What rate can someone lose at.

nowine4me wrote: »

I know one is leaner, blah blah, but how does ones BODY knows that you are on the last 10 pounds? It baffles me.

Anyway, it WILL slow down and probably not according to your plan. You're doing great, just don't get discouraged when that happens.

It's not that it knows the Lbs...it's that when most people are on the last 10 Lbs, they're already relatively lean and at a healthy BMI and basically just trying to get leaner. Often there is no real rhyme or reason here either, other than they set some arbitrary number as their goal.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the human body doesn't really like being super lean and will fight that...being purposely lean for aesthetic reasons is a pretty new phenomenon in human evolution...our bodies would prefer to hold onto some fat for protection...and the older we get, the more body fat our bodies want to hold onto which is why when you look at BF% charts, ideal and acceptable levels of body fat go up as we age.

Being relatively lean and trying to get leaner puts a lot more stress on the body than being over fat and trying to lose weight does...when you're over fat, you have plenty of body fat to mobilize to make up for deficiencies in energy...not so much when you're already relatively lean. Greater stress results in increased cortisol levels and increased cortisol levels will inhibit fat loss to some extent.

You also have to consider how long someone has been dieting...prolonged dieting is also a stress on the body that not only raises cortisol levels, but it also jacks around with a whole bunch of other hormones that impede fat loss. Also, prolonged dieting will ultimately lead to some measure of metabolic adaptation...your body is very good at slowing down certain processes to conserve energy...I'm personally in the "diet break" camp to help combat some of this or at least mitigate it.

I'm sure there are a host of other things going on as well...

There's really no reason you can't go at 2/week until goal, assuming you're still overweight. Why don't you create a trend chart using your stats thus far-- I bet you can continue on as you are, at least till you are within close shot of your goal. You may WANT to add more cals or whatever, but I think you're asking if it's possible? If so, yes.

Tacklewasher wrote: »

I know I will not lose at the rate I have going forward, but what is a reasonable rate?
I figure 2 lbs is still reasonable @ 275. If my "ideal" weight is 185, then that is still 90 lbs.
When does 2 lbs become unreasonable?
I'm thinking at 250 I slow down the weight loss to 1.5.
235 I slow down to 1?
I'm putting in some diet breaks after reading about them and reading what @SideSteel had to say. Probably 2 wks every 12. I may change my mind when I come to them, but that will be my plan.
I will be continuing ~30 mins on the treadmill every morning, some light weights 3 times a week (currently doing this one www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0bhE67HuDY) and plan to start running a couple days a week. I don't really have a goal date to be at 220, but want a target.
Hope this makes sense and is not too convoluted.
My question is how long can I expect to lose at 2 lbs, 1.5 lbs and 1 lb?
Thanks

Once I figured things out a bit with the help of MFP, the forums, and some reading, I decided that I had no desire to be eating under 2000 Cal a day and in fact I would rather be eating in the 2300+ range. Which incidentally happens to be more calories than a sedentary person at my goal weight could eat before gaining.

With what I ate and the amount of walking I did, I found my speed of weight loss more than satisfactory, and my setup allowed me to spend some time figuring out some "tricks"/"foods"/"activities"/"ways of thinking" that work for me and which I have no intention of changing when i "get" to maintenance..

While weight loss is a necessary first step and pre-condition... the long term game is setting up for maintenance....'

I second the Sued0nimous bunny's advice re: getting a trending weight app.

My n=1 experience is that as I approached the bottom of the obese range there was a natural slow down to my weight loss. And another one occurred just below the halfway point in the overweight range. Coincidentally, scans around those times showed a marked deterioration of my fat to lean mass lost ratio.

All in all your plan sounds great... but I would be much less concerned with the rate of weight loss than I would be with setting myself up for future success.

And whether you're losing 0.5lbs or 1.5lbs a week on average.... they are both quite significant losses (26lbs a year and 78lbs a year respectively).

If a couple of years ago I walked up to you and said: "Next year you will lose 60lbs". Would you have been disappointed that I didn't say you would lose 108lbs?

Tacklewasher wrote: »

So I've played in Excel.
Average exercise calories earned according to MFP for Nov 1 - Dec 21 is 804 per day. I know from testing what MFP shows to what my Polar H7 shows, that MFP (for me) is about 20% overstated. So that gives about 670 cals earned per day over BMR + sedentary (my MFP base).

So, with a goal of eating ~2000 cals per day, I've worked backwards to what my weekly loss should be to cover my BMR + 20% + 500 cals from exercise. Has me @ 220 mid August.

Now to see how close I come in the end.

And, please understand. This is an intellectual exercise for me and I like doing this *kitten*. Having numbers like this to play with is part of who I am so don't get concerned I'm overthinking it, or going to punish myself if I don't hit these goals. In a way, being able to do this makes weight loss easier FOR ME.

I can also tell you what my fuel mileage is on every fill up of the truck I'm driving, and what the trucks computer said in comparison.

It's always good to see another Excel fan Don't forget to report back with your findings.

Tacklewasher wrote: »

So I've played in Excel.
Average exercise calories earned according to MFP for Nov 1 - Dec 21 is 804 per day. I know from testing what MFP shows to what my Polar H7 shows, that MFP (for me) is about 20% overstated. So that gives about 670 cals earned per day over BMR + sedentary (my MFP base).

So, with a goal of eating ~2000 cals per day, I've worked backwards to what my weekly loss should be to cover my BMR + 20% + 500 cals from exercise. Has me @ 220 mid August.

Now to see how close I come in the end.

And, please understand. This is an intellectual exercise for me and I like doing this *kitten*. Having numbers like this to play with is part of who I am so don't get concerned I'm overthinking it, or going to punish myself if I don't hit these goals. In a way, being able to do this makes weight loss easier FOR ME.

I can also tell you what my fuel mileage is on every fill up of the truck I'm driving, and what the trucks computer said in comparison.

I am a numbers person myself and I like to have goals to keep me on track. I don't beat myself up if I miss them, but when I have done the math and I know what I *should* be losing and I'm not losing it, it makes it easier for me to go back and say, "hmm, have I gotten sloppy with my logging or exercising less?" I prefer having data over not having it, but that's just me.

I'm down 88 lb since January 25 so that's a little less than 2 lb/week. It's been odd, too. November, I lost nothing. The past 2 weeks, I lost 10 lb. I'm 5 lb below my Thanksgiving morning weight. There's really about you or the process other than the rock-solid fact that CICO does work easier for men than women. It works for both, but it's easier for men.

And I use Excel to predict my today weight based on my rolling calorie deficit and use the deviation from reality to evaluate the accuracy of my logging.

Tacklewasher wrote: »

Thought I may as well update this.

Was down ~ 10 for Dec. And down ~ 10 for Jan. Kinda varies depending on the day I pick (Jan 1 was 8, Jan 4 was 12 type thing) but around 10 for both months. I've been comparing my exercise calories pushed through to MFP and where I said I was down ~20%, it's a lot closer so I haven't been eating back enough exercise calories.

Been doing the C25K on the treadmill as well as light weight work twice a week. Plus I've been snow shoeing every weekend for the past month or so. God that burns calories. Hurt my toe snow shoeing last week, so little treadmill during the week and not snow shoeing this weekend. Means I've been limited to ~1,600 calories and I don't like that very much. Back on the treadmill yesterday and will do again today.

Following this thread because I too like the numbers and have created a weight loss chart. Thanks for the update.

Also snow shoeing is amazing!