So you want to lose weight fast?
Duchy82
Posts: 560 Member
What is the rush? You most likely didn't gain the weight fast so prepare for the shock horror......
You are not going to lose it fast and be successful.
No one on the forum is going to advise you that you can safely lose more than 2lbs a week. Because unless you are morbidly obese you can't. It is quite simple: an unhealthy calorie deficit leaves you open to nutritional deficiency, this in turn increases the risk of brittle nails, bad skin, losing your hair.
The body will metabolise more muscle when you lose weight fast, which means you will probably look, I hate this term but it seems appropriate, skinny fat. I bet that vision you have of yourself is all toned with taught skin right? Forget that it won't happen if you lose too fast.
Worse losing your period as a woman, this is your first warning that the body is shutting down non- essential systems in a bid to preserve itself.
Then there is the risk of osteoporosis or brittle bones as the body requires more calcium then your ingesting for other things besides bones. It will take from the bones to use elsewhere. And/or any bone repair (the body renews itself constantly) will be done with less calcium available therefore less bone strength.
You leave yourself open to anaemia: iron deficiency affects the blood cells making you out of breath, dizzy and exhausted so that exercise routine goes out of the window fast. Pernicious anaemia or B12 deficiency again makes you exhausted and fuzzy brained. You need B12 for good neurological function and lack of B12 will make it harder to think clearly, makes you forgetful and the sheer exhaustion again will make that exercise routine dissappear as you prefer sleep over anything else.
I can probably think of more but let's stop there...
If you lose 2- 1lb a week that is 104- 52lbs in a year, really what is a year out of your life? On average we live 80 years (give or take dependent on being male/female) so that one year is 8% (edit: 1.25% not 8% math and me not agreeing this morning )of your life. In the grand scheme of things that is nothing. You will be happier because you haven't made this too hard, it will be more likely you stick to it for the same reason which in turn means that it will be easier to maintain the loss in the longterm. Maintenance is more important right?
You are not going to lose it fast and be successful.
No one on the forum is going to advise you that you can safely lose more than 2lbs a week. Because unless you are morbidly obese you can't. It is quite simple: an unhealthy calorie deficit leaves you open to nutritional deficiency, this in turn increases the risk of brittle nails, bad skin, losing your hair.
The body will metabolise more muscle when you lose weight fast, which means you will probably look, I hate this term but it seems appropriate, skinny fat. I bet that vision you have of yourself is all toned with taught skin right? Forget that it won't happen if you lose too fast.
Worse losing your period as a woman, this is your first warning that the body is shutting down non- essential systems in a bid to preserve itself.
Then there is the risk of osteoporosis or brittle bones as the body requires more calcium then your ingesting for other things besides bones. It will take from the bones to use elsewhere. And/or any bone repair (the body renews itself constantly) will be done with less calcium available therefore less bone strength.
You leave yourself open to anaemia: iron deficiency affects the blood cells making you out of breath, dizzy and exhausted so that exercise routine goes out of the window fast. Pernicious anaemia or B12 deficiency again makes you exhausted and fuzzy brained. You need B12 for good neurological function and lack of B12 will make it harder to think clearly, makes you forgetful and the sheer exhaustion again will make that exercise routine dissappear as you prefer sleep over anything else.
I can probably think of more but let's stop there...
If you lose 2- 1lb a week that is 104- 52lbs in a year, really what is a year out of your life? On average we live 80 years (give or take dependent on being male/female) so that one year is 8% (edit: 1.25% not 8% math and me not agreeing this morning )of your life. In the grand scheme of things that is nothing. You will be happier because you haven't made this too hard, it will be more likely you stick to it for the same reason which in turn means that it will be easier to maintain the loss in the longterm. Maintenance is more important right?
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Replies
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Nicely done.2
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I am bookmarking this for further use...
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MaddMaestro wrote: »Nicely done.
Thanks!
I'm seeing so many posts of people setting unrealistic time goals for large quantities of weight lately I felt it needed saying. 1 -
Just bumping this, I'm seeing too many posts of low cal deficits and newbies wanting to lose weight fast.2
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I lost mine pretty fast, 110lbs the first year. It was likely too fast, I ended up injured a couple of times (previous injuries aggravated). If I had to do it again I'd have slowed down a bit. But it is what it is. I am lucky that I'm tall, even at a large deficit I was still able to eat 1600-1800 calories a day and lose up to 1.5-2lbs per week.0
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Spliner1969 wrote: »I lost mine pretty fast, 110lbs the first year. It was likely too fast, I ended up injured a couple of times (previous injuries aggravated). If I had to do it again I'd have slowed down a bit. But it is what it is. I am lucky that I'm tall, even at a large deficit I was still able to eat 1600-1800 calories a day and lose up to 1.5-2lbs per week.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?
Btw jealous of those calories 1850 kcal is my current maintenance if I'm sedentary but trying to lose the last few at the moment, back in deficit this year after maintaining last year.0 -
This content has been removed.
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I lost 93 lbs in 6 months and it was a HUGE mistake. What I learned from that mistake was valuable as heck, but yeah, anyone thinking about losing rapidly - don't do it!2
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Spliner1969 wrote: »I lost mine pretty fast, 110lbs the first year. It was likely too fast, I ended up injured a couple of times (previous injuries aggravated). If I had to do it again I'd have slowed down a bit. But it is what it is. I am lucky that I'm tall, even at a large deficit I was still able to eat 1600-1800 calories a day and lose up to 1.5-2lbs per week.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?
Btw jealous of those calories 1850 kcal is my current maintenance if I'm sedentary but trying to lose the last few at the moment, back in deficit this year after maintaining last year.
Agreed, hindsight is always 20/20. I don't think it was so much the huge deficit as it was the constant exercise. I was going at it 7 days a week non stop for six months or more before I managed to injure myself. Had I dropped to even 1.5lbs/wk or given myself a rest day each week I probably would not have injured my back twice. My normal maintenance is somewhere around 2100, current it's about 2700-3000 with exercise. But I hit it hard 5 days a week still to keep those numbers. I've learned to take rest days the hard way.1 -
suzannesimmons3 wrote: »What is the rush? You most likely didn't gain the weight fast so prepare for the shock horror......
You are not going to lose it fast and be successful.
No one on the forum is going to advise you that you can safely lose more than 2lbs a week. Because unless you are morbidly obese you can't. It is quite simple: an unhealthy calorie deficit leaves you open to nutritional deficiency, this in turn increases the risk of brittle nails, bad skin, losing your hair.
The body will metabolise more muscle when you lose weight fast, which means you will probably look, I hate this term but it seems appropriate, skinny fat. I bet that vision you have of yourself is all toned with taught skin right? Forget that it won't happen if you lose too fast.
Worse losing your period as a woman, this is your first warning that the body is shutting down non- essential systems in a bid to preserve itself.
Then there is the risk of osteoporosis or brittle bones as the body requires more calcium then your ingesting for other things besides bones. It will take from the bones to use elsewhere. And/or any bone repair (the body renews itself constantly) will be done with less calcium available therefore less bone strength.
You leave yourself open to anaemia: iron deficiency affects the blood cells making you out of breath, dizzy and exhausted so that exercise routine goes out of the window fast. Pernicious anaemia or B12 deficiency again makes you exhausted and fuzzy brained. You need B12 for good neurological function and lack of B12 will make it harder to think clearly, makes you forgetful and the sheer exhaustion again will make that exercise routine dissappear as you prefer sleep over anything else.
I can probably think of more but let's stop there...
If you lose 2- 1lb a week that is 104- 52lbs in a year, really what is a year out of your life? On average we live 80 years (give or take dependent on being male/female) so that one year is 8% (edit: 1.25% not 8% math and me not agreeing this morning )of your life. In the grand scheme of things that is nothing. You will be happier because you haven't made this too hard, it will be more likely you stick to it for the same reason which in turn means that it will be easier to maintain the loss in the longterm. Maintenance is more important right?
And hair loss.
Yep hair loss is another.0 -
Well said! Bravo!!1
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In general, I agree but trying to apply hard and fast rules to everyone just doesn't work. I mean a 5'0" tall 60 year old woman and 6'4" 25 year old man working oilfield or construction are as different as night and day. There is also a difference between maintaining a large deficit at a high body fat and eating lots of lean meats, fruits, veggies, etc. and doing it at a low body fat eating empty calories. For some, more than 2 pounds a week is fine for a while but for others, 2 pounds a week is way too aggressive. I actually lost a lot faster at first but I was eating really well and more than most here. I also took vitamins just insurance. I just happened to be a very active and very obese man with a TDEE close to 5000 calories. I also played attention and reduced my deficit as I lost and put a lot of time in the weight room. I am now transitioning to maintainence and definitely not skinny fat.
All that said, I do think that a lot of people have unrealistic expectations and get in too big of a hurry and crash and burn, end up skinny fat, or even damage their health because of it. Long term success isn't so much about rate of loss but rather what kind of changes you make to achieve that loss and how sustainable they are. It has to be about developing good long term habits that you can continue for a lifetime. I could have lost at the approveded rate eating 4000 calories a day but what would that do to teach me about maintaining a body weight nearly half of where I started?3 -
In general, I agree but trying to apply hard and fast rules to everyone just doesn't work. I mean a 5'0" tall 60 year old woman and 6'4" 25 year old man working oilfield or construction are as different as night and day. There is also a difference between maintaining a large deficit at a high body fat and eating lots of lean meats, fruits, veggies, etc. and doing it at a low body fat eating empty calories. For some, more than 2 pounds a week is fine for a while but for others, 2 pounds a week is way too aggressive. I actually lost a lot faster at first but I was eating really well and more than most here. I also took vitamins just insurance. I just happened to be a very active and very obese man with a TDEE close to 5000 calories. I also played attention and reduced my deficit as I lost and put a lot of time in the weight room. I am now transitioning to maintainence and definitely not skinny fat.
It's why I actually stated unless you are morbidly obese it isn't safe to lose more than 2lbs a week, advice is not more than 1% of body weight a week therefore someone at 300lb would be safe to lose 3lb a week etc. There is only so much fat a body can metabolise in a day though, it will go for easier sources such as lean body mass instead if you are not careful.
All that said, I do think that a lot of people have unrealistic expectations and get in too big of a hurry and crash and burn, end up skinny fat, or even damage their health because of it. Long term success isn't so much about rate of loss but rather what kind of changes you make to achieve that loss and how sustainable they are. It has to be about developing good long term habits that you can continue for a lifetime. I could have lost at the approveded rate eating 4000 calories a day but what would that do to teach me about maintaining a body weight nearly half of where I started?
Surely with loss your calorie goal went down which means that if you lose your weight slowly you gradually learn how to eat less to maintain your smaller you, if you lose fast you are less likely to stick to those behaviors.
Someone said on the forum once: the person why eat the most and still loses weight wins. I think that is a good way to attempt losing, I mean food is around us all the time and tightly linked to social occasions so it's better to be able to join in and not make this a hard and painful process surely
Edited to bold a part of my response to make it stand out.0 -
''You most likely didn't gain the weight fast''
this doesn't make sense. most people gain weight slowly over the years. that doesn't mean you have to lose it that slow....by your logic a person can lose 10-15 a year
''You are not going to lose it fast and be successful''
you can lose weight slow and still gain it back9 -
ProfessorPupil wrote: »I lost 93 lbs in 6 months and it was a HUGE mistake. What I learned from that mistake was valuable as heck, but yeah, anyone thinking about losing rapidly - don't do it!
what happened0 -
I once figured it will probably take me 2 years to lose all the weight I need to, but that's not too bad considering it took me about 20 years to gain all this excess.8
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''You most likely didn't gain the weight fast''
this doesn't make sense. most people gain weight slowly over the years. that doesn't mean you have to lose it that slow....by your logic a person can lose 10-15 a year
That's not what the OP meant and I will wager you know that.
But it's stupid the number of people who've put on significant amounts of weight over YEARS who come on here whining that they didn't lose it all in three weeks.10 -
''You most likely didn't gain the weight fast''
this doesn't make sense. most people gain weight slowly over the years. that doesn't mean you have to lose it that slow....by your logic a person can lose 10-15 a year. what a joke
That's not what the OP meant and I will wager you know that.
But it's stupid the number of people who've put on significant amounts of weight over YEARS who come on here whining that they didn't lose it all in three weeks.
fast weight loss isn't smart because most people who want to do it are doing it in a way that isn't a lifestyle change. they think it's a quick fix, instead of fixing what caused them to overeat. once you handle that, you can lose as fast or slow as you're comfortable with.
and no one has ever said they wanted to lose 100lbs in 3 weeks
i'll take a guess and say that you and OP are very hostile towards people like this, because it reminds you of your own failures, when you started trying to lose weight.5 -
But I want MAGIC! Someobe has the magic wand and is just hiding it from me to be spiteful!6
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Also I want to win the lottery. Like another billion dollar one. So magically skinny and healthy and really, really rich, by the time summers over. That's not too much to ask, right?10
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fast weight loss isn't smart because most people who want to do it, are doing it in a way that isn't a lifestyle change. they think it's a quick fix, instead of fixing what caused them to overeat. once you handle that, you can lose as fast or slow as you're comfortable with.
and no one has ever said they wanted to lose 100lbs in 3 weeks
i'll take a guess and say that you and OP are very hostile towards people like this, because it reminds you of your own failures, when you started trying to lose weight.
I never suggested that you should lose weight over the same timescale as you gained it, the phrase you didn't lose the weight fast therefore you can't expect it to lose it fast is a way to point out you can't expect to lose a large amount of weight in a very short amount of time. It's to try and make people's expectations of weightloss realistic. The amount of times I read posts on here that start something like help I'm not losing! And it turns out they actually have been losing 1-2lbs a week which is a great rate of loss.
I'm not hostile against anyone 'like that' because I didn't fail, I've been quite successful actually. If you bother to read my comments to other posts on here you will actually find I try and advise people without being mean and offer advice based on what worked for me, and I don't make assumptions.
You actually come across quite hostile because I have written something you don't want to hear. That's fine, you don't need to take my advice or read my posts.10 -
I just want to reiterate that I thought your original post was wonderful and incredibly helpful for many. Bravo!
Not sure what the one individuals problem is with it. Maybe their user name says all we need to know?11 -
A 2 lb per week loss goal is NOT always wrong for someone who doesn't have tyo lose. For some...it WILL be relatively "fast and easy" and they won't need a lifestyle change to maintain it. That's a fact *some* cannot seem to intellectually accept, despite evidence to the contrary.
People like me. Having always been thin and fairly muscular naturally, having no addiction to food, and having eaten healthy and organic for the past 13 years means that I'm likely to lose the weight quickly (assuming I maintain CICO as I've done since March) and then go back to living as I always have as "maintenance". If I never had a weight problem before....there's no reason to believe I'd have one again.
I only gained weight because of serious injury let rendered me laid up, unable to do more than shuffle a few steps per day, and lay back down. The weight gain was fast. Now I can exercise and be active again. So I've shaved off 22 lbs since March and am at 148 lbs while still having visible muscle, so even if it took 3 months to get the remaining 10 to 13 lbs off....I'm already wearing my old clothes, well within the "average" weight for 5'7, and exercise enough that I'm eating more than I ever did and feel fine.
And I've been rudely told that I'll fail, regain, lose all muscle, become anorexic, etc etc....and while I don't heed their advice because it doesn't apply to my situation or my body...others may needlessly worry and think they're doomed to fail because of the "one size fits all" mentality.
Its fine to give advice. But condemning anyone immediately whos doing it a little differently than the "norm" isn't helpful and seems less like "trying to give genuine advice/show concern" and more like "it was hard for me and I want it to be hard for you because life would be unfair otherwise".10 -
Original post: Endorsed!
(And yes, I, too, have been successful, and resent no one. I just like seeing everyone stay strong and healthy as they lose weight.)9 -
WendyLeigh1119 wrote: »A 2 lb per week loss goal is NOT always wrong for someone who doesn't have tyo lose. For some...it WILL be relatively "fast and easy" and they won't need a lifestyle change to maintain it. That's a fact *some* cannot seem to intellectually accept, despite evidence to the contrary.
People like me. Having always been thin and fairly muscular naturally, having no addiction to food, and having eaten healthy and organic for the past 13 years means that I'm likely to lose the weight quickly (assuming I maintain CICO as I've done since March) and then go back to living as I always have as "maintenance". If I never had a weight problem before....there's no reason to believe I'd have one again.
I only gained weight because of serious injury let rendered me laid up, unable to do more than shuffle a few steps per day, and lay back down. The weight gain was fast. Now I can exercise and be active again. So I've shaved off 22 lbs since March and am at 148 lbs while still having visible muscle, so even if it took 3 months to get the remaining 10 to 13 lbs off....I'm already wearing my old clothes, well within the "average" weight for 5'7, and exercise enough that I'm eating more than I ever did and feel fine.
And I've been rudely told that I'll fail, regain, lose all muscle, become anorexic, etc etc....and while I don't heed their advice because it doesn't apply to my situation or my body...others may needlessly worry and think they're doomed to fail because of the "one size fits all" mentality a few people here have.
Its fine to give advice. But condemning anyone immediately whos doing it a little differently than the "norm" isn't helpful and seems less like "trying to give genuine advice/show concern" and more like "it was hard for me and I want it to be hard for you because life would be unfair otherwise".
I don't see what you are saying on the forum personally, yes the advice given is sometimes blunt and to the point but I don't take it as an attack. At the end of the day what I aimed to do was to give some perspective on the risks of losing too fast and within the safe guidelines that mfp advocates. If readers want to take that as a personal attack on their methods of losing, then by all means, I can't control their feelings be offended no skin of my nose, I can only give you a perspective based on my experience (like everyone else).
I don't really get either who I am condemning in this thread but I have been accused of probably being hostile toward people who have been successful because i have failed which is bizarre as really, I'm happy for you if you managed to get to goal and kept it off, well done. I've lost plenty of weight myself I don't need to feel jealous of others successes I've got my own.
The way you describe your loss sounds sensible, essentially you have lost around 1.3lb a week since March and you say you are eating more than you ever did. That to me sounds like a safe way to approach this.
I wrote this as there are so many newbies starting expecting to lose tons of weight within a short period of time, there is nothing close minded here just the scientific facts that you stand to lose a lot more that just the fat you want to. I attempted to get people to rethink their expectations and to not make weightloss more difficult than it has to be clearly I have failed as so many seem to be making such a big deal about such a tiny fraction of this post.
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Thought this might be appropriate.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html/6 -
Thought this might be appropriate.
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/you-are-not-different.html/
You know... this was a very very nice summary covering a lot of the bases that seem to be tripping people up in our various discussions.4
mind you calculations without a calculator when I've only been up for a couple of hours = mistakes, lol!
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