Why does it seem that it takes forever to lose a pound?

nygr8guy
nygr8guy Posts: 77 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know it's probably my impatience, and I realize I didn't gain the weight overnight and know I can't lose it with a blink of an eye. It seems that it takes forever to lose a pound.
I have my weight loss set to lose 1 pound a week. Do you think that's too slow, or should I ramp it up to lose 1.5 pounds a week?
I thought by losing a pound a week will allow me to eat more and be more realistic towards keeping it off long term. But the slow results is depressing.
I remember back in the day when I started dieting I would lose 7 pounds of water in the first week. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.
Any suggestions?

Replies

  • socajam
    socajam Posts: 2,530 Member
    I know it's probably my impatience, and I realize I didn't gain the weight overnight and know I can't lose it with a blink of an eye. It seems that it takes forever to lose a pound.
    I have my weight loss set to lose 1 pound a week. Do you think that's too slow, or should I ramp it up to lose 1.5 pounds a week?
    I thought by losing a pound a week will allow me to eat more and be more realistic towards keeping it off long term. But the slow results is depressing.
    I remember back in the day when I started dieting I would lose 7 pounds of water in the first week. That doesn't seem to happen anymore.
    Any suggestions?

    Looking at your diary: I would increase my fiber (yours seems low to me), decrease carbs to 150, drop your sodium to 1500 - 2000mg and join one of the challenges on here - burn 3500 calories per week - that should = 1 lbs per week loss if you stay within your calorie goal. I find the challenges keeps me motivated. Also remember the older we are the harder it is to lose weight.
  • Pearsquared
    Pearsquared Posts: 1,656 Member
    Hate to agree with you, but it is just impatience. 1 lb. a week is a good rate of loss. Think about how quick it would seem if you were to GAIN that lb. a week. Also, just think about the rest of your life - what's a year or so to lose the weight, when you have the rest of your life to enjoy having it off?
  • nygr8guy
    nygr8guy Posts: 77 Member
    You do have a good point. 1 year vs rest of my life is a great way to look at things. :-)
  • JanisMay67
    JanisMay67 Posts: 43
    I've always thought that the weight that comes off the slowest, is the weight that is most likely to stay off.

    And.... a 1 lb off each week is far, far better than another 1 on. :)

    Over a longer period - 3 months, 6 months - those pounds add up to make a huge difference.
  • BamaBreezeNSaltAire
    BamaBreezeNSaltAire Posts: 966 Member
    Yes, it's impatience. Get a food scale, weigh everything and record it. If you bite it, write it! Also, it can take up to a month before you see fat loss, the body will do all it can to hold on to to fat at first, it seems to be natures way. Then all of a sudden, you will see a whoosh and off comes some pounds. Fat loss is not linear, but it will come if you eat at a deficit and record accurately what you are eating. Best of luck to you, there are some great groups out here that are full of info. Check out the Eat, Train, Progress group, Sara and Sidesteel are absolutely fantastic with helping and the info they have!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    You do have a good point. 1 year vs rest of my life is a great way to look at things. :-)

    This! I started almost a year ago and the year flew by. Depending on how much you have to lose, 1 lb is usually the healthiest way to lose it anyway (unless you have 80 lbs or more to lose).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It took me the better part of a decade to pack on an extra 40ish Lbs...it took me 7-8 months or so to lose them (not so slow when you look at it that way) and as a general trend I was losing about 1 Lb per week...some weeks were bigger losses than other weeks and some weeks were no losses and some weeks were small losses and even some water gains...but ultimately it ended up being about 1.3 Lbs per week.
  • djxil
    djxil Posts: 357
    I set mine to 1.5 lbs per week and the weight I have lost was pure over-eating, poor diet, lack of exercise, so I lost it, I guess I could say, fairly easily - again b/c I gained it through really bad habits which I have corrected. I just updated my plan and MFP says have to eat 200 less calories to maintain my 1.5 lbs goal.

    The first few pounds come off relatively easily (once you make your decision to do it), as you lose, you have to continue to shrink you intake based on your current weight, when you are 100 lbs, losing 1 lbs takes x1 the effort, when you are 50 lbs, it takes x2 the effort.

    Hope that makes sense -- someone correct me if I have it wrong or clarify it.

    Good luck
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    It took me the better part of a decade to pack on an extra 40ish Lbs...it took me 7-8 months or so to lose them (not so slow when you look at it that way) and as a general trend I was losing about 1 Lb per week...some weeks were bigger losses than other weeks and some weeks were no losses and some weeks were small losses and even some water gains...but ultimately it ended up being about 1.3 Lbs per week.

    ^This. There's actually no evidence for the claim that weight that comes off slowly stays off longer than fast loss. But it's a lot less stressful to take it off slowly.

    It took me over a decade to put on the weight that I lost in the last year. I figure taking it off in one-tenth of the time is pretty good! I set MFP for a 1.5 lb/week loss, but in reality, I lost about 1.1 lbs./week for the first half of 2013. Undoubtedly I was underestimating calories (which even trained nutritionists have been shown to do).

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