Is it possible to lose a pound a day while staying healthy?

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  • rbiss
    rbiss Posts: 422 Member
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    Short answer is no. It's a very bad idea to try to eat 1400 calories and exercise. For example, I am about 300lbs, spend 1 hour per day on cardio and eat a NET of 1200, but total it is closer to 2300 -2500 depending on how much i need to replace. My calculated weight loss/week is 2.5 pounds and that is very fast. I think last week I lost 3, but at that rate it will be very hard to maintain any muscle unless I start lifting as well. I feel like I am walking the line, so 1 lb a day would be very unhealthy.

    You might be interested in a long term juice fast like the one Joe Cross promotes, but it would have to be nothing but juice for a prolonged period of time. This is dangerous and probably shouldn't be done unless your health risks outweight the risks of the diet.

    Long term is the best bet. It comes off, but you need good food to fuel the body. I saw a lady at the gym this week who looked amazing and I had trouble recognizing it was the same person. I haven't seen her in about 2 years and she just watched her calories and went to the gym everyday for a reasonable amount of time. She is my inspiration.
  • Megabot
    Megabot Posts: 173 Member
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    also 5'10" and want to be 130 pounds? That's the very low range of normal BMI, bordering on underweight for that height. Try to get to 180, then 170, then 160 first, and see how you feel then.

    At my best shape, I was 5'7" and ~140-145...and I looked and felt fantastic. Like, wear a bikini no problem fantastic.
  • Fullsterkur_woman
    Fullsterkur_woman Posts: 2,712 Member
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    :noway: Damn... I don't want to die :frown:
    An excellent place to start! And since you're not dead at 190, why don't you try shooting for losing a pound a *week* instead of a pound a day? It's sustainable for most people.
  • samaras
    samaras Posts: 1 Member
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    My physician advised a goal of no more than 2 pounds per week as a general rule. Loss faster than that will result in loose skin, fatigue, and quick regain if you go off diet. You should not drop calories below 1200. Eating five times a day with in your calorie limit was advised to me. (This means healthy foods). It takes a reduction of 3500 calories to equal one pound of weight loss. Generally your body needs 2000 calories a day, so if you have reduced 600 (you said 1400 was your goal) multiply that by 7 days and boom you have a pound of loss. NOW, exercise to burn 500 calories a day and Boom boom, another pound in the same week. I hope this helps. :-) I have lost 40 pounds and kept it off for 5+ years. Knowledge is power, keeping a food diary is a great start. Read everything you can get your hands on and don't let people discourage you!!!!
  • HerbertNenenger
    HerbertNenenger Posts: 453 Member
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    it MIGHT be possible, although a miracle, to lose a pound a day. Healthfully? Absolutely not.
  • yungibear
    yungibear Posts: 138 Member
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    One way I like to think about weight loss is this:

    It took me about 10-15 years to get to the weight I am now. If it'll take me 1-2 years to clean up my act to lose that weight and learn a new lifestyle -- and make it sustainable, I think it's a total deal to be able to lose what I did to myself in this amount of time!

    It's all about perspective.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Okay, so we've established that you're not going to lose a pound a day, and that's okay. Since you want to lose 60 pounds, you can safely and easily, without making yourself miserable, lose 1 to 1.5 pounds a week, which would get you almost to your goal by Christmas. You should make it your goal to rock an amazing dress, and an amazing new body, by New Year's Eve.

    You said you have four days off, right? Instead of killing yourself with cardio over those four days, here's what you should do:

    - Read the Sexypants link, many times
    - Get MFP set up so that it gives you a reasonable caloric deficit. Set it to lose 1 or 1.5 pounds per week
    - DON'T go overboard restricting your food! Get in the habit of logging everything, eat things you like, and get as close to MFP's suggested intake as you can. (Under is not better.)
    - Do some kind of exercise each day, because you have the time off, but don't overdo it! If you want to do cardio, fine, but you cannot spend all day on a treadmill like a hamster. Do a half hour, maybe an hour if it feels good. Then go and do something you enjoy. If you don't have access to a gym or cardio machines, just go outside and take a walk.
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    All I have to say is I tried the x many pounds thing and felt unhappy. Then I found the lifting weight thing and many people here find it's the best way to trim, if that's what you're worried about.
  • nanadayana
    nanadayana Posts: 14
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    If I am eating 1,400 calories a day (Healthy foods to) but exercise a lot is it possible? I wouldn't be exercising with extreme intensity but if I devoted a large portion of my day exercising (and I will not be wasting my time I have nothing to do, I have a 4 day break) can I lose a pound a day while still being healthy?

    Stats: I am female, 5"10, 190lbs
    I've started on last January with the same weight as yours.

    First thing that you have to do is find out how much calorie intake you need per day (TDEE). You can google for TDEE or BMR calculator online. Once you've get the figure, work from there to estimate how much you can eat/have to burn for you to lose a certain amount of weight per week/month. Eat whatever you want (but if you choose to eat healthy, good decision!) and for exercise, I'll say never push yourself too hard. Do it slowly.

    That is the one and only rule for weight loss. As long as you eat less than your TDEE, than you'll definitely lose it sooner or later. I'm doing the same thing and in fact I eat all type of food that I love and I rarely do any exercise other than cleaning and walking from my office building to the car park. The most important thing is, be patient and keep going.

    Good luck!
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    NO.
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
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    Not likely. There are some evil ways you can lose a lb a day short term. But they are ALL bad for your overall health and they all tend to come back. If you don't give your body time to adapt slowly it will snap back. Think of it like an elastic band. If you shock it quickly it will just pull tight but if you slowly stretch it over a long time it will adapt and become looser. It isn't just a matter of starving the system of energy you need to make fundamental changes to your metabolism to achieve lasting weight loss. And those take time .. period.
  • chelstakencharge
    chelstakencharge Posts: 1,021 Member
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    short answer: NO
  • MBrothers22
    MBrothers22 Posts: 323 Member
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    A true pound per day isn't going to happen. My last 30 days I have been losing about .533 pounds per day and THAT is a lot. Rounds to 3.7 pounds per week. Now I'm a large man so that's easier for me, 323 and 6 foot 2. I'm not starving my self either, about 2100-2200 calories per day.
    Being a 190 pound female, it just isn't going to happen
  • MrGonzo05
    MrGonzo05 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    You'll lose a fair amount of lean mass with this approach, and you'll feel fatigued even if you manage to sustain it.
  • kdeaux1959
    kdeaux1959 Posts: 2,675 Member
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    No. Not in the long run. Losing more than 1-2 lbs per week means you are losing a larger than necessary amount of lean mass (which will mess with your metabolism)... Slower is better... Now, if you are talking 4 pounds total over 4 days? It is possible-- as one said, it may be mostly water weight, but you could do it. If it is 40 pounds over 40 days, that is a different story... not healthy at all.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Probably going to get hell for saying this so I am going to first say that no, you should not approach weight loss like that.

    As to can you lose that much weight that fast while having good energy and not suffering at the end. Well, I did a 180 mile backpacking trip where I ate as much as I could reasonably carry for 14 days of travel in backcountry which amounted to 2500 calorie intake a day. My estimated TDEE was about 5000 so I was running a net -2500 daily loss roughly. The result was at the end of the trip I had lost 10 pounds although there was an immediate water rebound of about 3 pounds. Knowing what I was signing in for I had myself bodyfat tested before and after and my bodyfat loss matched exactly with my weight loss so I hadn't seemed to lose any significant lean mass during this time. That was 7 pounds in 14 days so a bit close to that and I honestly felt great. High energy, very high endurance. That is 0.5 pound a day which isn't 1 pound a day but its close.

    I didn't do that to crash diet though, it just is what happens when you go on a long distance pack. Over time I put the weight back on of course. I do NOT think this is a good approach to weight loss for the purpose of weight loss though so I must stress that but I have to say from personal experience I don't think its utterly impossible.
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    One way I like to think about weight loss is this:

    It took me about 10-15 years to get to the weight I am now. If it'll take me 1-2 years to clean up my act to lose that weight and learn a new lifestyle -- and make it sustainable, I think it's a total deal to be able to lose what I did to myself in this amount of time!

    It's all about perspective.

    Great way to think about it .. nice one.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    Look, here is the thing. If you have a lot of weight to lose its because you have habits in your lifestyle that make or allow you to eat regularly at a suprlus of calories. If you want to lose weight and remain healthy and keep the weight off you need to change those behaviors. That takes time and repetition and discipline. A sustainable weightloss program where you take years to lose the weight will get you those sustainable behaviors, a crash diet where you burn yourself as hard as you can for a couple of weeks will not. It is a futile effort.
  • geebusuk
    geebusuk Posts: 3,348 Member
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    For you yes. For some, quite possibly most people.

    But don't presume what will work for you will work for a random person.

    Plenty of people go for the slow and steady to find they get tired of it and so on.

    Of course, not suggesting going for the massive deficit the OP asked about is sensible.
  • troybsmith
    troybsmith Posts: 1
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    YES!!!

    It is possible, as I am currently doing it. I started by modifying my diet… no sugar, high protein, low carb, low fat. I have started exercising, although not regularly yet, because of the muscle soreness.

    I started on August 17th, 2014, and my goal is to lose 90 pounds (1 pound per day for 90 days). I am on track as of today, September 4th, 2014, with a total weight loss of 20 lbs thus far.

    I am a male. Starting weight 320 lbs. Height 6'2". Build = large, muscles, and fat (that's the part I'm trying to get rid of) :)

    Current weight 300 lbs. and counting...

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