3-4 pounds a week

katiedaniels32006 · May 2017

Hello everyone. Tomorrow will be seven weeks since I have started my healthy life style. I started at 282, and I am down to 258 pounds. I'm losing about 3-4 pounds a week. I hate to do this, but should I up my calorie intake higher so I don't lose as much. I feel silly asking, because I want to lose weight, but I want to do it in a healthy way and not gain back what I have put hard work into. I currently eat 1650 calories a day. I do cardio five days a week and weights 2-3 times a week.

uberleelee757 · May 2017

Congratulations on your weight loss!! I'm no expert at this, but are your net calories for the day 1650, or you're eating 1650 in calories as well as excercising. The latter could possibly explain your drastic weight loss. I'm happy for you! Best wishes!

*Edit: to add on, I net 1200 calories a day. The other day I got to eat 700 more calories because I worked out so much.

That's what I consider a cheat day. I earned it!

I just started on Tuesday and lost 2 lbs as of Thursday. I am not going to weigh myself again until Tuesday.

AnnPT77 · May 2017

Congratulations on achieving such weight loss success, and sticking to it for 7 weeks already! That's wonderful, and an accomplishment of which you should be justifiably proud.

If you're still losing 3-4 pounds per week on average now (ignoring the first couple of weeks when there may've been a bigger drop of water weight), then I think it would be a healthier choice to increase your calories eaten somewhat.

A common rule of thumb is to avoid losing more than 1% of your bodyweight weekly on average, and less than that if you're 50 pounds or closer to goal.

The calorie calculators (like the goal calories calculation built into MFP) are great for getting us started on a weight loss course, but once we have a month to six weeks of results data, our own weight loss rate is a much better guide.

Losing weight too fast is risky: It can lead to unnecessarily much lean tissue loss (loss of muscle or bone) alongside fat lost. It can cause fatigue or weakness. It can make our hair thin out, and nails become brittle. It can set us up for future over-eating if we hit a patch of personal-life stress. It can have a negative effect on our immune system. We could end up with more than minimal "adaptive thermogenesis" where our we unconsciously slow our daily activities and physical processes and slow down our weight loss rate (this is not saying there is a "starvation mode" where we can't lose weight because we eat too little - that's a myth).

A too-fast weight loss rate is a warning sign that we might be taking unnecessary risk. Things might work out OK, or might not. If there are bad consequences, they can be difficult and slow to reverse. It's better to avoid them.

Weight loss is a long-term proposition, and we want to stay strong, healthy and energetic all the way through, right?

(I lost 1/3 of my body weight using MFP. At one point, I loss weight a little too fast, and got fatigued and a bit weak. I started eating more as soon as I realized, but it did take some time to recover.)

Seffell · May 2017

Well done!
I would too suggest that you increase your calories until you start losing no more than 2lbs a week. That would be better in the long term - for your skin, your hair, your muscles, your hormones, your period and general nutrition.
I know I'm repeating well known information which you undoubtedly have heard of many times but I really think it would be better.

blackcars7411 · May 2017

I wouldn't change the calories until the app says to. In the beginning, losing weight is fast, but it will slow down.

3-4 pounds a week

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