing that for more active days), space out my eating over the day rather than concentrate it at mealtimes, eat a lot more fruits and veggies and a lot less fat and sugar. Stayed away from carbs if I wasn't planning on being active, loaded up on them if I was planning on expending a lot of energy. No gyms or jogging, just a bunch of walking, some sports (hockey and ultimate), and I just started swimming again (used to be a fish as a kid).
I've made a few changes, as I'm a big guy and I think some of that weight loss was muscle mass, so I eat a bit more, and a bit more protein. The last 3 weeks, I've averaged about 3 pounds a week...though I'm pretty proud of that, as I was on vacation for most of it, eating out every day except a couple.
So anyway, was this bad? I don't plan on going back to greasy foods once I hit some target weight, this has been so easy I'll keep doing for as long as I have the choice. But I've heard that losing more than 2-3 pounds a week is bad. I swear I didn't mean to!