Losing 2 lbs per week? Give your tips and tricks!

tiffanylacourse

I know there are MFP users who successfully lose about 2lbs per week pretty consistently or on average. Are you one of those people? If so, please list your tips and tricks here! Thanks!

tlflag1620

The only tip I know of to lose 2 lbs per week consistantly, is to have a LOT of weight to lose to start with and eat at a 1000 cal per day deficit. If you don't have much weight to lose in the first place (I'm sure someone smarter than me will be helpful enough to post the general recommendations on deficit:amount of weight loss desired), losing 2 lbs per week is too aggressive, and will likely lead to binging or burnout. Slow and steady wins the race!

jemhh

Assuming your profile is showing your weight and not pounds to lose, you are not heavy enough to sustain a 2 pound per week loss. Such a rate is not generally sustainable by women who are not fairly obese and, even then, the rate doesn't keep up all the way to goal. You would be better off aiming for a pound a week at this point.

thiosulfate

I eat 1000+ calories less than what I burn everyday. I also have a starting weight of 350+ lbs, so I can easily eat like 2000 calories lose almost 2lbs per week

VintageFeline

Echoing everyone else. You need to be pretty heavy as a female to sustain it healthily.

So I'd look at adjusting your expectations.

TeaBea

1% of your current weight.....so if you are over 200 pounds now, then 2 pounds a week is realistic.

Healthy weight loss helps you lower your body fat %. Fast weight loss makes it harder for your body to fuel existing lean muscle mass. Fast weight loss only looks good on the scale.

3dogsrunning

Like mentioned above, the best tip to lose 2lbs a week steadily (there are quick tricks to drop water weight but that is only temporary) is to have a 1000+ deficit.
The more weight you have to lose, the higher your TDEE is so it is easier to create that deficit.
If you have little weight to lose, a 1000 calorie deficit is pretty hard to hit without eating very little or doing huge amounts of exercise. Both are not a good plan.
I am not opposed to a lot of exercise if there is a purpose for it, but IMO, doing huge amounts of cardio in an effort to lose weight backfires when you reach goal weight and are trying to keep it off. My suggestion is always to do the amount of exercise you plan to continue.
Eating to little leads to a whole other host of issues - muscle loss, fatigue, can lead to binges. And it also doesn't lend well to maintenance.
Part of this whole weight loss thing is to learn how you are going to eat to maintain.

Trish1c

I need to lose 23 pounds. MFP said I should be on a 1200 calorie regime. Other systems give me other goals ranging from 1300 to my maintenance of 1700. Anything lower than 1200 is apparently dangerous. I've only been losing about 1 pound per week but I have been over my calories more then I have been under so I guess my only tip / trick is don't give into temptation. Oh if only it was that easy.

JeromeBarry1

I am one of those people. I lose about 2lb per week. Some weeks I've lost 5 lb, but that is because one day I ate a lot of salt, and in the next 7 days I ate little salt while my kidneys and sweat glands got rid of salt and water. On seven 'good' days of not too much salt following an eight good day of not too much salt, the 2lb loss average happens because of my netting about 1500 kcal below my TDEE. Technically, I must net 1000 kcal below my TDEE every day to lose 2 lb per week. For me, it's fairly easy. I started early this year at 272.4 lb and worked on my food intake until I was comfortable with eating just consistently under 1500 kcal per day with low sodium and high fiber. I also usually get 100 or more mg of protein. On days when I do 30 minutes of cardio work, I easily end the day with more than 1000 kcal remaining on my mfp allowance. My mfp allowance is set on the 0.5 lb per week plan, so that's already a 500 kcal deficit. On days when I do not jump on the treadmill, I usually end the day with 700 calories remaining. Whether I do treadmill or not, I'm almost always in a 1000 kcal daily deficit. There have been many weeks when I had a 15000 kcal weekly deficit. This does not work for young, strong, healthy, active people. I'm an old, sedentary, male. I log grocery shopping as exercise. I log lawn mowing and oil changing as exercise. When I lose 20 lb increments, I run a 5k. I log my 5ks. During my journey I often calculated my average daily weight loss. For the first couple of months, it was over 0.5 lb per day average. Then for a a couple of months the average was over 0.4 lb per day. Now the average is just over 0.3 lb per day. As I lose weight, my TDEE is dropping closer and closer to my consistent food intake. Perhaps in a couple of months my weight loss will slow so much that it becomes maintenance.

The short answer is to look at my diary for yesterday to see how I do it on weekends, and to look at any weekday that my net is below 1500 to see how I do it on weekdays.

JeromeBarry1

I looked at your food diary. For breakfast, I call that 119 wasted calories. My breakfast was over 600 calories of high quality nutrition. Yours was wasted on condiments. If you want to feel comfortable in a calorie deficit, you must fight for quality in your calories.

StaciMarie1974

It depends on the person and their gender/weight mainly though age & height also factor in.

Your profile shows you as 175 pounds, 31 years old, female. Based on that your BMR is in the neighborhood of 1500 cals per day. That is what your body burns to sustain basic bodily functions. Depending on how active you are, you burn another 20-30% of that most likely for your daily activities. So without exercise you burn perhaps 1950/day. Realistically, you probably could exercise for enough to have a TDEE of 2200-2500, and eat 1200-1500 per day to lose 2 pounds per week. But I'm not sure that would be wise. At 1200-1500 in you might not have enough energy/nutrition to sustain that level of exercise.

It might be wiser to exercise for a total TDEE of 2200-2500 and then aim for 1.5 pounds per week lost, which would put your cals in around 1450-1700.

Its a bit like asking how can you make a Ford Explorer average 35mpg. Sure, if you only drive it downhill and never hit the gas pedal: you can perhaps accomplish that for a brief moment in time. But such a routine is not going to get you where you need to go.

kshama2001

@tiffanylacourse from looking at your profile, from your weight from last month and your goal weight, it looks like you have only 44 pounds to lose. Two pounds per week is too aggressive a goal for you, and under-eating leads many people to binging.

Set your weekly weight loss goal to 1 pound per week and enjoy those extra calories.

lemurcat12

I used to. My trick was eating 1000 calories less than my TDEE. (That's easier if you have a decent amount of non intense daily activity in your day -- walking or bike commuting or the like -- and if you have a lot to lose or are larger so have a higher TDEE to start with. I could not do it now without it being unhealthy/risking muscle mass unnecessarily.)

choppie70

I used to lose 2lbs per week by following MFP. Then when I hit below 200 lbs it slowed down.

caradack1985

My trick is being morbidly obese and eating at a calorie deficit. But I'm under no illusion that the more I lose the slower it will come off.

MissusMoon

I'm still losing at least 2lbs per week. It is because I have over sixty pounds to go. It will slow way down soon enough.

Tips and tricks in general?
Weigh your food on a food scale.
Treat days not cheat days. Make room in your caloric goals for foods you enjoy every day.
Exercise in a way that makes you happy, and push yourself to improve.
Don't make excuses. You don't have to be motivated all the time, you have to be disciplined.
Adjust your calorie goals every time you lose weight. That way it only drops by ten or 20 calories rather than something drastic.
Exercise calories are a great buffer. Eating out and have to estimate? Good thing you're not eating back too many of those.
Don't buy into diet woo.

Colorscheme

There is no tips or tricks. Eat less, move more. Weigh food on a food scale. That's it.

Colorscheme

MissusMoon wrote: »

I'm still losing at least 2lbs per week. It is because I have over sixty pounds to go. It will slow way down soon enough.

Tips and tricks in general?
Weigh your food on a food scale.
Treat days not cheat days. Make room in your caloric goals for foods you enjoy every day.
Exercise in a way that makes you happy, and push yourself to improve.
Don't make excuses. You don't have to be motivated all the time, you have to be disciplined.
Adjust your calorie goals every time you lose weight. That way it only drops by ten or 20 calories rather than something drastic.
Exercise calories are a great buffer. Eating out and have to estimate? Good thing you're not eating back too many of those.
Don't buy into diet woo.

What's nice about the Fitbit and Aria scale is that it does all that stuff for you. As you update your weight, your TDEE automatically changes as a result

flaminica

Based on your starting weight and your present weight and progress (50% there--well done!) you've passed the point where you will ever will (or should) drop two pounds a week. You probably did at first and are now wondering why you're not? It's not because you're doing anything wrong--quite the opposite. The less you weigh, the less you'll lose per week, and past a point you may only see a drop every other week. Don't worry about it. It's ok and normal. In fact, you're doing great!

trigden1991

Eat in a weekly 7000 calorie deficit................ Nothing else.

TheHungryHorsie

Today alone I lost 2lbs from yesterday. Last week I lost 11lbs. I train cardio and weights with high intensity almost everyday. Sometimes I eat way over my daily calorie goals but I still end up losing alot. I believe it's mostly due to my strong work ethic in the gym.

slomtim

I set my goal for 1600 cal,whatever I eat for breakfast I try to burn off with exercise in the morning,that way I'm starting to gain cals from lunch time a just calculate all I eat.Ive lost 5lb in 3weeks,my srarting weight was 197

tiffanylacourse

tlflag1620 wrote: »

The only tip I know of to lose 2 lbs per week consistantly, is to have a LOT of weight to lose to start with and eat at a 1000 cal per day deficit. If you don't have much weight to lose in the first place (I'm sure someone smarter than me will be helpful enough to post the general recommendations on deficit:amount of weight loss desired), losing 2 lbs per week is too aggressive, and will likely lead to binging or burnout. Slow and steady wins the race!

Thank you!

jemhh wrote: »

Assuming your profile is showing your weight and not pounds to lose, you are not heavy enough to sustain a 2 pound per week loss. Such a rate is not generally sustainable by women who are not fairly obese and, even then, the rate doesn't keep up all the way to goal. You would be better off aiming for a pound a week at this point.

My profile does show my weight. I am still obese according to BMI/height, but within 5-10 lbs of overweight. These tips weren't specifically for me. I'm in a group challenge and was looking for tips for everyone. Thank you though!

tiffanylacourse

For reference, I wasn't actually asking for me. I'm in a weight loss challenge group and was looking for the best tips and tricks to help everyone out. Thanks for all the thoughtful and helpful insights/tips!