How long should you stay at 2 pounds per week?

SashaBoucher
SashaBoucher Posts: 11 Member
edited December 1 in Health and Weight Loss
I started MFP last October, so about 6 months ago and I've lost 44 pounds. I've always had my goal set to lose 2 pounds per week. I'm 18 pounds away from my goal now and my weight loss has slowed down significantly. Should I modify my goals?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    I would up calories. I think that most women who are 75 lbs or less over goal should aim for 1 lb/wk so I think you're far past the point of modifying your deficit.
  • californiagirl2012
    californiagirl2012 Posts: 2,625 Member
    It doesn't really happen in a linear fashion like that. It happens in random "chunks". It's best to focus on your lifestyle changes and be happy with all the non scale victories. The results will happen even if you never stepped on the scale ever again in your entire life. For real.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    SashaBoucher wrote: »
    I started MFP last October, so about 6 months ago and I've lost 44 pounds. I've always had my goal set to lose 2 pounds per week. I'm 18 pounds away from my goal now and my weight loss has slowed down significantly. Should I modify my goals?

    With 18 lbs left to go, 2lbs a week is a pretty high goal. Most people would recommend a goal of .5-1lb a week at that point.

    Have you been recalculating your calorie goal as you lost weight? If not, I'd run your numbers again with your current weight and a lower weight loss per week goal.
  • SashaBoucher
    SashaBoucher Posts: 11 Member
    So you're saying I start all over in the settings? Instead of just updating my weight in the progress settings?
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    SashaBoucher wrote: »
    So you're saying I start all over in the settings? Instead of just updating my weight in the progress settings?

    I don't think MFP recalulates your goals automatically even if you update your weight. I believe you have to do that yourself. I could be wrong though.
  • romasixnine
    romasixnine Posts: 4 Member
    You can maintain that as long as you want really, but the important thing to remember is, when severely restricting calories, your body fights back at some point by lowering your metabolism even further, until it eventually crashes. When you get to that point, it's generally best to refeed yourself one day by eating an extra 600-800 cals or so. This really boils down to how you spread your macros though. For example, I eat 100g carbs, 100g fat and 300 g protein (2500 cals) on training days. On my one off day, I eat 250 g carbs (3100 cals) to avoid the metabolism crash and refeed my muscles with glycogen to train the next week. If I ever deplete too far for too long, which at times I've done when being overly aggressive with cutting, I have to completely reset the process by refeeding for more like 3-5 days. You'll put on a few pounds of mostly water (if you're careful), but it should quickly come back off. The bottom line is, your metabolism is dead. Refeed to kick start it then start cutting again. As you go through the process, you'll learn what your body needs and where the sweet spots are. Everyone is different to some capacity in this regard, so one person's numbers won't be your numbers, despite being the same weight/height/gender. Don't live by the scale. I only weight myself about once every 10-14 days, since your weight can fluctuate by several pounds a day and obscure your progress. Above all, stay with it and stay consistent! Enjoy the ride.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    romasixnine wrote: »
    You can maintain that as long as you want really, but the important thing to remember is, when severely restricting calories, your body fights back at some point by lowering your metabolism even further, until it eventually crashes. When you get to that point, it's generally best to refeed yourself one day by eating an extra 600-800 cals or so. This really boils down to how you spread your macros though. For example, I eat 100g carbs, 100g fat and 300 g protein (2500 cals) on training days. On my one off day, I eat 250 g carbs (3100 cals) to avoid the metabolism crash and refeed my muscles with glycogen to train the next week. If I ever deplete too far for too long, which at times I've done when being overly aggressive with cutting, I have to completely reset the process by refeeding for more like 3-5 days. You'll put on a few pounds of mostly water (if you're careful), but it should quickly come back off. The bottom line is, your metabolism is dead. Refeed to kick start it then start cutting again. As you go through the process, you'll learn what your body needs and where the sweet spots are. Everyone is different to some capacity in this regard, so one person's numbers won't be your numbers, despite being the same weight/height/gender. Don't live by the scale. I only weight myself about once every 10-14 days, since your weight can fluctuate by several pounds a day and obscure your progress. Above all, stay with it and stay consistent! Enjoy the ride.

    @SashaBoucher take the time to grasp what @romasixnine has posted using Google or what ever. This is medically important and will help prevent future regains and potential health risks. There are others that will tell you his post is a lot of used hay but medically speaking his is post is on point. Best of continued success.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    SashaBoucher wrote: »
    I started MFP last October, so about 6 months ago and I've lost 44 pounds. I've always had my goal set to lose 2 pounds per week. I'm 18 pounds away from my goal now and my weight loss has slowed down significantly. Should I modify my goals?

    Weight loss will slow down as you get closer to your goal. If you haven't recalculated your goals as you lost weight, you will definitely want to do that. You can do that here:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals

    With 18 lbs left till goal, you might not be able to have the deficit required for 2 lb per week loss (MFP will bottom out at 1200 in this case). I suggest maybe setting it to 1 lb per week at this point.
  • BurnWithBarn2015
    BurnWithBarn2015 Posts: 1,026 Member
    edited April 2016
    romasixnine wrote: »
    You can maintain that as long as you want really, but the important thing to remember is, when severely restricting calories, your body fights back at some point by lowering your metabolism even further, until it eventually crashes. When you get to that point, it's generally best to refeed yourself one day by eating an extra 600-800 cals or so. This really boils down to how you spread your macros though. For example, I eat 100g carbs, 100g fat and 300 g protein (2500 cals) on training days. On my one off day, I eat 250 g carbs (3100 cals) to avoid the metabolism crash and refeed my muscles with glycogen to train the next week. If I ever deplete too far for too long, which at times I've done when being overly aggressive with cutting, I have to completely reset the process by refeeding for more like 3-5 days. You'll put on a few pounds of mostly water (if you're careful), but it should quickly come back off. The bottom line is, your metabolism is dead. Refeed to kick start it then start cutting again. As you go through the process, you'll learn what your body needs and where the sweet spots are. Everyone is different to some capacity in this regard, so one person's numbers won't be your numbers, despite being the same weight/height/gender. Don't live by the scale. I only weight myself about once every 10-14 days, since your weight can fluctuate by several pounds a day and obscure your progress. Above all, stay with it and stay consistent! Enjoy the ride.

    Strong first post...NOT

    When your metabolism is dead, your dead

    Slowing metabolism happens but is a very rare condition. However it is true that your metabolism slows down when you eat less....but we are talking here about a couple less calories daily not hundreds.

    Resetting metabolism,...again nonsense. So does kick-starting. Re-feeding can have its use for keeping/getting more energy etc. but it doesn't kick-start anything.

    However OP you indeed recalculate every 10 pounds lost...this when you want to keep the same deficit.
    When not you just keep doing what your doing

    I upped my calorie intake the last 15 pounds and slowly transitioned into maintenance level after losing 130 lbs.
    Upped every couple week till i kept steady in my desired weight range...which can fluctuate up and down a lot but in general i am hanging around the 143 to 145 lbs

    Choice is yours :)

    95069916.png

This discussion has been closed.

Categories