Which one is max 2% body weight per week loss or 2#'s per week loss

Options
donjtomasco
donjtomasco Posts: 790 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
or is it something else?

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited December 2018
    Options
    I have never heard anyone recommend 2%, I've only ever heard 1% as the max.

    Regardless, these are general guidelines that don't necessarily make sense for everyone. You have to take into consideration how much weight you need to lose to get into the healthy weight range, what calorie level would be required to lose at a given speed, and compare the risks of losing quickly to staying in your current weight range longer. As well as consider how your weight loss plan prepares you for maintenance, which is often a trickier goal.

    What is best or safest for a 350 lb man with arthritis and heart problems is different than for an otherwise healthy 190 lb man.
  • MsBaz2018
    MsBaz2018 Posts: 384 Member
    edited December 2018
    Options
    What's your question?

    Are you asking the maths of comparing 2%*weight compared to 2?

    I assume not so what do you want to know?
  • donjtomasco
    donjtomasco Posts: 790 Member
    Options
    Is that max weight loss goal 1% per week of your body weight okay if you need to lose 25#?
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Options
    No. That's too aggressive. 1/2 lb per week with that little to lose. 1 lb at the most.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Options
    I’ve seen .5-1% of body weight as a reasonable goal with 1% being the absolute max and .5% being a more realistic max if you have less to lose.

    The max really depends on a lot of things.

    There’s a limit to how much fat you can burn in a day (in past topics where this has been discussed, I’ve seen reputable folk post that you can burn anywhere from 16-39 calories/pound of fat per day). So the maximum amount of fat you can burn is determined to some degree by the amount of fat you have to burn.

    Also consider that it’s unlikely that everything you burn will be fat and the further you are from adequate protein intake/serious resistance training, the less likely it will be that everything you burn in a day will be fat-even if you do have the fat stores to support it mathematically.

    Also-calorie deficit determines rate of loss. There becomes a point at which maintaining a certain deficit makes it difficult (or impossible) to maintain adequate nutrition (macro/micro nutrient intake). For most women this is 1200, for men 1500. That’s eating an “ideal” diet. If the deficit required to lose more brings your intake below those numbers-then you’re not going to be able to get all the nutrition you need.

    So in theory-if you have a lot of fat mass, you maintain a “perfect” diet and somehow manage to do all that while eating plenty of protein AND running a solid strength training program, you could conceivably lose 16-39 calories per pound of fat mass per day.

    For me specifically - that’s just under 1.5 lbs per week. I weigh about 160. I lose about a pound a week.

    So .5-1% seems reasonable.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Options
    1% max is a general guideline. You're not going to find solid irrefutable scientific evidence showing the formula for determining the healthy/unhealthy breaking point. And, as always, max healthy rate does not mean max sustainable rate of loss.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    Options
    The max is the max guideline for morbidly obses people. There are other guidelines for those with less to lose.

Categories