.5 Pounds per week

mari5466

I am trying to lose the last 5 pounds and I was just curious if anyone switched to losing .5 pounds a week eventually in their weight loss program from 1 pound loss a week. Did it help your body adjust to maintenance? I am 5 ft and I went from 135?(didn't weigh my self but same weight last time my pants felt tight) to 115. I workout about 4-6 days a week between cardio and strength training so I eat my net calories at about 1100 a day to lose a pound.

Helloitsdan

It's math and unfortunately our bodies aren't calibrated machines. My advice is to slowly raise calories towards maintenance for your goal weight.
Please understand that weight maintenance is a fluctuation of 5-10lbs contingent on your activity, sleep, hormones etc...

Hope that helps!
If you need assistance, add me.

sijomial

I lost even slower than that at quarter of a pound a week for six months. It worked very well for recomp and of course only needed a tiny adjustment to come up to maintenance calories.

Personally I think a "soft landing" approach to maintenance makes a lot of sense. It's not uncommon in this forum to see people who lose rapidly all the way to goal finding a big adjustment to maintenance difficult.

kimny72

I did .5 per week for the last 15 lbs. I'm petite and I like to eat, and the smaller you get the harder it is to keep up enough of a deficit to lose faster. You do have to be ready to accept that you might not see the scale say what you want it to for weeks, because normal weight fluctuations can really easily mask that half a lb!

mari5466

kimny72 wrote: »

I did .5 per week for the last 15 lbs. I'm petite and I like to eat, and the smaller you get the harder it is to keep up enough of a deficit to lose faster. You do have to be ready to accept that you might not see the scale say what you want it to for weeks, because normal weight fluctuations can really easily mask that half a lb!

Yeah I'm having trouble with the idea of it not showing but it's been almost 6 months at 1100 net and it's just starting to become too frustrating to keep up much longer.

nowine4me

Just keeping off what you have already lost is winning. These days, I'm happy with .5 a month! Hang in there.

LivingtheLeanDream

I hadn't that much to lose so set MFP to 0.5lb/ a week from the outset - I preferred having less of a deficit so I wasn't feeling deprived all the time.

AnnPT77

Yes - I went from 2 pounds (started with more to lose than you did) to 1.5 to 1 to 0.5 (at around 10 to go) then tapered in small increments. I thought coasting into maintenance was a good strategy for me - no major changes in eating toward the end, just small adjustments.