Looking to lose 10-15 pounds a month

By the way, I'm 5'6 and my doctor told me I should be around 145(i think). I told her I was to get down to at least 200, but she said her goal weight for me is 180.

"Overview (why I'm posting this)
Over the course of about 7 months on here, I have seen many people succeed, I have also seen some drop off the map. I expect this is because some succumb to the demon that is temptation, and some to the devil that is disappointing. I wanted to give a few "heads up"s to both new comers and veterans to the site. Some may know already, some may not. But either way, if this helps anyone to set more realistic goals in their own head, I feel like it has done it's job.

Phase 1. The start of a brand new day! (or week, or month, or year)
Expectations are sky high, usually so is motivation and intentions. This is where most people lose the most weight. At the start it's not uncommon to see 4 to 8 lb losses per week. The reasons for this are mostly (sorry to disappoint) water weight. You drop excess water quickly, and you can have up to 5 lbs of water weight. The next biggest reason is the fat that is right next to the blood vessels, the stuff that you put on in the last month or three, it will melt like butter usually.

Phase 2. Reality setting in.
At about week 3 to a month or so, people suddenly realize that they are no longer dropping 8, 6, or even 4 lbs a week. This is a crucial phase in your journey. Expect this, it is natural. You have shocked your body by changing both eating habits and exercise routine. Now it has had a little while to become used to the new lifestyle, it's going to compensate. Your body still doesn't believe it's permanent yet, so it will still try to store some fat, so now that it knows how to regulate it's new metabolic levels, it tries to store fat in earnest. It's not uncommon for people to hit a wall here, no loss for weeks. Expect this as well.

Phase 3. The routine.
At about 2 months or so, your routine is pretty much set, your body is beginning to believe that you really want to STAY the way you are going now. You will start to see more consistent (but lower, usually 1 to 2 lbs a week) loss, also, you should start seeing some muscle tone (depending on how much you had to lose in the first place). If you stop to think, you should realize that you have improved dramatically in your exercise levels. If you do cardio, you should notice how much longer and harder you can work. This is important to realize as it is just as big of an indicator as weight loss. Also, by now you may notice that your clothes no longer fit right. This is also very important. The weight may not be falling off anymore, but you are becoming a smaller person. Weight is arbitrary, if you are building muscle (which your body is doing at a furious pace by now) you won't notice huge losses, but you will notice wholesale changes in the mirror!

Phase 4. Really digging in.
This is where the second wall can happen. You're probably at between 3 and 4 months by now, and if you have gone this far, you feel like you have already succeeded. This is where many people stumble. they are tired of the routine, tired of eating different things from all their friends, limiting their alcohol intake. Basically the shine has worn off. this is when your really need to plant your feet. Maybe change up your exercise routine, make a concentrated effort to find different, but still nutritional food. Talk to people. And examine how far you have come. At this point, no matter how much external motivation you receive, it's all about believing in yourself!

Phase 5. End game.
5 or 6 months in you are probably working on that "last 10 pounds". This can be discouraging for many as it is a slow burn. Remember, your body probably feels like it is where it needs to be, your brain might think you need to lose 10 more, but your body is quite proud of itself now, it feels like it has "Done enough" and it wants to stay RIGHT HERE. The body LIKES to have a little fat around just in case, especially for the ladies (sorry girls, it's just human physiology). If you feel like you still need to lose it, prepare yourself for some guerrila warfare against your body. Design an exercise regimen that is very dynamic, forget the "same thing every day". Make a plan that challenges you both physically and mentally. Make sure you give yourself a day off here and there to just veg. And by all means, remember, muscle burns fat at rest. So get some weight or resistance training involved.
The last 10 may take 3 to 6 months to lose. I know nobody wants to hear that, but it's true. And forget the idea of increasing your calorie deficit, healthy bodies need good nutrition, your body no longer has the fat reserves to handle the large deficits you could when you were 30 40 or 50 pounds overweight. Better to make it a 3 or 400 calorie deficit (NET, please count your exercise calories too!). It may take a bit longer, but your body will like you for it. Plus it feeds those new muscles and keeps them burning fat, keeps your skin healthy (elasticity is important when you want those places that were stretched out to "snap back") and keeps you from getting head aches and depressed.

Conclusion:

This is what I have learned, not just from my journey, but from others as well on here. It saddens me sometimes to see people hit one of these stages and not recognize it for what it is, a part of the process. If we all can have realistic expectations, then we are more prone to win the fight and stay healthy in the long run. Note that some people will hit these stages harder then others, some may take longer, but for the most part, this is the rule that the exceptions will come from."

If you set up your diet and exercise plan to get you to lose 1-2 pounds per week, yes, you will lose more quickly in the beginning because you started out with more weight to lose and your body is jump-started by the sudden change in lifestyle.

Eventually, with that set-up, your body gets used to the new calorie intake and expenditures, and it levels out to a 1-2 pounds per week weight loss. This is considered healthy because it puts the least amount of stress on your body- your liver and your kidneys and your heart.

As you lose weight, your fat cells are shrinking. The only way they ever disappear is with lipo- otherwise they are always there, waiting to be refilled if you go back to unhealthy eating habits. As your body rids itself of fat, it's converting the fat into energy and using it. This process of converting fat to energy produces harmful byproducts that your liver and kidneys filter out of your body. This is why it's so important for people to drink plenty of water -just water- when trying to lose weight. Losing more than 1-2 pounds per week puts more stress on your kidneys, can raise your blood pressure, and can hurt your heart- all the things you're trying to avoid by beating your diagnosis of pre-diabetes.

Your A1c trends are great and show that your hard work is paying off. Other blood work values that will be checked will tell your doctor if you're losing weight at a healthy rate: BUN, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance. These tests show how much stress your kidneys are under. All three values show how well your kidneys are filtering your blood by showing what doesn't get filtered out. Urea and creatinine will build up in your blood if your kidneys are under stress from having to filter out too much waste from your blood if you lose to quickly.

Getting a diagnosis of pre-diabetes is scary, and it's understandable that you'd want to kick it into high gear and get rid of the weight as quickly as possible. But shedding the weight too quickly causes more problems than saggy skin, and some of the problems are the same problems diabetes carries, that you're trying to avoid.

Thank you. I understand that a lot better than negativity.

As you lose weight, your fat cells are shrinking. The only way they ever disappear is with lipo- otherwise they are always there, waiting to be refilled if you go back to unhealthy eating habits.

I have never heard of this... Do you have any medical research to site? I would be interested to read it if you do.

If you set up your diet and exercise plan to get you to lose 1-2 pounds per week, yes, you will lose more quickly in the beginning because you started out with more weight to lose and your body is jump-started by the sudden change in lifestyle.

Eventually, with that set-up, your body gets used to the new calorie intake and expenditures, and it levels out to a 1-2 pounds per week weight loss. This is considered healthy because it puts the least amount of stress on your body- your liver and your kidneys and your heart.

As you lose weight, your fat cells are shrinking. The only way they ever disappear is with lipo- otherwise they are always there, waiting to be refilled if you go back to unhealthy eating habits. As your body rids itself of fat, it's converting the fat into energy and using it. This process of converting fat to energy produces harmful byproducts that your liver and kidneys filter out of your body. This is why it's so important for people to drink plenty of water -just water- when trying to lose weight. Losing more than 1-2 pounds per week puts more stress on your kidneys, can raise your blood pressure, and can hurt your heart- all the things you're trying to avoid by beating your diagnosis of pre-diabetes.

Your A1c trends are great and show that your hard work is paying off. Other blood work values that will be checked will tell your doctor if you're losing weight at a healthy rate: BUN, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance. These tests show how much stress your kidneys are under. All three values show how well your kidneys are filtering your blood by showing what doesn't get filtered out. Urea and creatinine will build up in your blood if your kidneys are under stress from having to filter out too much waste from your blood if you lose to quickly.

Getting a diagnosis of pre-diabetes is scary, and it's understandable that you'd want to kick it into high gear and get rid of the weight as quickly as possible. But shedding the weight too quickly causes more problems than saggy skin, and some of the problems are the same problems diabetes carries, that you're trying to avoid.

Thank you. I understand that a lot better than negativity.

You're welcome! Everyone's here for support. Funny how some folks who've been there before forget so quickly what it's like to be at square one and get nasty about it.

As you lose weight, your fat cells are shrinking. The only way they ever disappear is with lipo- otherwise they are always there, waiting to be refilled if you go back to unhealthy eating habits.

"No matter how much physical activity you do, adipocytes never shrink so much that they disappear entirely. Like a balloon that you let all the air out of, you’re always left with some remnant. The only way to totally remove adipocytes from your body is with a surgical procedure such as liposuction or excision."