When someone says they lose at a slow rate what does that mean?

jenniferanderson3888

Can you please give me some examples of what you lose a week or a couple of weeks if you are a slow loser? For example does it take you two weeks to lose a pound?

psuLemon

1/2 per week is generally slow.
1 lbs is moderate
2 lbs is fast.

Outside of water weight of course

MikePTY

The term doesn't really have any meaning. It's up to the individual who calls themselves that. Most time, it's just a way to express frustration with not making as much progress as they hoped. A lot of times, so called "slow losers" are losing at a perfectly normal pace.

melissafeagins

I lose anywhere from .5 to 1 pound a week now (mid 160s). When I weighed 235, I lost at 3lbs a week.
A lot of factors influence that. However, I think the biggest one is that I only have 10-15 pounds left to lose.

shadow2soul

I’m currently losing approximately 0.37lbs per week. It takes almost 3 weeks for me to lose 1lb. Sometimes it takes a month to lose 1lb, but I am at a healthy weight for my height and just aiming to cut a bit of fat for vanity reasons so my deficit is small or nonexistent sometimes.

estherdragonbat

In my case, it means I chose a slower rate (i.e. less aggressive deficit). I was about 115lbs over my healthy weight range when I started and could have safely elected to run a 1,000-calorie deficit for 2lbs/week loss. I set it to 1lb/week, ate more, lost more slowly, but with a lot less stress, misery, hunger, etc.

I'm in the last 10 now and set for 1/2lb per week. And this is the easiest weight loss (in terms of lack of misery/hunger) I've ever had.

lin_be

When I was 225-170 I lost 2 lbs a week. Now at 160 I’m lucky to hit .5 lbs a week. I simply cannot sustain the steep calorie deficit to lose faster than that.

whmscll

I lose .2 to .5 a week. I’m only 10 pounds from goal.

kimny72

I think it's also relative to how much weight someone has to lose. Someone with 100 lbs to lose might consider 1 or even 1.5lbs per week slow, while someone who is trying to lose 10 vanity lbs might mean 1 lb per month.

Then you have to consider people's expectations. Someone whose info is coming from Biggest Loser and fad diet blogs come here upset they are losing slow when they're losing 2-3 lbs per week.

sardelsa

It really depends on the person, as well as their stats. For example, slow for me would be 0.25lb per week. Normal would be 0.5lb per week, fast would be 0.75-1lb per week. That is for me since I am usually no more than 15lbs from goal.

klrenn

I lose at just over a pound a month, but that’s with a starting weight that was only 15lbs above goal weight. While I’d like it to be 2lbs per month, I’m not willing to cut that many calories.

Gets a bit frustrating with daily fluctuations masking such a slow loss, but the numbers don’t lie and the trend downward is there.

apullum

One should expect slow weight loss when they have a small deficit. Some people may intentionally create a small deficit because they want to lose slowly, or because they understand that they don't have enough to lose to sustain a large deficit. Unintentional reasons for having a small deficit usually involve inaccurate food/exercise logging. People can also believe that they're losing weight slowly when they don't have much to lose and therefore cannot safely create a large deficit, yet they expect faster weight loss.

Another reason for slow weight loss is water fluctuation, constipation, or other reasons for body weight change that are not related to losing fat. These changes can happen much more suddenly than fat loss, and so they may "mask" fat loss on the scale.

PAV8888

The 72.5 lbs at 1.394lbs per week were a fast loss! Almost too fast for my little brain hamsters during MFP year 1.

The 11.1lbs @ 0.21lbs a week were a slow loss. But the hamsters had a good MFP year 2!

The fact that the above are staying lost? Happy hamster times halfway into MFP year 4!

lkpducky

apullum wrote: »

One should expect slow weight loss when they have a small deficit. Some people may intentionally create a small deficit because they want to lose slowly, or because they understand that they don't have enough to lose to sustain a large deficit. Unintentional reasons for having a small deficit usually involve inaccurate food/exercise logging. People can also believe that they're losing weight slowly when they don't have much to lose and therefore cannot safely create a large deficit, yet they expect faster weight loss.

Another reason for slow weight loss is water fluctuation, constipation, or other reasons for body weight change that are not related to losing fat. These changes can happen much more suddenly than fat loss, and so they may "mask" fat loss on the scale.

I want to lose slowly to minimize the chances that the loss is muscle. I've got 8 pounds to go and am losing 0.3-0.5 lb/week.

New_Heavens_Earth

I want to lose weight slowly for my sanity. Less dramatic swings on the scale, more time establishing healthy habits. Not rushing myself means I'm less likey to do things that are unhealthy or just plain stupid