For men: How long did it take you to lose?

moolovesme
moolovesme Posts: 33
in Health and Weight Loss
Or rather, what was the rate of your weight loss? I have a friend (a guy), who wants to lose about 45 pounds (from 195lbs to 145lbs at 5'8"), and we're interested to know approximately how long it might take him, or what rate of healthy weight loss to expect with clean eating and regular exercise. Just a ballpark number would be amazing. Thanks!

Replies

  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    When I first started, I lost 45lbs in three months. Then the holidays came and I kind of slacked off for awhile. Then I started weight lifting and lost focus for awhile and focused on strength gains. Now I'm back to slowly losing weight while increasing my level of fitness.

    In my opinion, don't be worried about the rate of loss, just make sure you learn as much as you can during the process and put it into effect.
  • ehsan517
    ehsan517 Posts: 114
    i lost 20 kilos in 3 months. excessive cardio and heavily restricted calories.

    worst idea ever. became skinny and used to ask myself daily in the mirror: do you even lift?

    2 years later, and a lot of lean bulking...10 kilos heavier and one more cut to go before reaching my ideal physique. then back to mass gain once again.

    what i learned: dont aim to lose weight. aim to lose fat. progress pictures and the mirror are better guides than the scales.
  • ElectricDragon
    ElectricDragon Posts: 60 Member
    For me I've been going down at a steady rate of about 10 pounds a month for the last six months.
  • Ortax
    Ortax Posts: 98
    I am just like your friend except 10 pounds lighter. I am 5'8" and 185 pounds. My goal is to be somewhere around 140 to 145 pounds. As for how long it would take to lose that weight, it would totally depend on your calorie deficit. I plan on eating around 1200-1500 calories 6 days a week and to lift weights 3 days a week. If I would have to estimate, I think it could take anywhere from 3 to 8 months. I don't have a goal date so I'm willing to be patient but I really can't see losing 45 pounds taking more than a year.
  • errorist
    errorist Posts: 142 Member
    I am just like your friend except 10 pounds lighter. I am 5'8" and 185 pounds. My goal is to be somewhere around 140 to 145 pounds. As for how long it would take to lose that weight, it would totally depend on your calorie deficit. I plan on eating around 1200-1500 calories 6 days a week and to lift weights 3 days a week.....
    Seems a bit drastic. Healthy weight loss is usually considered to come in at somewhere between one and two pounds a week. So 30 weeks for 45 pounds is the sort of thing you and the OP should be looking for. You could do that on 1700-1800 calories a day, probably more. 1200????
  • moolovesme
    moolovesme Posts: 33
    Interesting how the numbers actually vary from person to person...

    So would you recommend a 1700 calorie eating plan?
  • maca416
    maca416 Posts: 142 Member
    My advise would be it will take as long as it takes, so dont put a time on it, as long as he is losing some weight each month then that is the way to go IMO.
  • Losingthedamnweight
    Losingthedamnweight Posts: 536 Member
    I am just like your friend except 10 pounds lighter. I am 5'8" and 185 pounds. My goal is to be somewhere around 140 to 145 pounds. As for how long it would take to lose that weight, it would totally depend on your calorie deficit. I plan on eating around 1200-1500 calories 6 days a week and to lift weights 3 days a week. If I would have to estimate, I think it could take anywhere from 3 to 8 months. I don't have a goal date so I'm willing to be patient but I really can't see losing 45 pounds taking more than a year.

    1200 calories? For a guy that's not 2 feet tall?

    Dude...
  • simsburyjet
    simsburyjet Posts: 999 Member
    3 years ago I did a biggest loser at work. .I started 188lbs and 10 weeks later was 162.. .I was too light at that and settled in
    at about 168lbs.
  • jacksandler
    jacksandler Posts: 7
    I started first week of May....just hit 45 lbs today (down to 187)......so about 6 months.
  • Ortax
    Ortax Posts: 98
    I am just like your friend except 10 pounds lighter. I am 5'8" and 185 pounds. My goal is to be somewhere around 140 to 145 pounds. As for how long it would take to lose that weight, it would totally depend on your calorie deficit. I plan on eating around 1200-1500 calories 6 days a week and to lift weights 3 days a week. If I would have to estimate, I think it could take anywhere from 3 to 8 months. I don't have a goal date so I'm willing to be patient but I really can't see losing 45 pounds taking more than a year.

    1200 calories? For a guy that's not 2 feet tall?

    Dude...


    Dude... why do you care?
  • zacharydeveaux
    zacharydeveaux Posts: 17 Member
    I just hit my goal today - dropped 116lbs in just a bit less than 10 months.
  • Routerninja
    Routerninja Posts: 201
    My loss averages between 2-5 pounds a week. I eat about 2500-3000 calories a day and work out 5x a week. I have gone up and down a bit as I have fallen off and restarted, but since Nov of 2010 I have lost 127 pounds as of today. I still have about 175 to go, so I am nowhere near done, but my results are also unique to someone who has a LOT of weight to lose. if you have 10-20 pounds to lose I wouldn't expect to see those same type of results as I am,
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,336 Member
    I am just like your friend except 10 pounds lighter. I am 5'8" and 185 pounds. My goal is to be somewhere around 140 to 145 pounds. As for how long it would take to lose that weight, it would totally depend on your calorie deficit. I plan on eating around 1200-1500 calories 6 days a week and to lift weights 3 days a week.....
    Seems a bit drastic. Healthy weight loss is usually considered to come in at somewhere between one and two pounds a week. So 30 weeks for 45 pounds is the sort of thing you and the OP should be looking for. You could do that on 1700-1800 calories a day, probably more. 1200????

    Depending on how active you are, you could do it on 2000 calories a day as a 21 year old male. I lost weight really quickly for the first 40 or so pounds. The problem was, even including weight training, I lost a huge amount of muscle doing the 1200-1500 calorie sort of thing. Reduce your goal per week to 1 pound, and do weight training and it will come off and you will maintain a lot more muscle.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
    Really depends, does this person expect to have visible abs at 145 lbs or just see the scale read 145?
  • CipherZero
    CipherZero Posts: 1,418 Member
    70 lbs off, about 17 months, so just about one pound a week.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It took me about 7 months to lose 40ish Lbs...I'm still dropping very slowly...but it's really slow at this point. Keep in mind that it will come off faster early on...once you get into a healthy BF% range it slows drastically...his last 10 - 15 Lbs are going to be excruciatingly slow.
  • RECowgill
    RECowgill Posts: 881 Member
    Yeah 3 months is too rapid for a 45lb drop for most people. I lost 40lbs in a year through heavy lifting, so I've been adding muscle/strength while burning fat. It's slower than the crash options but its more realistic and gives you better results imo. Your friend shouldn't rush it, if you do it right it will take time because you are making real lifestyle changes... not dieting.
  • March87MFP
    March87MFP Posts: 19 Member
    I use to weigh close to 300lbs and I'm not that much taller than a hobbit, so you can imagine what that looks like. I'm at 207lbs with an interim goal of 200 lbs by the New Year. I'm averaging a weight loss of 1-2 lbs per week since the beginning of 2013. I lift and do cardio.
  • rabblerabble
    rabblerabble Posts: 471 Member
    I've been averaging a loss of almost 1.5 pounds a week over the course of the year. Have to take it slow and steady and DON'T get discouraged when you have the occasionally plateau.
  • pavrg
    pavrg Posts: 277 Member
    i lost 20 kilos in 3 months. excessive cardio and heavily restricted calories.

    worst idea ever. became skinny and used to ask myself daily in the mirror: do you even lift?

    2 years later, and a lot of lean bulking...10 kilos heavier and one more cut to go before reaching my ideal physique. then back to mass gain once again.

    what i learned: dont aim to lose weight. aim to lose fat. progress pictures and the mirror are better guides than the scales.
    Were you lifting before starting to lose the 20 kilos? Because if not it's likely the results would have been the same, except just take longer.

    It took me 12 weeks to drop 25 lbs, which was about 1.5-2 lbs per week.

    Whether you can lose 45 lbs in 3 months depends on your friend's starting weight. There's a formula out there for how much excess fat you can burn per day under optimal circumstances while retaining your lean body mass, so someone larger than I was could have lost 45 lbs in the time I lost 25 without losing any muscle.

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