Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Fast or Slow Weight Loss?

2

Replies

  • inertiastrength
    inertiastrength Posts: 2,343 Member
    edited March 2018
    Depends. If you're obese then slow and steady.
    If you're already relatively lean and you're cutting 5lbs the quicker the better (although you may not have much of a choice here lol)
  • CaliVeggieGal
    CaliVeggieGal Posts: 10 Member
    Everybody woo the vegan? I had to look up what a woo is. Is that really the spirit around here? Nice community...
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    edited March 2018
    I personally like aggressive cuts. I know how to keep my protein high, adjust my training, and supplement during this time. I'd rather a diet be short and to the point, so I can get back to training fully fueled, than have it drag on for 5 months to lose barely a thing. I'm fully convinced I'd lose just as much muscle dieting for a long time than an aggressive 3-4 weeks. But I'm also not looking to lose 30 pounds. In that case, I'd be more moderate.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    ggeise14 wrote: »
    You do you! Advice is good and can be helpful, but ultimately it's what will work for you that you need to navigate.

    Yes to that. In the end success comes when we find our own n=1 results that works .
  • jeanona
    jeanona Posts: 155 Member
    The key is sustainability for me. If these individuals you mentioned in the OP can sustain what they’re doing over a long term period, then all the power to them.

    I used to do very aggressive cuts, only to end up gaining again, resulting in me always fluctuating 10 pounds around goal weight either gaining or losing. Now that I’m at goal weight using the slow way (took me 7 months to lose 10 pounds this time round!), I’m doing a veeery slow cut to get a couple of pounds under so that I can maintain at or below goal. This helps me learn to maintain long term instead of the continuous lose and gain cycle.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 2,084 Member
    People need to find what works for them - so, it depends.

    For me, I've never been significantly overweight - overweight, yes, but far from obese (heaviest was ~30 pounds over my "goal" weight). When I decided to change things, at first, my losses were faster, but I was mostly focused on diet alone.

    Once I started adding fitness back in, I couldn't handle the steep deficit without my workouts or overall energy levels suffering. So, I accepted a slow loss of ~.5lb/week.

    Currently, I'm in a similar boat only the trend is even slower - barely downward at all, but it's more of a recomp than a weight loss so my deficit is very small.

    Since fitness was my priority more than the weight, that meant I had to choose - slow loss (or no scale loss) or let the workouts suffer.

    It's not for everyone, I'll admit, it gets frustrating sometimes to see the scale stuck, but I'm feeling great in the gym, better riding (which is the ultimate purpose of the workouts), and I'm getting much happier with my body right now than I have been in quite awhile too. But if my primary goal was looking good in a bikini or just being "healthier" then I'd much rather be at a faster loss and that would be a lot more motivating under other circumstances.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    Everybody woo the vegan? I had to look up what a woo is. Is that really the spirit around here? Nice community...

    I doubt you were wooed because you're a vegan, there are quite a few well respected vegans here. You were probably wooed because your post supported detox/cleanses, which are in fact woo.

    Aww ok, interesting trigger. I love a good detox, especially from added sugar, but everyone is different.

    I respect vegens... that being said.... I would starve! .... maybe I should become a vegan. The fact that vegans stick to a lifestyle makes me have that respect.
  • koda0071
    koda0071 Posts: 40 Member
    As stated several times already, it may depend on where your starting point is (weight wise) and how tolerable you are to changes in your diet choices and exercise routines as to the speed in which you lose weight. My experience is not very different from others here that started from a very significant number 350+lbs. Being that heavy to start with, the pounds dropped very steady and relatively fast the first six months, because anything I did to cut calories and burn more calories was really beneficial. I would say the slow and steady weight loss for me was more about making the dietary changes that I could stick with long term rather than making drastic changes with everything about my nutritional choices all at once. If you are starting where I did, start making improvement in food choices and increasing your amount of exercise and let your body decide how fast it wants to lose those unwanted pounds. Today, when the progress seems slower and I don't see the scale move as fast, I have to remind myself this was really a change in lifestyle to be more healthy and the weight loss fast or slow is a great by product.
  • Arizona_C
    Arizona_C Posts: 1,476 Member
    edited March 2018
    In my experience, making my weight loss of 45 lbs relatively fast meant I stayed dynamic and focused. It took me five months, and I think if it had been slower, I would have lost courage. Seeing the numbers going down significantly every week made me keep up the work.

    I had put the weight on after the pregnancy of my second daughter, and I felt uncomfortable physically and emotionally in the heavier body. Losing weight rapidly meant I didn't have time to get stuck in the negative self feelings.

    The weight loss came from a bit of cleaning up my diet, but mostly from two hours of cardio a day. In terms of installing a new, healthy habit, I've read somewhere it takes in average two months. Such a thing can surely not be put into a neat statestics; still it sound reasonable to me.

    Any thoughts on this; how long time does it take to get into the habit of working out or eating in a certain way ?
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited March 2018
    Brittheartsyou wrote: »
    I don't think fast weight loss is bad as long as you're toning and moving. I have lost weight fast and slow. I do lift with weights which probably helps fat loss but builds muscles so relying on weight alone is kinda useless unless you're prepping and it matters. I like to make sure the fat in my body isn't taking over my muscle (I don't have a ton of muscle but enough to burn fat and calories through my day) if you're finding that it's too slow to lose one pound a week bump it up just make sure you're not going crazy with yourself and starving all the time. If you're getting protein it should be fairly easy to stick to a low cal diet. It's just personal preference. If I go to lose fat, I aim to do it quickly and toning and working out. However I have went on a calorie restricted diet without doing much of anything besides tried to stay moving with house cleaning and kids and lost a very significant amount of weight when I was first starting and I did fine with it. As with anything in the whole world, if you go back to your old ways and not watching what you eat. YoulL gain it back. Do it at whatever pace you want

    Everything you said is so wrong. Unless you're recomping, a new lifter, obese, on steroids, someone who once lifted and got back to weight lifting....you do not build muscles on a caloric deficit especially if it's as high as 1 lbs per week.
  • dutchandkiwi
    dutchandkiwi Posts: 1,389 Member
    I went for the slow approach as it suited me and myeline best. I know I have a tendency to get hangry and to binge when I am really feeling deprived. I am simply a much nicer person if I am just a little under so my CO only slightly higher than CI. I played around a little with more aggressive deficits and also maintaining for a while when I felt I needed to for sanity sake.

    All in all it took me about 3,5 years to get to my goal. I am in maintenance now and the transition was quite easy as it was only a little change from what I was doing before.
    For me it was definitely the right approach to go slow.My weight went up slowly It went down slowly too
  • fionawilliamson
    fionawilliamson Posts: 110 Member
    I have wondered the same thing. On the Success message board there is a person that lost 178 pounds in 13 months. How the heck does some9ne do that.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    fionawilliamson wrote: »
    I have wondered the same thing. On the Success message board there is a person that lost 178 pounds in 13 months. How the heck does some9ne do that.

    To be fair, when you have over 100 lbs to lose, you can lose weight pretty fast toward the beginning. Getting some of that weight off your organs and bones quickly is far more healthy than the drawbacks. The less you have to lose, the higher the risk that you'll see the negative effects of losing weight fast.

    You for sure can lose weight fast, but just because you can doesn't mean it's the best idea :wink:
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,740 Member
    nutrofight wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    nutrofight wrote: »
    Fast is probably best. It will give your fat cells the least amount of time to respond with increased inflammation. Like do really strong dieting for 4 weeks, and then eat normal for one week to reset. Then over time come up with a somewhat random loss versus maintain pattern so the fat cells won't recognize what is going on.

    Do you have any scientific back up for any of this? In general, theories that involve tricking your body are woo, the different parts of your body don't think or recognize things that way.
    Why would I care about sciences on it?

    Because medicine is a science, i.e. it provably works. Any alternatives to it require similar proof, else no reasonable comparison can be made. We know you are selling "woo" because your defense of said "woo" relies on extricating it from close scrutiny, and the exacting standards of investigations into clinical efficacy. The whole woo-verse is rife with papers, reports and claims referencing each other in an echo chamber of proof free easy virtue.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    CaliVeggieGal wrote: »
    Everybody woo the vegan? I had to look up what a woo is. Is that really the spirit around here? Nice community...

    I doubt you were wooed because you're a vegan, there are quite a few well respected vegans here. You were probably wooed because your post supported detox/cleanses, which are in fact woo.

    Aww ok, interesting trigger. I love a good detox, especially from added sugar, but everyone is different.
    Cleanses/detoxes are 100% worthless scams. They do nothing beneficial except make your wallet lighter.

    https://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/the-detox-delusion/

    https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-detox-scam-how-to-spot-it-and-how-to-avoid-it/

    Agree with this!
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    fionawilliamson wrote: »
    I have wondered the same thing. On the Success message board there is a person that lost 178 pounds in 13 months. How the heck does some9ne do that.

    I just read the thread you're talking about. Losing large amounts of weight relatively quickly is much more feasible when one starts at 400 lbs., as the OP of that thread did. To over-simplify things, as one approaches some degree of leanness, various bodily "defenses" come into play because the human body is designed with survival in mind. Your body doesn't know you're trying to get lean to look good on the beach or fit in a wedding dress - all it senses is that you're getting to the point where you're not holding adequate reserves for starvation/famine, and it reacts accordingly.

    Losing huge amounts of excess flubber when morbidly obese is not that hard. Losing those last few pounds to get "ripped/shredded" lean is much more difficult by comparison.

    Having started at nearly 400lbs myself, the first 70 was easy the first year. When you have to eat nearly 4700 calories to maintain weight, just cutting out a couple of cookies will do that! The last 140 or so was easy and hard. Lost it way too fast! I noticed the body does kick in the leaner you get. I still believe body weight settling point does exist! I am no longer calling it BF set point, there is some research I have read that talks about lean mass having things to do with it. Fast or slow works for weight loss, but maintenance, that is another question. Still learning about it myself. Though I will say this, my ex was well over 300lbs at 5'2", she could not keep weight loss up, so as far as it being easy just because someone is obese is an oversimplification. I think people need to look at why we got big to begin with.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    For long term results, slow and steady is best.

    That being said, weighing yourself daily can produce erratic short term results. You can plateau for a month, then drop 8lbs in two days. That's still 2lbs a week over time. I've had plateaus that lasted for months, then drop more than 10lbs in less than a week.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Slow is usually better as it's due to small changes in your lifestyle that can be maintained for the rest of your life. Some people need the fast weight loss at the beginning of thier journey for that extra bit of motivation.

    I'm about to drop weight extremely fast pre-op, both my doctors have not only gave me the green light, but I am now on a once daily supplement that conatins every micronutrient my body needs: horrible stuff (I asked if I could feeding tube this up my nose it tastes so bad...nope, I just have to drink this nasty stuff). I also get biweekly blood work done.

    Neither fast nor slow weight loss is better under every circumstance.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    I’m firmly on Team Rapid Cut. The longer I stay in a deficit (even a mild one) the more my lifting suffers. I prefer to get in, get out, and back to eating for passable intensity and volume before my brain has a chance to start making me suck.

    Example: last summer I cut from 181 to 163 in 14 days, after refeeding. “But but it’ll all just come back as fat as quickly as you got rid of it”. Nope. Here I am, nine months later, and I’m just now back to 184 with a similar composition to 175-ish. I wouldn’t ever recommend my methods for anyone else, but it definitely works when one can tell their gut monsters to shut up for a couple of weeks, then play the long game building back up.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    I lose slowly (30 pounds since August). I maintained through March and April due to competing priorities that took my focus off weight loss for a while. I didn't log, just kept an eye on the scale and ate sensibly. So my turtle ways built some good habits, I guess :smile: I'm currently 8 pounds from healthy BMI and 14 from goal. If it takes the rest of the year for me to reach goal weight, so be it.

    My husband is of the lose as quickly as possible mindset, and it works for him. He's also 100# heavier, has more muscle mass, and is 8 inches taller than me. I couldn't even begin to create the deficit he can without starving myself.
  • kdbulger
    kdbulger Posts: 396 Member
    For me:

    I have lost 37lbs in 9 months through making slow, small changes and building on them. My nutrition isn't perfect, but I can survive my mistakes because my exercise and nutrition has some flexibility and fudge room built in.

    In May I tried to lose 7 lbs in 4 weeks to meet a certain weight goal. Near the end of my goal period, I got stressed and relapsed. Cutting that many more calories made me feel like I couldn't have a little indulgence without totally blowing my progress, so if I had a treat it would turn into not tracking for the rest of the day and eating a lot more treats.

    I do think it's a personal preference, though. Some people do better with a strict disciplined approach.
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    fionawilliamson wrote: »
    I have wondered the same thing. On the Success message board there is a person that lost 178 pounds in 13 months. How the heck does some9ne do that.

    If someone is extremely heavy, that's very possible. It's more about a percentage of excess fat loss than poundage. So someone that is 600lbs and has a good 450lbs of excess fat will be able to safely lose 100lbs in a relatively short period. Someone that is 10lbs overweight has a much harder time losing those 10lbs.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories