Healthy Weight Loss Rate
xWintersKnightx
Posts: 59 Member
I dont post often, but was looking for some inspiration in the before/after thread. I was in awe of the changes. I was also surprised at how many people are posting massive drops in such short time. I cant even set my calorie deficit to more than 2lb/week, and I thought threads supporting unsafe weight loss were removed? There are at least 15 before/afters I saw in only a few minutes of browsing that were applauded for dropping 25lbs in a month (ex;225 to 200) . I'm envious, amazed at the hard work it must have taken, and a bit confused on what exactly are safe guidelines for how much weight a person should lose in a given time frame.
2
Replies
-
If people have more than 75ibs to lose, more weight can be lost a week safely. But for less than that 2ibs is definetly the maximum1
-
Generally, .5 -1% of your bw per week is a good rate, understanding that in the beginning its generally faster due to a lot of variables, such as water weight, glycogen levels, waste, sodium.
And faster isnt better, especially if you care about muscle and your metabolism.4 -
xWintersKnightx wrote: »I dont post often, but was looking for some inspiration in the before/after thread. I was in awe of the changes. I was also surprised at how many people are posting massive drops in such short time. I cant even set my calorie deficit to more than 2lb/week, and I thought threads supporting unsafe weight loss were removed? There are at least 15 before/afters I saw in only a few minutes of browsing that were applauded for dropping 25lbs in a month (ex;225 to 200) . I'm envious, amazed at the hard work it must have taken, and a bit confused on what exactly are safe guidelines for how much weight a person should lose in a given time frame.
The success stories section doesn't seem to garner the same attention as the intro sections, so some of what you read has flown under the radar. If people are just posting what they have done, without it being perceived as advice, they do stay up there. Not sure if this is good or bad. But your take on it is pretty spot on in that it is too quick of a loss.
I, initially lost faster than the 2 lb per week. I don't recommend it, but I had a lot to lose starting at 330+. I lost ~45 lbs in the first 3 months. While I haven't suffered any ill effects, I've read up on gallstones and kind of think I was lucky to avoid them.
Good luck3 -
While commonly accepted guidelines for health and fitness are usually based on science and/or experience, there are always exceptions that may not take into account indivdual circumstances and differences.
So, while it is generally recommended that one "should not" lose more than 2#/wk, this does not mean that it will be necessarily bad or harmful to you if you do.
It just depends.
In my case, I lost weight at the rate of 3#/wk from 196# to 190# in just 2 weeks without ill effect.
Of course, this was a very short period of time and, although I continued to lose another 30# (from 190# to 160#) quite rapidly in the following 5 months, the rate of loss dropped progressively lower from 2#/wk down to 1/2#/wk until I reached maintenance, well w/in the recommended guidelines.
BTW, I accomplished this w/o any knowledge of this particular weightloss guideline at the time.
So, I would not worry about breaking the 2#/wk weifhtloss guideline, UNLESS you are losing weight so rapidly OR for so long as to jeopardize your health and well-being, which can only be assessed based on your individual circumstances.
0 -
xWintersKnightx wrote: »I dont post often, but was looking for some inspiration in the before/after thread. I was in awe of the changes. I was also surprised at how many people are posting massive drops in such short time. I cant even set my calorie deficit to more than 2lb/week, and I thought threads supporting unsafe weight loss were removed? There are at least 15 before/afters I saw in only a few minutes of browsing that were applauded for dropping 25lbs in a month (ex;225 to 200) . I'm envious, amazed at the hard work it must have taken, and a bit confused on what exactly are safe guidelines for how much weight a person should lose in a given time frame.
2-2.5 pounds per week is the max you want to target. Much higher than that and you run an increased risk of gallstones. Also, note that most people will often lose a lot of weight in the first month due to water loss. I lost something like 15 pounds in the first three weeks all because of water loss. My loss rate settled to a more sustainable 2-2.5 lbs per week after that.0 -
I've often thought of saying something in some of the success story threads where weight loss was particularly fast but it always felt wrong to do so. Like **kittening** on someone's parade, right?
I also note that MFP seems to be of "two minds" about some of this. I've certainly seen more than one MFP promo where the speed of weight loss figures quite prominently and is above what i would consider suitable. Yet, in the forums, MFP recognises, correctly, that unsafe weight loss practices should not be promoted.
If you're cynical, the quick loss promos bring customers and the avoidance of promotion of unsafe weight loss techniques reduces the risk of getting sued.
To me the real win is how many of us will manage to RETAIN our weight loss over and above the success achieved using other tools and methods.
But depressing statistics do not create a large user base!
And by that I do not mean that MFP has a worse rate of success than other tools. To the contrary, I strongly suspect that MFP's success rate is one of the best ones around!
Still, very few of us will succeed in retaining a substantial degree of weight loss over the 3, 4, 5 year, or longer, terms, and putting those numbers up in black and white will not make us all happy to try.
That said, you can't win the lottery without playing. All you can do is stack the deck as best you can.
As Mr Lemon says: 0.5% to 1% of your bodyweight per week is a perfectly adequate and good target to be shooting for and it tends to have less "side-effects" than attempting to lose faster.
I personally prefer to look at it as aiming for a deficit that does not exceed 20% of TDEE (25% while you have sufficient energy reserves such that you would be correctly characterised as obese).
in all cases, especially when having a lot of weight to lose, trying hard but not too hard is the level of effort you want to strike (a concerted but not overwhelming level of effort).3 -
I generally stay away from the success forums, although I do pop on the photo only thread from time to time. Honestly, it's not that hard to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time if you're willing to risk your health to do it. That's not where I'm at. Like @Pav8888 said, I wouldn't want to rain on their parades - it's not like they specifically asked for advice. The most I've personally lost in a single month was 12 pounds when I first started, but I'm confident much of that was water.1
-
I've often thought of saying something in some of the success story threads where weight loss was particularly fast but it always felt wrong to do so. Like **kittening** on someone's parade, right?
Yeah, they're done, give them their props.MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I generally stay away from the success forums, although I do pop on the photo only thread from time to time. Honestly, it's not that hard to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time if you're willing to risk your health to do it. That's not where I'm at. Like @Pav8888 said, I wouldn't want to rain on their parades - it's not like they specifically asked for advice. The most I've personally lost in a single month was 12 pounds when I first started, but I'm confident much of that was water.
I cut 30 in 30 days with the hydroxycut stack and keto.
kept it off for almost 2 years.
gained it back.... tried keto again sans stack... gained another 5 lbs... lost 10 friends
This time... 35 lbs in about 6 months of actual work(spread out over 2 years mostly because I'm not in a hurry) no gimmicks, no tricks. just discipline.
1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »I've often thought of saying something in some of the success story threads where weight loss was particularly fast but it always felt wrong to do so. Like **kittening** on someone's parade, right?
Yeah, they're done, give them their props.MegaMooseEsq wrote: »I generally stay away from the success forums, although I do pop on the photo only thread from time to time. Honestly, it's not that hard to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time if you're willing to risk your health to do it. That's not where I'm at. Like @Pav8888 said, I wouldn't want to rain on their parades - it's not like they specifically asked for advice. The most I've personally lost in a single month was 12 pounds when I first started, but I'm confident much of that was water.
I cut 30 in 30 days with the hydroxycut stack and keto.
kept it off for almost 2 years.
gained it back.... tried keto again sans stack... gained another 5 lbs... lost 10 friends
This time... 35 lbs in about 6 months of actual work(spread out over 2 years mostly because I'm not in a hurry) no gimmicks, no tricks. just discipline.
Woof, that's a lot of weight to drop in 30 days - I'm hungry just thinking about it. I watched my mom crash diet through my childhood and promised myself I'd never do that. When I finally decided I needed to deal with my post-law school gains I was focused on making long term changes and optimizing my likelihood of maintaining. In January 2017 I set myself a two year goal to lose 73 pounds - I'm at 15 months and 45 pounds down, so I'm feeling pretty good so far.2 -
<<snip>>
To me the real win is how many of us will manage to RETAIN our weight loss over and above the success achieved using other tools and methods.
But depressing statistics do not create a large user base!
And by that I do not mean that MFP has a worse rate of success than other tools. To the contrary, I strongly suspect that MFP's success rate is one of the best ones around!
Still, very few of us will succeed in retaining a substantial degree of weight loss over the 3, 4, 5 year, or longer, terms, and putting those numbers up in black and white will not make us all happy to try.
It would be real interesting to see actual stats on this. I doubt they are available, but I wonder if MFP users (not just the forum members) have a higher success rate.
There are lots of long-term success stories here, to be sure. But no way to know if we (MFP users) are doing better than average.
(not disagreeing with you, just wondering out loud).
1 -
I see people get called out for dangerously fast weightloss on the success board. Just now there is a thread called "Lost 4 stone in 7 weeks" or along those line, and a girl posted for her boyfriend with pictures. That's 8 pounds/week. Almost all responses were gently explaining that that rate of loss is dangerous and he should slow down.0
-
I would be surprised if some of them are being paid to post there.0
-
I would be surprised if some of them are being paid to post there.
I agree with what you wrote (though not with what I think you intended to say).
But i suspect, strongly, that MFP has no lack of people who have experienced success.
Both long enough to post in the success section AND long enough to meet my own criterion of 5+ years.
Just a lot fewer of the second than the first.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions