Calories: Are you going for 1 pound a week or 2?

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JustBreathe
JustBreathe Posts: 25
in Health and Weight Loss
Curious to see whether other people are doing the recommended 1 pound a week option, or going for one of the other options, and how it's working for you. There seems to be a lot of discussion about whether or not to eat exercise calories but I don't see any discussions on the daily calorie allotment BEFORE exercise.

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  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
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    I checked 2 lbs and I think I'm supposed to lose like, 1.8 lbs but I have an analog scale so I can only tell when it's a full pound I've lost. I'm usually losing 1 lb per week except this last week, I've been retaining water - boo.
  • Jovialation
    Jovialation Posts: 7,632 Member
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    I change my goals up depending on how well Ive been doing the past month. If Ive been exercising more, I change my goals to reflect it and up my loss goal to 1.5 pounds/week. If Ive been lazy I change my goals to reflect it and put it back down to a loss goal of a pound per week
  • faithstephenson
    faithstephenson Posts: 280 Member
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    When I started, I had 150 pounds to lose, so I chose 2 pounds/week option. By the time I am down to only 50 pounds left to lose, I plan on going down to 1 pound/week. I find that if I take it slowly (rather than looking for large weight loss every week) I am more likely to stick with it long term.
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Just 1 lb/week here. I really think that 2 lbs/week is quite a lot for those with less than, say, 50-60 lbs to lose. I just think that 1000 calories/day is a pretty huge deficit to create unless you have a really active lifestyle or are quite overweight. (I tried .5 lbs/week because I wanted to take things really slow, but that might have been too small of an amount for me to really deal with on a weekly basis. I felt like I was getting nowhere when I saw even minor fluctuations upward on the scale.)
  • ron2282
    ron2282 Posts: 2,772 Member
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    I checked 1 pound a week. I'm losing anywhere from 1/2 a pound to 2 pounds a week. I do notice that if I lose anymore than 1 pound a week, I will only lose 1/2 a pound for the next couple weigh in's.
  • JustBreathe
    JustBreathe Posts: 25
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    Thanks, guys, these are really helpful responses. I have a LOT to lose, and am pretty sedentary as I begin this journey, so sounds like the 2 pounds would be best for me now, and move down to the 1 pound when I get closer. Very good advice.
  • jerren
    jerren Posts: 196
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    I had mine marked for 2 but would never actually lose 2 pounds. I was doing more like 1 to 1.5 lbs a week. This really didn't bother me because I tried to keep a positive mindset and say well at least i'm not gaining. But the continued "failure" began to weigh heavily on me so I decided in order to keep a "successful state of mind" i dropped it down to 1.5lbs a week. I did this for a few weeks until I felt I could be responsible enough to actually not over eat. So now I'm back to 2 lbs a week goal again. I would guess i'll probably go back and forth like this.
  • Granny2b
    Granny2b Posts: 91
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    I chose to have the option of loseing 2 pounds per week, but iv actually been loseing a lot more than that. I may have to chose the 1 pound per week option because i think i am loseing too much weight too quickly.
  • catfan
    catfan Posts: 90 Member
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    I had mine marked for 2 but would never actually lose 2 pounds. I was doing more like 1 to 1.5 lbs a week. This really didn't bother me because I tried to keep a positive mindset and say well at least i'm not gaining. But the continued "failure" began to weigh heavily on me so I decided in order to keep a "successful state of mind" i dropped it down to 1.5lbs a week. I did this for a few weeks until I felt I could be responsible enough to actually not over eat. So now I'm back to 2 lbs a week goal again. I would guess i'll probably go back and forth like this.

    This is exactly what I have been going through so I am going to drop my goal down for right now...Thanks for your comment--it seems so simple, not sure why I hadnt thought of this myself:noway:
  • courtney_love2001
    courtney_love2001 Posts: 1,468 Member
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    When I first started I checked 2 lbs. a week and it worked for quite awhile. From the very beginning it had me set at 1200 cals a day. As I have gotten closer to goal, I've increased my cals to 1500 and I think it's set for 1 lb. a week. That doesn't happen haha, I'm lucky to lose a pound a month at this point! But, I'm okay with that because I am happy with my body now. Thanks MFP! :)
  • JustBreathe
    JustBreathe Posts: 25
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    I guess that's one thing I was wondering-- since it's going to take me a couple years to get to goal (like I said, I have a lot to lose), will I be shooting myself in the foot to have my body get used to the lower range of calories right off the bat, or will weight loss be faster long term to start out at the 1900 calories they gave me and just gradually take it down? It's a mystery. : )
  • 90066
    90066 Posts: 24
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    I checked two per week, so even if I'm 500 calories over some days that still keeps me in one per week range. In reality I've been averaging 1.7 pounds a week. This stuff is frighteningly accurate.

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