What is a good weekly weight loss goal?

mjcbills1980

Needing to lose 150 lbs to goal, should I consider doing 1 or 1.5 or 2pounds per week as my goal? Don’t want to start at 2 lbs a week and feel hungry all the time. What has worked for you?

seska422

I've lost ~145 pounds in ~3 years with ~84 pounds of that in the first year.

What worked for me was to find a comfortable calorie intake amount and then let the weight come off at whatever rate it wanted. I concentrated on my day-to-day compliance with my calorie goal rather than having a weekly weight target.

Weight loss isn't linear. I didn't get concerned over the ups and downs from week to week because I knew that I was doing what I needed to do and the weight loss would show on the scale eventually.

mjcbills1980

Did you exercise the first year or ever since you started losing?

seska422

mjcbills1980 wrote: »

Did you exercise the first year or ever since you started losing?

I got maybe 2000-3000 steps per day for the first couple of years. I was beyond sedentary. As I got closer to goal weight, I started walking and I'm up to ~12,000 steps per day now.

Sambo_fitness

1 to 2 pounds a week is a great and healthy goal!

bbell1985

I would start at 2 pounds, personally. Depends on what helps you best with adherence. I like to see some movement on the scale. It gives me momentum. Some people like to eat more and lose slowly.

lucerorojo

If you have 150 lbs. to lose you can do 2 lbs. per week. The guide is 1% of your body weight to lose. So over 200 lbs. you can lose 2 lbs. per week. My starting weight was 237, and I'm down to 199. (GW is 137). I started at 2 lbs. per week to lose, and was able to do that relatively comfortably until I hit about 25 lbs. lost. So at around 212-215 I switched to 1.5 lbs. per week, but couldn't do that for long either, so I'm at 1 lb. per week now. I can eat 1610 calories per day, which is doable, and I will eat back all my exercise calories, so it's usually between 2000-2200 caloriesthat I'm eating daily.

From what I read on here, the body has to have enough fat reserves to draw from for the high deficits--1000 calories per day (and more). I had wanted to stay at 2 lbs. per week until I hit 200 but my calorie allotment dropped to 1200 (as I lost more weight) and I am just too active to subsist on 1200 calories, even eating back exercise calories.

The important thing for me (which may be for you too) was getting a good amount of weight off quickly so 1) I would improve my cholesterol and blood sugar (I was getting close to pre-diabetic)--I haven't had my bloodwork redone since I lost the 37 lbs. but I have heard that even as little as 20 lbs. can have a big effect on it for many people. 2) I wanted to be able to be more active. I was having trouble with my knees, going up AND down stairs and lacked energy at 237. I have been physically active for most of my life (up until the last 6 years and the 60 lbs. I gained) so I just wanted to get down to a weight at which I could get back to more strenuous physical activity. At 199 I can do so much I could not at 237. It will take me another 25-30 lbs. to get to my "normal" but I would recommend if you can do it, trying to lose at least 40-50 of your lbs. at 2 lbs. per week so that you can feel those results and make use of the smaller body to be more physically active--so when you do have to reduce the goal to 1 lb. a week you'll be able to work out more and build up stamina.