How to lose 2lb a week

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newme700
newme700 Posts: 9 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I have a question to ask - I'm 42, 5'3 and weigh 172lbs (12st 4). I have started eating healthy and going to the gym but I don't really know the nest way of meeting my target of losing 2lb a week. I'm tracking calories and aiming for 1500 a day and I'm doing 60 mins cardio in the gym 5 days a week. I only seem to be losing 1.5lbs a week - any ideas how I can increase the average to 2lb a week? Thanks

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  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,581 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I don't think you are able to lose 2lbs per week in a healthy way. Your maintenance calories at the moment seem to be at around 1700kcal/day. 2 lbs per week is 7000kcal you'd need to eat less per week, or 1000 less per day, which would give you only 700kcal total to eat per day. That is not safe, not sustainable, and you'd lose a lot of wonderful muscle mass that might give you a toned look instead of mainly fat. Losing muscles - wobbly appearance. Sorry, ain't gonna happen :( Work at it slowly and you will get there.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    I don't think you are able to lose 2lbs per week in a healthy way. Your maintenance calories at the moment seem to be at around 1700kcal/day. 2 lbs per week is 7000kcal you'd need to eat less per week, or 1000 less per day, which would give you only 700kcal total to eat per day. That is not safe, not sustainable, and you'd lose a lot of wonderful muscle mass that might give you a toned look instead of mainly fat. Losing muscles - wobbly appearance. Sorry, ain't gonna happen :( Work at it slowly and you will get there.

    What makes you think OPs maintenance cals are 1700 if she loses 1.5lb per week on 1500? Your maths is off I think.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    newme700 wrote: »
    Hi, I have a question to ask - I'm 42, 5'3 and weigh 172lbs (12st 4). I have started eating healthy and going to the gym but I don't really know the nest way of meeting my target of losing 2lb a week. I'm tracking calories and aiming for 1500 a day and I'm doing 60 mins cardio in the gym 5 days a week. I only seem to be losing 1.5lbs a week - any ideas how I can increase the average to 2lb a week? Thanks

    Is there a reason you need to lose more quickly? Sounds like you're doing great as you are?
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,581 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »

    What makes you think OPs maintenance cals are 1700 if she loses 1.5lb per week on 1500? Your maths is off I think.

    Scoobies calculator. We don't know yet for how long the OP has been losing weight. If she just started then this might be waterweight. It's very possible that OP is male, and everything I wrote is moot. But OP didn't provide more data to start with.
  • Lydilod
    Lydilod Posts: 135 Member
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    Hi I'm 44, 5'3.5 and I'm only 8lbs heavier than you and I'm losing about 1lb a week,
    I'm happy with that but the only way to increase your weight loss is to vastly increase your calorie burn as it's not safe or healthy to eat less than 1200 calories, which is what you would need to do without exercise.
    I like to eat and I love chocolate so I exercise to get the best of both worlds.
  • newme700
    newme700 Posts: 9 Member
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    Many thanks for all your replies - I forgot to say that I'm female
    I have been losing 1.5lbs fairly steadily so i don't think it's water weight anymore.
    My reason for asking about 2lb a week is that I hear so often that people are averaging 2lb and sometimes that's without exercise (ie slimming clubs like WW). I've never managed to lose 2lb a week and I'm including quite a lot of exercise.
    I don't really want to reduce my calories much more as I may begin to feel deprived and am more likely to give in to temptation.
  • Mistraal1981
    Mistraal1981 Posts: 453 Member
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    I would kill to lose 1.5 lbs a week. If that is a sustainable rate where you don't feel deprived there is no point rocking the boat for another 0.5 lb.

    Just keep on keeping on.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 9,096 Member
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    newme700 wrote: »
    Many thanks for all your replies - I forgot to say that I'm female
    I have been losing 1.5lbs fairly steadily so i don't think it's water weight anymore.
    My reason for asking about 2lb a week is that I hear so often that people are averaging 2lb and sometimes that's without exercise (ie slimming clubs like WW). I've never managed to lose 2lb a week and I'm including quite a lot of exercise.
    I don't really want to reduce my calories much more as I may begin to feel deprived and am more likely to give in to temptation.

    Some people who have a lot to lose will healthily lose 2lb per week.

    If this is not you ( sorry I am in metric so not sure how overweight you are) then 2lb /week is not healthy or realistic for you.

    A steady loss of 1.5lb sounds good - stick with that would be my advice.
  • YasminTE
    YasminTE Posts: 15 Member
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    I'm on a 1,200 calorie daily allowance and have been now for the past 4 weeks and have only lost 1lb since then. I have a 16 month old so I'm always on the move. I can't see why I've lost only 1lb?
  • melonaulait
    melonaulait Posts: 769 Member
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    I never managed 2lbs a week even when I had 40 lbs more to lose. There's no hurry!
  • YasminTE
    YasminTE Posts: 15 Member
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    newme700 wrote: »
    Many thanks for all your replies - I forgot to say that I'm female
    I have been losing 1.5lbs fairly steadily so i don't think it's water weight anymore.
    My reason for asking about 2lb a week is that I hear so often that people are averaging 2lb and sometimes that's without exercise (ie slimming clubs like WW). I've never managed to lose 2lb a week and I'm including quite a lot of exercise.
    I don't really want to reduce my calories much more as I may begin to feel deprived and am more likely to give in to temptation.

    Congratulations on your weight loss, sounds like your doing great!
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I started at 285 this time around. I've lost about 85 pounds. I lost an average of around 1.5 pounds per week until I hit about 210 and now I'm losing around 1 pound per week.

    I'm quite happy to be losing at that rate. Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

    Don't compare your rate of weight loss to the rate of others. You are you and you'll lose at the rate you lose no matter how quickly others lose.

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