Calibration data from variety of dieting people

SamandaIndia

Hi folks, I am in a weight loss challenge on mfp. Variety of diets, ages n attitudes in that challenge. I just grabbed the last 7 weeks of data. Of interest is ~60% people quit and of those that stayed our average weight loss is 0.22 lb a week, for those starting with weight less than 150lbs; 0.48lb a week for 150-199lb; 0.99lb per week for 200-249 and 1.17lb per week for folk starting with weight of >250lbs.

I share this data because some folk hit plateus or feel like their losses are smaller than others and may feel better or not give up, seeing that normal in this case was not 1-2lbs a week. There is a lot of scatter in the data, but I think it shows that even thinking 1-2lb a week for folk who start at less than 200lb can be too ambitious. Perhaps LCHF may get better results, but for me I think the persistence overcomes resistance is the best policy. Now if I could work out how to share the xplot images. Hmmmm.

neohdiver

Hmm . . . I wasn't in the challenge, since I don't tend to join such things. My weight loss (since Oct 2) has been 1.9 lbs/week (I started at 197, so I'm in the lowest category).

It would be interesting to compare data among people participating in a challenge v self-driven losers. I wonder if the loss data or the drop-out rate would be different.

Anytime I've lost weight it is because I've decided it is time - and external motivators or distracters are irrelevant. I've had some pretty powerful distracters - in the past I've worked in a place that had close to weekly sit-down dinner parties (mandatory unless you were absent) with food ordered in from a restaurant of the birthday person's choice + dessert of the birthday party's choice, plus a mandatory daily lunch at the local greasy spoon. This time, since I started in October, the loss period included both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

LowCarbInScotland

@neohdiver I'm the same, external motivators don't drive me in any setting, at work or in my personal life. However I do enjoy external inspiration, which is why I love this group!

SamandaIndia

@neohdiver great weight loss! I love this group and I enjoy the variety of suggested exercises in the challenge groups. Lots of inspiration from both. People have lots of reasons for joining challenges- some will be looking for external accountability n others have other reasons such as looking for a fun supportive group like we are lucky to have here.

For me, my point of the post was to share that although some of us lose weight at 1-2lb a week or even more to start with, for many folk that try to lose weight, they lose at a lower rate of loss. Aim is to prevent folk from getting disheartened- they are not alone.

nvmomketo

It changes over time too. I have months where I lost not a thing and others where I lost 4 lbs in a week, often one after the other. Hanging in there over the long haul is the key. Your diet isn't what you eat on one day, it is what you eat most days. If we keep doing the right things, we'll get there in the end.

FIT_Goat

The attrition (drop-out rate) doesn't shock me at all. Most things that track it find that the drop-out rate is around those numbers. Some diets have less, some have higher. http://www.stat.ufl.edu/~winner/consult/diet.pdf <-- this study is the one that brought it to my attention first, because they went to great lengths to reduce the attrition by telling the participants that their failure was important to document. Explained to them that if they didn't do well, that would help others avoid the same problems. Even with that, they had almost half the people drop by the end of the year.

I think I wanted this factored in to the first carnivore challenge or the ad libitum April challenge, because I am fully aware of how quickly people drop out.

Sunny_Bunny_

Great post @SamandaIndia
It's so important to realize that .22 lbs a week is still a fantastic result. And also there will be weeks of no loss or what appears to be a gain, but in time it will average out.
Great information! I hope it helps someone that feels like they aren't making progress see that progress is made in small amounts when the scale is your point of measure.

FIT_Goat

It is also important to note that the scale doesn't really help much.

In the past four weeks, I have averaged about half a pound of loss on the scale. But, my body fat estimate has dropped a couple percentage points. When you go by body fat, I have lost about 1.88 kg in fat and put on 0.88 kg in lean body mass. This means I am losing just over a pound a week of body fat, it is being masked by a slow increase in lean body mass from the increase in exercise, which is building a small amount of lean body.

It is all estimates on top of estimates. So, the long term will show what is really happening. Can't base much on 5 data points, but they're showing that sort of trend.

And yes, 0.22 pounds a week is not a bad result for those trying to lose weight. That might only be 11 pounds in a year, but it's 11 pounds that will almost certainly not come back. It is 11 pounds that aren't dragging people down. And, the participants aren't putting on weight.

neohdiver

SamandaIndia wrote: »

@neohdiver great weight loss! I love this group and I enjoy the variety of suggested exercises in the challenge groups. Lots of inspiration from both. People have lots of reasons for joining challenges- some will be looking for external accountability n others have other reasons such as looking for a fun supportive group like we are lucky to have here.

For me, my point of the post was to share that although some of us lose weight at 1-2lb a week or even more to start with, for many folk that try to lose weight, they lose at a lower rate of loss. Aim is to prevent folk from getting disheartened- they are not alone.

SamandaIndia wrote: »

@neohdiver great weight loss! I love this group and I enjoy the variety of suggested exercises in the challenge groups. Lots of inspiration from both. People have lots of reasons for joining challenges- some will be looking for external accountability n others have other reasons such as looking for a fun supportive group like we are lucky to have here.

For me, my point of the post was to share that although some of us lose weight at 1-2lb a week or even more to start with, for many folk that try to lose weight, they lose at a lower rate of loss. Aim is to prevent folk from getting disheartened- they are not alone.

Thanks! I'm good at loss - my issue is long term (more than 3 years) maintenance. I know many people struggle with both - and encouragement is definitely in order. (Personally, it is just easier for me to maintain the attentiveness I need to lose weight over a shorter period of time than dragging it out forever.)

Your post just made me curious about whether there are different dynamics/success rates related to those who are internally driven v. those for whom external validation/support are important.