Where does “slow down as you approach your target weight” come from?

cwolfman13

I think it's just a generality that comes stems from anecdotal and observational experiences...and some common sense. It's kind of like drink 8x8 ounces of water per day...or try to get in 10K steps per day. On a broad population level, these are all good recommendations but context has to be applied at the individual level. For example, 8x8oz of water per day is probably a good starting point for hydration...but individually, I need more than that to properly hydrate because I'm active, I sweat a lot, and live in the desert at over a mile high in elevation. 10K steps is a pretty good baseline for activity...but it wasn't remotely necessary for me to try to achieve that back when I was cycling over 100 miles per week and heavily engaged in non-step based activity...now it's pretty much my daily bread and butter.

For the "last 10 Lbs" thing and slowing down, I think there might be a general assumption that those last 10 Lbs are on someone already pretty lean and at a healthy BMI and trying to get even leaner...observationally, this happens a lot on here. For myself, I never changed the size of my deficit and kept it at 1 Lb per week...my last 10 Lbs was from 190-180 and took me from around 20% BF to 15% BF so I felt it perfectly safe and fine to keep it at 1 Lb per week, though it did slow down on it's own towards the end.

At one point I ultimately did cut down from 15% to around 12% and in that case I did keep my deficit very small at around 1/2 Lb per week because I had been working very hard in the weight room and I didn't feel that I really had the fat stores to lose faster without erasing some of the physique I had built up...also trying for a larger deficit was pretty miserable as this seemed to be the point where my body really started fighting me hormonally.

lynn_glenmont

Edintokyo wrote: »

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Edintokyo wrote: »

sollyn23l2 wrote: »

Edintokyo wrote: »

ddsb1111 wrote: »

For me personally, and being fairly small in stature, if I lost 2lbs a week I would have to cut out 1000 calories a day and I only burn 1600 calories a day.

I never advocated that you should try to lose two pounds a week. I asked a question.

Does it really matter what anyone else thinks? You've come to your own conclusion, which is fine. I think people got riled up at the way you communicated the conclusion you've come to. Of course you can lose weight as fast as your body will do it. Does that mean it's a good idea? Not really. The people who give that advice have a lot of experience with weight loss in a variety of ways. And their overarching message is "hey, going too fast, especially when trying to lose the last few pounds, probably isn't a great idea." You personally can choose to try and lose weight as fast or slow as you are able.

No, it does not really matter to me what anyone else thinks. Apparently, however, what I think mattered enough to you to let me know your thoughts on the subject.

Once again… I do not practice nor do I advocate for high-speed weight loss. I merely asked a question about the origins of a specific piece of advice being put forth here. I have come to no conclusion about whether the advice is right or wrong.

This discussion seems more appropriate to the debate section. Maybe you could flag your original post and ask the moderators to move it.

Do what you like. I simply asked a question. It is rather telling that it turned into a debate.

I'm not saying I'm going to do it. I suggested you, as the OP, do it, which is a common practice in these forums when a thread is started in a section it doesn't align well with or when someone mistakenly creates multiple identical OPs.

Your original question, which seeks views on where a particular piece of advice comes from and evidence to back that up, is exactly the kind of OPs that the debate section is filled with. In the health and weight loss section, people are typically looking for advice on their own health and weight loss.

lynn_glenmont

Whoops - I was pointing out an apparent misquote of another poster by the OP, but it looks like he corrected it himself further down, and was attributing his own comments to someone else.

So, never mind.