What is a good weekly weight loss goal?

mjcbills1980
mjcbills1980 Posts: 14 Member
edited November 24 in Getting Started
Needing to lose 150 lbs to goal, should I consider doing 1 or 1.5 or 2pounds per week as my goal? Don’t want to start at 2 lbs a week and feel hungry all the time. What has worked for you?

Replies

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited January 2018
    I've lost ~145 pounds in ~3 years with ~84 pounds of that in the first year.

    What worked for me was to find a comfortable calorie intake amount and then let the weight come off at whatever rate it wanted. I concentrated on my day-to-day compliance with my calorie goal rather than having a weekly weight target.

    Weight loss isn't linear. I didn't get concerned over the ups and downs from week to week because I knew that I was doing what I needed to do and the weight loss would show on the scale eventually.
  • mjcbills1980
    mjcbills1980 Posts: 14 Member
    Did you exercise the first year or ever since you started losing?
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    mjcbills1980 wrote: »
    Did you exercise the first year or ever since you started losing?
    I got maybe 2000-3000 steps per day for the first couple of years. I was beyond sedentary. As I got closer to goal weight, I started walking and I'm up to ~12,000 steps per day now.
  • Sambo_fitness
    Sambo_fitness Posts: 137 Member
    1 to 2 pounds a week is a great and healthy goal!
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    I would start at 2 pounds, personally. Depends on what helps you best with adherence. I like to see some movement on the scale. It gives me momentum. Some people like to eat more and lose slowly.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    If you have 150 lbs. to lose you can do 2 lbs. per week. The guide is 1% of your body weight to lose. So over 200 lbs. you can lose 2 lbs. per week. My starting weight was 237, and I'm down to 199. (GW is 137). I started at 2 lbs. per week to lose, and was able to do that relatively comfortably until I hit about 25 lbs. lost. So at around 212-215 I switched to 1.5 lbs. per week, but couldn't do that for long either, so I'm at 1 lb. per week now. I can eat 1610 calories per day, which is doable, and I will eat back all my exercise calories, so it's usually between 2000-2200 caloriesthat I'm eating daily.

    From what I read on here, the body has to have enough fat reserves to draw from for the high deficits--1000 calories per day (and more). I had wanted to stay at 2 lbs. per week until I hit 200 but my calorie allotment dropped to 1200 (as I lost more weight) and I am just too active to subsist on 1200 calories, even eating back exercise calories.

    The important thing for me (which may be for you too) was getting a good amount of weight off quickly so 1) I would improve my cholesterol and blood sugar (I was getting close to pre-diabetic)--I haven't had my bloodwork redone since I lost the 37 lbs. but I have heard that even as little as 20 lbs. can have a big effect on it for many people. 2) I wanted to be able to be more active. I was having trouble with my knees, going up AND down stairs and lacked energy at 237. I have been physically active for most of my life (up until the last 6 years and the 60 lbs. I gained) so I just wanted to get down to a weight at which I could get back to more strenuous physical activity. At 199 I can do so much I could not at 237. It will take me another 25-30 lbs. to get to my "normal" but I would recommend if you can do it, trying to lose at least 40-50 of your lbs. at 2 lbs. per week so that you can feel those results and make use of the smaller body to be more physically active--so when you do have to reduce the goal to 1 lb. a week you'll be able to work out more and build up stamina.
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