Is it true?

jazzy020106

That the slower you lose weight, the easier it is to keep it off??

MissAnjy

yes, because it's a lifestyle change as opposed to a crash diet.

jazzy020106

so, do you think 5 lbs a month is considered a crash diet.. or do you think that is good goal amount per month?

nancywarren

I've gone on a few fad diets that promise fast weight loss, but my weight ALWAYS bounced right back up. The only times I have lost weight and kept it off for years (after both my kids) it came from counting calories and exercising...and that takes time!

Amarillo_NDN

you ask any one who did a diet and 95% of them will tell you how much weight they lost fast, but not all of them will tell you how fast they gained it back and even some extra.

No diet is good, only thing that works is to change your way of living and eating and being active. If you can't change your life to do that, what stops you from going back to the old ways that caused you to gain weight to start with.

bmr5770

That's about a pound/week which, from what I've read, is a healthy amount to lose in that time frame.

DrBorkBork

1-2 lbs per week is a great (and safe) rate to lose weight

bjralls

I don't know how everyone else feels but I think 5 lbs a month is reasonable. That would be a little over a lb a week and I've always been told to aim for 1-2 per week.

melizerd

If you plan for 1-2 lbs a week that's a good weight loss goal (of course it depends on how much you have to lose too). I have quite a bit to lose so I found the first couple of weeks I lost 5 or 6lbs a week but it slowed down after that and my average weight loss is still 1.8lbs a week overall. So losing more than 2lbs one or two weeks isn't a big deal as long as you're changing your lifestyle and eating habits.

atotal180

Medically, the recommendation is not to lose more than 1-2lbs a week. So shooting for 5lbs a month is a good goal. You may go over the 1-2lbs a month depending where you are at your starting point. A person weighing 300lbs who really goes after it the first week could lose anywhere from 5-10% of their weight and then they will eventually lose weight at a gradual pace. The big drop in weight initially for anyone will be the decreased salt intake and the release of excess water from the body. I hope this helps you.

KimSchnizleinWECHANGED

Absolutely!! The crash diets and the pills are a solution for the weight ... But not a solution for the cause. If you have decided to change the way you look at food, it will take longer to reach the goal, but you are twice as likely to keep it off (that actually is a real statistic). It's not JUST about the food that enters your mouth ... It's the thought and planning that you put into the decision to put food into your mouth. I don't mean that you consider each and every bite, but if you have come to MFP to incur a Life Change ... That piece of cake or candy ... Or those french fries and fast food burger ... Might just seem not worth all the havoc they'll cause in your long range plans. That's not to say that you won't or shouldn't eat another bite of sugar, carbs, or fast food ... But I'll bet you really consider that food before it enters your mouth!

rml_16

It's a reasonable and healthy amount of weight to lose in a month.

But I advise against having a specific goal to lose a specific amount of weight in a specific amount of time because no matter how perfect you are following your diet, you can't control the scale.

My advice is focus on working the program the best you can. The weight will come off. It possibly will come off as fast (or faster) as you want, but it might not. Don't set yourself up for disappointment that could make you quit.

bsexton3

MFP has a great article on this under their technical support forum. It is one of the must read articles about weight lose.

In short, they answered it that if you lose more than 2 pounds a week, you are losing more muscle than fat. And, muscle actually burns calories higher than muscle. So, slow losing helps keep muscle and lose fat.

Second, losing weight fast may work for the time, but as soon as the weight is off, people go back to poor eating decisions. Learning to count calories and make calories count is a lifestyle. Losing slowly helps build this new lifestyle.

Third, most quick diets help lose the water and not the fat. So you lose a lot at the beginning, but it doesn't stay off.

Finally, in my view, this is not a diet, it is a lifestyle change. I no longer let food control me. I choose how I want to live. My life is cycling, eating healthy food, enjoying my family.

christina1109

It is a good, safe rate to lose the weight at. If you think that seeing only a pound or two gone a week will drive you crazy when you look at the scale, you could start weighing yourself monthly.

SHBoss1673

Kim come closest to my thoughts.

This is a far more complex topic than people think.

My thinking boils down to this, its not about how much weight you lose, or how fast you lose it. It's about your nutritional habits, lifestyle, and underlying emotional state.

What does this mean? Well, short answer is, basically if you try to drastically change how you eat in order to lose weight, that's all you're doing, and once you reach that goal, old habits come back and eventually, usually win out. But if you don't focus on the weight and instead focus on your health, changing not so much how many calories you eat (although you should be aware of calories eaten, for sure) but on how you prepare, think of, and use food, then you can become healthy for life.

lotusfromthemud

This is a far more complex topic than people think.

My thinking boils down to this, its not about how much weight you lose, or how fast you lose it. It's about your nutritional habits, lifestyle, and underlying emotional state.

Preach it, brother. That's it exactly.