Confused about healthy weight loss rate (BMR and losing more than 1 lb a week)

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    Ducks47 wrote: »
    MikePTY wrote: »
    The "don't eat below your BMR" advice is really just a general guide to help people avoid having too big a deficit. BMR is just a number, I wouldn't follow it as gospel.

    Your acceptable weight of loss really has more to do with the amount of weight your are trying to lose. What is your current weight and your goal weight?
    apullum wrote: »
    How much are you trying to lose? 1 pound per week may or may not be appropriate for you.

    Hi, that’s a good point. My current goal is to lose 20 pounds to go from 171 to 150 pounds. I am 170 cm (5 foot 7 inches), female, young, and 171 lbs (77.5 kg). I am trying to lose 1.5 lbs a week.

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  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    takemetosingapore2019 wrote: »
    I think if you’re eating a reasonable deficit it doesn’t matter how fast you lose since you’re doing it the healthy way. Some people lose 3-5lb a week for a month or two when they start and I think that’s fine. If they’re not cutting to 800-1200 calories or some other low number inappropriate for THEM and making sure to stay hydrated then there is no harm. Some people carry more water and therefore have more water weight loss in the beginning of their diet change. Not to mention that some people lose fat more easily than others due to genetics. I’m 5’10” low-middle of the healthy BMI range and have been on the super low end before. When I lost weight eating slightly less and not tracking I lost 3lb every week for 2 months to lose 24 lbs. This was a year ago. Now I’m in maintenance and have been all year. I didn’t lose muscle or bone mass, I have had those measurements taken in a lab out of curiosity. I think the amount of healthy weight loss is relative based on so many environmental and genetic factors that it’s hard to say 1-2 lb a week is the max healthy loss. Lots of obese people lose 5-7lb a week in a healthy manner. I think the literature needs to be updated to reflect this.

    2 months is not enough data. It can take nearly that long to even establish a rate of loss in a woman and that is not even guaranteed to be accurate if it includes a larger than normal water weight loss.

    You shouldn't claim to know what will cause harm and not based on your very limited experiment. It is very possible you lost some fat at an aggressive pace but even then there is a difference between being aggressive for 2 months and being aggressive for much much longer. Your body can handle things in short term that it cannot in a longer duration.

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