Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Fast or Slow Weight Loss?

Options
24

Replies

  • Fisah17
    Fisah17 Posts: 202 Member
    edited February 2018
    Options
    I think it depends on the person and their goals. I am team slow to begin and pick up the pace as you go. I was slow to make lifestyle changes in my diet (overeating, sugar & caffeine) and tried to compensate with training myself hard...too hard. The result was a torn meniscus last summer, surgery and unwanted time off from the gym. Once that happened I was forced to reassess my habits. I have a long way to go, but I started reducing calories in November and decreased the intensity of my workouts so I could log more workouts without pain that sidelines me. Now that I am actually logging what I eat looking at macros and calories + workouts (structure and plans make me happy lol) I am noticing changes more quickly in weight loss and overall inches and see nothing wrong with the faster results since my goal weight loss/total weight loss is 12 lbs and will increase as I build muscle tone.
  • WillingtoLose1001984
    WillingtoLose1001984 Posts: 240 Member
    Options
    SolotoCEO wrote: »
    It's all about the person. Drastic, obsessive, weight loss is not my style. That doesn't mean it's wrong - it just means for me I've tried it, the weight came back on as fast as it came off. I need a lifestyle approach - not an all or nothing. It took me just over a year to lose 100 lbs. and I've kept it off for over 5 years. Now, I'm working on getting the final pounds off - slow and steady. My best advice - do whatever is right for you.

    100 lbs in a little over a year isn't that slow of weight loss!
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited February 2018
    Options
    Fast if your obese....slow when you're already lean and want to lose a couple of pounds. Too much will basically eat your muscles unless your goal is to look like a toothpick.

    You can do fast (for example if you have a photoshoot), but as long as it doesn't a long time either.

    I am sure there other circumstances where fast would be a good option, but in general, slow is usually the better option.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    Options
    WillingtoLose1001984 wrote: »
    SolotoCEO wrote: »
    It's all about the person. Drastic, obsessive, weight loss is not my style. That doesn't mean it's wrong - it just means for me I've tried it, the weight came back on as fast as it came off. I need a lifestyle approach - not an all or nothing. It took me just over a year to lose 100 lbs. and I've kept it off for over 5 years. Now, I'm working on getting the final pounds off - slow and steady. My best advice - do whatever is right for you.

    100 lbs in a little over a year isn't that slow of weight loss!

    And, therein lies the rub. It's slow if compared to grocery store magazines, but 100 lbs in a year is a pretty quick pace. I was about 10 months for 100 lbs, and an eternity (still ongoing) for the rest.
  • ryenday
    ryenday Posts: 1,540 Member
    Options
    I’m on team as fast as is healthy and does not interfere with fitness goals. That was about 1/2 lb a week loss for me on 1200 calories per day with a good amount of cardio and starting 2x a week weights. If I could have gone faster I would have.

    The downside is I have a lot to learn as I go into maintenance. But imo that is much better than feeling as bad as I did or looking as awful as I was looking any longer than I had to. Plenty of time on this side of the diet to figure out approaches for the rest of my life.

    So, yeah, team as fast as is healthy here.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Options
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I'm firmly team "only do fast weight loss if you know what you're doing and only for short periods of time with a decent recovery plan". This also comes with the caveat that the bulk of weight loss, or at least your periods of weight maintenance between fast bursts, should be focused on habit building (which works best with a reasonable calorie budget). This is why I would never recommend fast weight loss to someone who is new to dieting or condone it if they ask. If done incorrectly, it's a recipe for burnout, muscle loss, hormonal disruption, disordered thinking patterns, deficiencies, and lack of experience with real life food situations (which can lead to regain).

    For myself, I'm firmly team "slow weight loss" with 90% of the work focused on habit and strategy building. I'm not a body builder. I was morbidly obese, not a body builder of normal weight who who has done this often in a calculated way always followed by periods of maintenance or bulking. That's a special needs, special interests, special mental state kind of group, not the average dieter. The body building community can attract disordered relationship with food, though, so be careful what you pick up from there.

    Weight loss needs to be done correctly by working on weight loss with maintenance in mind, regardless of chosen speed. Slow weight loss, however, gives you the most fat loss per calorie restricted because people experience fewer metabolic adaptations on a slow weight loss plan. That's why although I'm not completely against fast, I lean strongly towards slow.

    I agree with you. In some ways I wish I had taken my slower and settled for a slightly higher bw that my body liked. I was morbidly obese, so fast was an option at first, then I just took it overboard. I do wonder if taking it alow would have maybe set me back because I would not have seen results to keep me pushing. Now I am having to regain some weight, hopefully through a majority lean mass as I lift now.
  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    edited March 2018
    Options
    Depends. If you're obese then slow and steady.
    If you're already relatively lean and you're cutting 5lbs the quicker the better (although you may not have much of a choice here lol)
  • CaliVeggieGal
    CaliVeggieGal Posts: 10 Member
    Options
    Everybody woo the vegan? I had to look up what a woo is. Is that really the spirit around here? Nice community...
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
    edited March 2018
    Options
    I personally like aggressive cuts. I know how to keep my protein high, adjust my training, and supplement during this time. I'd rather a diet be short and to the point, so I can get back to training fully fueled, than have it drag on for 5 months to lose barely a thing. I'm fully convinced I'd lose just as much muscle dieting for a long time than an aggressive 3-4 weeks. But I'm also not looking to lose 30 pounds. In that case, I'd be more moderate.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
    Options
    ggeise14 wrote: »
    You do you! Advice is good and can be helpful, but ultimately it's what will work for you that you need to navigate.

    Yes to that. In the end success comes when we find our own n=1 results that works .
  • jeanona
    jeanona Posts: 155 Member
    Options
    The key is sustainability for me. If these individuals you mentioned in the OP can sustain what they’re doing over a long term period, then all the power to them.

    I used to do very aggressive cuts, only to end up gaining again, resulting in me always fluctuating 10 pounds around goal weight either gaining or losing. Now that I’m at goal weight using the slow way (took me 7 months to lose 10 pounds this time round!), I’m doing a veeery slow cut to get a couple of pounds under so that I can maintain at or below goal. This helps me learn to maintain long term instead of the continuous lose and gain cycle.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,970 Member
    Options
    People need to find what works for them - so, it depends.

    For me, I've never been significantly overweight - overweight, yes, but far from obese (heaviest was ~30 pounds over my "goal" weight). When I decided to change things, at first, my losses were faster, but I was mostly focused on diet alone.

    Once I started adding fitness back in, I couldn't handle the steep deficit without my workouts or overall energy levels suffering. So, I accepted a slow loss of ~.5lb/week.

    Currently, I'm in a similar boat only the trend is even slower - barely downward at all, but it's more of a recomp than a weight loss so my deficit is very small.

    Since fitness was my priority more than the weight, that meant I had to choose - slow loss (or no scale loss) or let the workouts suffer.

    It's not for everyone, I'll admit, it gets frustrating sometimes to see the scale stuck, but I'm feeling great in the gym, better riding (which is the ultimate purpose of the workouts), and I'm getting much happier with my body right now than I have been in quite awhile too. But if my primary goal was looking good in a bikini or just being "healthier" then I'd much rather be at a faster loss and that would be a lot more motivating under other circumstances.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,088 Member
    Options
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    Everybody woo the vegan? I had to look up what a woo is. Is that really the spirit around here? Nice community...

    I doubt you were wooed because you're a vegan, there are quite a few well respected vegans here. You were probably wooed because your post supported detox/cleanses, which are in fact woo.

    Aww ok, interesting trigger. I love a good detox, especially from added sugar, but everyone is different.

    I respect vegens... that being said.... I would starve! .... maybe I should become a vegan. The fact that vegans stick to a lifestyle makes me have that respect.
  • koda0071
    koda0071 Posts: 40 Member
    Options
    As stated several times already, it may depend on where your starting point is (weight wise) and how tolerable you are to changes in your diet choices and exercise routines as to the speed in which you lose weight. My experience is not very different from others here that started from a very significant number 350+lbs. Being that heavy to start with, the pounds dropped very steady and relatively fast the first six months, because anything I did to cut calories and burn more calories was really beneficial. I would say the slow and steady weight loss for me was more about making the dietary changes that I could stick with long term rather than making drastic changes with everything about my nutritional choices all at once. If you are starting where I did, start making improvement in food choices and increasing your amount of exercise and let your body decide how fast it wants to lose those unwanted pounds. Today, when the progress seems slower and I don't see the scale move as fast, I have to remind myself this was really a change in lifestyle to be more healthy and the weight loss fast or slow is a great by product.

Categories