1/2 pound a week weight loss goal?

Yes, me!! It's slow, but it's definitely doable.

As long as you're disciplined and make sure you log properly (really got to weigh for that, IMO, unless you don't eat back exercise calories), yes, it works.

By disciplined though I mean that if you end up eating over once or twice a week, it can take you a month to lose a pound because it's very easy to wipe off a 1750 calorie deficit. Not that I'm talking from experience or something... lol.

I think anyone struggling with -1 or -2 lbs should just do this. Yes this deficit worked for me

lisah180 wrote: »

anyone lose on this setting? I know loss will be slower but I do a healthy amount of exercise each week and generally tend to be hungry with my current calorie setting. Thanks

Yes. That is how I lost my last 25 pounds. I was meticulous with weighing food and ensuring that I was choosing correct entries, and I didn't eat all my exercise calories back to account for any errors.

Since you have little room for error due to such a small deficit, you have to stay on the ball.

Hope this helps.

Hey!

I was losing 2lbs a week on a 1200 calorie plan but now I'm at a healthy rate and HUNGRY so I'm now on 1500 and losing half a pound. Still losing (just a little slower) and no longer starving hungry! Its a win win

I'm set to 1/2 a lb loss and last week I lost 1.4lbs so my exercise must of burnt slightly more than mfp said it did

Since I currently have 50.8 Pounds to lose, I have it set for; 1 Pound a week but when I only have 25 Pounds to lose, I'll reset it for; 0.5 Pounds per week.

Honestly, I don't know how you guys do the .5lb a week thing. A cup of water could be a half a pound. I would go nuts trying to figure out if I actually lost any weight.

vlovell24 wrote: »

Honestly, I don't know how you guys do the .5lb a week thing. A cup of water could be a half a pound. I would go nuts trying to figure out if I actually lost any weight.

Hormones are worse than a cup of water. I wipe out my monthly loss each menstrual cycle.

booksandchocolate12 wrote: »

vlovell24 wrote: »

Honestly, I don't know how you guys do the .5lb a week thing. A cup of water could be a half a pound. I would go nuts trying to figure out if I actually lost any weight.

Maybe because many of us understand and don't obsess over the natural weight fluctuations of the human body. Even if I go a week without losing anything due to "a cup of water" I can look at the trend over time and see that I'm losing. I don't need to know if I lost weight during any particular week.

Totally agree with this. I'm certainly not tracking to see if I've lost that "half pound" in a week's time. I weigh weekly to make sure I'm not going up, but a loss won't really register until it's a pound or more gone. I use an old analog scale that I got as a wedding gift 30 years ago. I'm fine waiting around until it shows a pound or two down.

What's the hurry? I want more calories on a day-to-day basis.

Same here. On 1500 calories (custom) and doing very little exercise. Have often done the 1200 or exercised at least 1 hour a day. This never was a permanent thing and I realized my problem was with portion control and emotional eating :-D So now I am working more on building healthy eating habits than losing a lot. On my 10th day now and it seems to be working. I weigh myself very rarely (less than once a month) but as long as I know that I maintain a calorie deficit - I am happy.

Well I tend to loose very slowly, maybe.3 kgs or .4 kgs pw. This is not out of choice, it's all my body allows. To loose this little amount I have to fast 3 days a week and stick to 1500 other days. Actually it's not so bad. A couple of months ago I was only loosing .2 kgs every 2 weeks, so things have speeded up a bit recently! But then I was fasting 2 days a week not 3 so that accounts for the difference. I have not got much more to loose so it makes sense. I AM ALMOST at maintenance. This is never going to be easy?...

I lost about 1.1 pounds per week for the first 6 months or so, then ratcheted back to 0.75 pounds for the next six months, and then 0.5 pounds for six more months, when I only had 15-20 pounds to go. I think it made the transition to maintenance a lot easier than if I had sustained a higher weight loss all the way.

I'm pretty lean at around 12% and trying to get down around 10%...I'm losing about 1/2 Lb per week. The difficulty for many is that actual weekly losses of fat can easily be masked by other things (water and waste) so often you can't really see what's going on scale wise for weeks...this can obviously be frustrating for some. Another pitfall to consider is that there is very little margin for error...you have to be on your game.

arditarose wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

I'm pretty lean at around 12% and trying to get down around 10%...I'm losing about 1/2 Lb per week. The difficulty for many is that actual weekly losses of fat can easily be masked by other things (water and waste) so often you can't really see what's going on scale wise for weeks...this can obviously be frustrating for some. Another pitfall to consider is that there is very little margin for error...you have to be on your game.

These are exactly my issues now. Between hormones and high sodium intake, I can go for weeks without seeing anything. And logging has to be so precise.

if you're already pretty lean (as you would appear to be) it is going to be that much more important to look at measurements and BF% rather than the actual weight on the scale. with such a small deficit you can actually lean out but not see much difference on the scale at all. classic re-comp territory, especially if you're hitting the weight room.