When does losing 2lbs per week become unreasonable?

LifeNewandImproved · March 2014

I see a lot of people trying to lose 10-20 lbs being told that losing those lbs at a rate of two pounds per week is going to be tough if not downright impossible.

However, I was wondering around where that threshold might be. 30 lbs? 40 lbs? 50? When does a person drop down from 2lbs/wk to 1.5, to 1, etc.

How many pounds would a person have to have toward goal to be able to have a 7000 calorie/2 pound deficit per week?
How about 5250/1.5 lbs?
3500/1lb?

I am not sure how long I have to go but I think I'm at around the 50+ lb mark myself (that will get me to a BMI of 25). I'm currently maintaining a 2 lb deficit as calculated by the Bodymedia Link but I am not sure if that is realistic for me. Thanks looking forward to the responses.

SezxyStef · March 2014

typically for people with over 100lbs to lose 2lbs a week is reasonable...after that start lowering it. betweeen 75-100 1.5lbs a week etc

Iknowsaur · March 2014

typically for people with over 100lbs to lose 2lbs a week is reasonable...after that start lowering it. betweeen 75-100 1.5lbs a week etc

Yeah, that's a good basic guideline.
Of course, it depends on the person, blah blah blah.
But you have to be pretty overweight to expect to consistently lose 2 pounds a week.

Robin_Bin · March 2014

typically for people with over 100lbs to lose 2lbs a week is reasonable...after that start lowering it. betweeen 75-100 1.5lbs a week etc

^ good answer
Keep in mind that slower weight loss is more likely to be accompanied by the lifestyle changes which will keep the weight off.

LifeNewandImproved · February 2016

OK- I'm at a point where I think I'm in the home stretch. I think I have 15-25 lbs to go. Is 1lb per week reasonable? When to drop down to 1/2 lb per wk? MFP seems to think 1 lb is doable - puts me at 1270 cals per day, and I figure I might try to eat back 75%ish of exercise cals which is pretty reasonable. My TDEE is about 1600 (I literally sit all day, as in, my daily activity might give me 800 steps all day long).

thunder1982 · February 2016

Great job on the pounds you've lost so far!

At the 15-25 mark I think your probably down to 1/2pound per week as a realistic goal. But I guess it depends if you can mange on 1270 and if your rate of loss matches MFP's projections.

LifeNewandImproved · February 2016

I can do 1270 I think, although it's not without effort and I do have my moments of battling hunger but I'd say I have been mostly compliant overall. I am trying a new strategy this week where I'm trying to eat around 1200 and give myself a roughly 300-400 calorie treat once per week. Whether it's working, wellllll... the scale is being really stubborn this month. I have lost about lb and math says I should have lost 3-4. I think I am retaining water - I have a history of that. At least I hope I am.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2016

When your body, thru a combination of BMR + daily activity + exercise can no longer burn enough daily (TDEE) that a 1000 calorie deficit is attainable or reasonable. I'm at maintenance, but say I wanted to lose another 5. My TDEE is 1750-1850 per day. And that is with me making the effort to move, getting 10k-11k steps per day thru activity & exercise. That would mean eating 750-850 with total accuracy, and that is just not enough to sustain me.

AceofIvies wrote: »

I see a lot of people trying to lose 10-20 lbs being told that losing those lbs at a rate of two pounds per week is going to be tough if not downright impossible.

However, I was wondering around where that threshold might be. 30 lbs? 40 lbs? 50? When does a person drop down from 2lbs/wk to 1.5, to 1, etc.

How many pounds would a person have to have toward goal to be able to have a 7000 calorie/2 pound deficit per week?
How about 5250/1.5 lbs?
3500/1lb?

I am not sure how long I have to go but I think I'm at around the 50+ lb mark myself (that will get me to a BMI of 25). I'm currently maintaining a 2 lb deficit as calculated by the Bodymedia Link but I am not sure if that is realistic for me. Thanks looking forward to the responses.

blues4miles · February 2016

I started at 1 lb/week on MFP because I like eating food, even though I'm heavy enough 2 would have probably still been healthy. If you find yourself struggling, don't be afraid to lower your goal to .5 lb/week.

Sorry when you have so little to lose, water is definitely going to mask your losses. I always give it 3 full weeks (21 days). If I haven't lost ANY weight in 21 days, fine, I'm at a plateau. Same boat as you today though, math says 4.5 but I'm only at 2.5 for last 21 days. Will give it more time. If it stays this way, next step is to make sure I'm logging properly. Then make sure I'm not overestimating exercise calories.

LifeNewandImproved · February 2016

@blues4miles glad to know I am not alone with the math games! le sigh. I weigh almost everything at the moment but I do let little itty bitty things slide for sanity reasons (mainly, spray oil, and I don't weigh my apples if I know I'm within 10 grams) but I like what you said. if after another week this doesn't resolve I will become an iron fist when it comes to logging food & exercise.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2016

If your TDEE is 1600 and you're eating (on average) 1270 per day, then that's a schedule for about 2 pounds every 3 weeks or 2/3 pound per week. Unless there was a typo in your numbers...

Personally as a woman I'd suggest compare your weight NOW to your weight 30 days ago. This will help by offsetting any monthly cycle/hormonal effects.

LifeNewandImproved · February 2016

it's a 1.2 lb difference from Jan 4 to today which is kind of a bummer but I'm looking at my trend line and see that I was doing pretty well up until about 10 days ago and then started seriously stalling out so I'll give it another week or so. Thanks for the reminder @StaciMarie1974

StaciMarie1974 · February 2016

In the past 10 days did you have higher than usual sodium intake? Extra stress? Less sleep than usual? Start a new workout routine or increase intensity? Have sore muscles? Been under the weather?

I'm assuming you didn't notice a similar trend this time last month. If you did, TOM/hormones would be the likely culprit. Some women retain water during ovulation or right before or after TOM arrives. Everyone is a little unique there.

AceofIvies wrote: »

it's a 1.2 lb difference from Jan 4 to today which is kind of a bummer but I'm looking at my trend line and see that I was doing pretty well up until about 10 days ago and then started seriously stalling out so I'll give it another week or so. Thanks for the reminder @StaciMarie1974

PAV8888 · February 2016

A reasonable deficit is 10% to 20% of your TDEE, 25% while having fat levels such as those typically seen in people who are considered obese.

Calories IN = TDEE + WEIGHT STORE CHANGE
Calories IN = BMR + Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis + Exercise Activity + WEIGHT STORE CHANGE

In MFP speak: Calories IN = MFP CALORIES + Exercise Activity + MFP DEFICIT YOU CHOSE (which is why you eat back your actual exercise calories)

Working back from all that.

For a deficit of:
1000 => TDEE 4000 to 5000 <-- very few people
750 => TDEE 3000 to 3750 <-- a few people
500 ==> TDEE 2000 to 2500 <-- most people
250 ==> TDEE 1000 to 1250 <-- older, less tall, more sedentary people

Use a weight trend tracking program such as:
Libra--android
Happy Scale --iphone
www.trendweight.com -- supported scale or free fitbit.com account (band not required)
www.weightgrapher.com -- supported scale or manual entry.

Good luck.

Jonna13 · February 2016

I have less than 10lbs to go, and although I set my loss to 1lb per week, I am a very active person, some weeks I lose 2lbs, other weeks 1lb or less. The more you move, the more you can eat which makes losing the last 10lbs do-able.

StaciMarie1974 · February 2016

This is one month of weighins for me, when I was losing. This was pretty early in my process, and you'll notice ups & downs.

scolaris · February 2016

For me it has kind of followed the BMI tables. When I was in the 'obese' zone 2 lbs happened more readily. As I went further into just 'overweight' 1 lb became the norm. When I enter my healthy BMI range I expect half a pound a week will probably become more common.

LifeNewandImproved · February 2016

@StaciMarie1974 In the past 10 days I haven't been doing so great emotionally, very low energy, maybe some depression symptoms though probably nothing worth medicating. Going thru a big life change/quarter life crisis sort of heh. I don't know if the lack of food --> feeling of blah or feeling of blah -->weight stalling. Fighting a cold a little bit though my immune system has been doing well. I actually quit strong lifts about 10 days ago, got too hard, I didn't enjoy it. Sleep was pretty bad about a week ago but has since improved. TOM is roughly 2 weeks ago so that should be a non factor by now.

I use trendweight. https://trendweight.com/u/e2ba4e7607bc44/

I weigh in on Thursdays though 'officially' and that is where I am drawing the 1.2 lb difference. I didn't start to get serious about logging until Jan 7 so exactly 4 weeks ago. Lot of mental denial/stress happening between May of last year and Jan 7 of this year that I finally got through. Was telling myself I didn't want to count calories, or I didn't need to as long as I ate 'cleanly', or just plan did not have the motivation to stick with a caloric deficit. As a result I maintained for 7 months (well, gained roughly 10 lbs from my lowest ever to the highest ever in that period of time, probably not a true 10 lb gain).

I am right on that border between normal and overweight BMI.

dalielahdawn · February 2016

I've always thought in terms of around .5-1% of you body weight a week.

When does losing 2lbs per week become unreasonable?

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