Why is it bad to lose more than two pounds a week?

PattyTheUndefeated

I guess I'll be more specific and ask what are the ill effects on your body? I mean, if you're eating all or most of your calories, and exercising, is it really an issue if you lose more? I'm not talking starvation here, but good ol' fashion hard work. I've been burning about 0.5 pounds a day because my workouts and daily activities burn off about 1000 calories a day or more, so I'm not sure if I'm doing myself good or harm.

So, is it bad if you go about it the wrong way or is it just bad no matter what you're doing?

Help. Please.

:flowerforyou:

KristyO

Personally I would think that only applies to losing weight the "bad way" - you know, starvation, diet pills, cleansing, stuff like that. I think if you are fueling yourself properly, getting good exercise and eating the majority of your exercise cals (which it sounds like you are) then the only thing I would say is CONGRATS on the lost weight :happy:

Poison5119

IMHO it's just bad to go about it the wrong way.

If you're busting balls and you're not HURTING yourself (that is if you're just doing good workouts and watching your food), then you're doing it right. People with a lot of weight to lose are going to drop lots of weight fast, it's almost unavoidable, no matter what you set your goals to. As you start to approach your goal weight, your losses are going to become smaller - just don't have a cow when that happens!

HealthyKt78

I never understood why every frowned upon it either. I mean as long as you aren't taking diet pills or starving yourself than I see no harm. I know that I can lose weight fast now cause I'm so big. Once I get closer and closer to my goal weight I'm going to be losing less and less.

lessertess

If you are morbidly obese then it is perfectly acceptable to lose more than two pounds in a week. This is because your body can support a large calorie deficit and still get minimum nutritional needs. Also because the negative impact of carrying that much weight is more of a danger than losing it at a faster pace.

If you don't have as much weight to lose then your body can not support a calorie deficit large enough to lose that amount of weight safely. Additionally, you'll be losing quantity not quality weight. For that large a deficit you'll lose a larger percentage of lean muscle mass (you lose some no matter what). Less muscle mass means your body needs less calories. To lose that much weight your calorie deficit is so restrictive that you can not maintain. When you start eating normally again, you have less lean muscle mass so it takes less calories than before to maintain and you'll gain wieght on the same amount of calories that would have been maintanence before.

There are number of posts and topics on the internet about the dangers of yo-yo dieting. Research is now showing that it has substantial dangers outside of just weight gain.

T.

and no: diet pills, supplements and vitamins are not good substitutes for proper nutrition.

Simplicity

its only bad because of the way the body burns energy. 2 pounds a week is the max because anymore and your body is burning more muscle than fat which is your working body not fat, including organs. it puts a strain on your body too leaving you tired and weaker. the body can only burn fat at a certain speed but when it is forced to find energy from other places other than food coming in it burns muscle because that is easier to turn into energy than fat.
it is also true that the more weight you have above your comfortable level the easier the weight wil fall off because the body would be used to an excess of calories and the more weight you carry the more energy you exert by doing the same activities as a slimmer person hence more calories burnt. that is to say if the two people were eating the same things and doing the same activities.

try doing all your exercises with 20 books in a backpack on your back and you realise how much the body wants to be lighter lol

Simplicity

ok so lesser tess says it better but thats what i meant lol

SHBoss1673

lessertes hit is pretty solid, for a more in depth (and probably far more confusing) answer, I wrote this up a loooooong time ago, it's still pretty much accurate.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

adopt4

In the beginning I lost 10-12 pounds a month for 3-4 months. And I wasn't overdoing it in any sense of the imagination in the beginning, I would walk on a treadmill SLOW 3x/wk for 30 mins. But I had over 100 pounds to lose, so it was ok for my body at that time.

Once I dropped that weight, and was down the 40 some pounds, then I plateaued because I had really upped my exercise and ended up overtraining. You will probably need to switch back and forth being really hitting it hard for several weeks, then taking an entire week off, to let your body rest and reset. My limit seems to be 3 mos, then I need a week off completely from the gym or I stop losing weight. It's very easy to overtrain, which will not only affect your weight loss but your muscle tone and mass as well.

So if that's what your body is doing, fine, just be sure to (1) keep drinking your water, staying hydrated, and (2) eat nutritionally, so that your body is getting the fuel it needs, especially protein to build those muscles and (3) eat your exercise cals, never let your net calories drop too low, even if you feel like you're eating too much, then have a protein shake or something, your body does actually need the fuel and (4) listen to your body, make sure you ALWAYS take at least 1 day off from the gym a week if you work out a lot, and longer if you do more strenuous stuff. Your body needs that and you'll get the ultimate weight loss and ultimate toning that way.

I also noticed I lost alot when I didn't weight train, but the weight loss would slow down significantly when I did weights. I wasn't building that much muscle, but my body was just doing things differently.

GumbyAnne

This might be completely unfounded, but I worry about my skin not tightening up enough if I lose weight too fast.

Also, I wonder if I am losing too high a proportion of muscle mass when I lose fast. Since I have 3 jobs and often can only get to the gym 0-3 times per week, it is hard to stave this off with extra strength training. Honestly, I have lost 32 pounds now and I am a lot smaller but I feel like I am just as flabby. Is that crazy, do you think?

SHBoss1673

This might be completely unfounded, but I worry about my skin not tightening up enough if I lose weight too fast.

Also, I wonder if I am losing too high a proportion of muscle mass when I lose fast. Since I have 3 jobs and often can only get to the gym 0-3 times per week, it is hard to stave this off with extra strength training. Honestly, I have lost 32 pounds now and I am a lot smaller but I feel like I am just as flabby. Is that crazy, do you think?

These are reasonable things.

Yes, the faster you lose weight, the more excess skin you will have, that's true. Losing weight slower will give your body a chance to slowly shrink the skin to keep up with weight loss. When you lose large volumes, you're GOING to have loose skin for a while, but you drop it really quick, and we could be talking folds of skin. The only way to fix it sometimes (in situations where the loss is very dramatic) is surgery, or to live with it.

As to loss of muscle mass, this is a part of the process, that is why so many of us "grizzled vetrans" of mfp recommend doing resistance or weight training type activity and not just pure cardio every day. A couple of days of some kind of anaerobic muscle building activity mixed in with your cardio days will keep the body thinking anabolism (muscle building), and that will stave off a lot of the muscle loss. Course you create too big of a deficit, you're going to start canabalizing muscle and lean tissue no matter how much you work out.