How Much, How Fast?

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ProTFitness
ProTFitness Posts: 1,379 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Ask Jillian Michaels
How Much, How Fast?

Q: I love that I have the information I need to lose 2 pounds a week; however, I would like to lose more than that. How can I lose 4 to 5 pounds a week? I have a total of 96 more pounds to lose.


A:
To lose a pound, you must burn 3,500 calories. As I've said before, it's all about the math — how to burn more calories in the most effective way.

You can only do so much resistance training without damaging your muscles and impeding your results. Additionally, you can't starve the weight off: If you eat fewer than 1,200 calories a day, you will sabotage your optimal results. Therefore, cardio is weight loss extra credit. It allows you to burn additional calories without overtraining. This is one of the reasons some Biggest Loser players can still lose 20 pounds a week, even 7 weeks into the program.

Think about the math: If you are eating 1,500 calories a day — we assume your BMR without exercise is 1,600 (this is actually my BMR) — and you do two 1-hour cardio sessions that burn 500 calories each (one in the morning and one at night), the two sessions, along with your regular daily activity, will speed up your base metabolism to at least 2,000. As a result, you will have burned about 1,500 calories that day — that is, almost half a pound. At that rate you will be losing up to 3.5 pounds a week.

That said, you are bound to lose more weight during the first two weeks of any weight loss regimen because of the dramatic change in your diet and the loss of excess fluid. After that, it's all about crunching the numbers, and cardio is the key.

Replies

  • amandalc980
    amandalc980 Posts: 383 Member
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    It takes me 4 to 5 days to lose one pound! This totally makes sense to me and I HATE math! Thanks for the post, good stuff.
  • Steelytop
    Steelytop Posts: 145 Member
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    I've managed to lose 46.2 lbs in 91 days. That's about 3.5 lbs per week or so. I've sometimes seen no loss in a week and sometimes seen 7 lbs (once). It stair steps down. I have 143 lbs to lose total.
  • VeryKerri
    VeryKerri Posts: 359 Member
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    My only additional question to this would have been, if you lose 4-5 pounds a week consistently which it appears the contestants on that show do (plus more).... is how do they keep their skin from being saggy and loose? They all look so toned to me once they are done with losing all their weight. It baffles me!
  • 22Gibson
    22Gibson Posts: 24
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    Thank you
  • ChubbieTubbie
    ChubbieTubbie Posts: 481 Member
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    So does that mean you *shouldn't* eat any of your exercise calories??
  • Pabittner
    Pabittner Posts: 5
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    I take in any were from 1200 to 1600 calories in a day and exercise 90 minutes a day, and I'm so wipped out. What do suggest I do? I have lost 23 lbs so far.
  • amandalc980
    amandalc980 Posts: 383 Member
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    My only additional question to this would have been, if you lose 4-5 pounds a week consistently which it appears the contestants on that show do (plus more).... is how do they keep their skin from being saggy and loose? They all look so toned to me once they are done with losing all their weight. It baffles me!

    This is something I have wondered before. Can working out really tone up the skin that quickly?
  • cakefarm
    cakefarm Posts: 33
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    If you're losing that quickly, you are also losing muscle. It's weight loss - not fat loss and there is no way around that. This is the reason everyone (except people who make money off of people who want to lose super fast) suggests you don't attempt to lose more than 2 lbs a week - after also losing a lot of muscle, it's highly probably that you will put the weight back on as quickly as you took it off.

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