Is a 4% bodyweight reduction too much for my current stats?

brittanystebbins95 · May 2019

I'm considering joining a Dietbet.
If you've never done one before, you have to lose 4% of your bodyweight in 30 days.
I'm 5'6" and currently at 147-149 ish lbs, depending on the day. 4% of 149 is about 6lbs. That's a 1.5 lb/week loss. At my current size, is that too much weight too fast? I'm not overweight anymore, I'm in the mid range for normal for BMI (I know that that does not matter but I don't have any pictures to post at the moment.)
My point is that I don't have a lot left to lose. At what point should I be trying for a half pound or so a week so I'm not doing more harm than good to my body?

apullum · May 2019

Yes, that is an overly aggressive rate of loss for your stats. Since you’re already in your optimal BMI range, if you’re not happy with your appearance, you might look into recomp rather than weight loss.

HulkV2 · May 2019

I dont like BMI, it doesnt take into account lean body mass. Example, the Rock is 34.3 which is obese, makes no sense right? My answer would be that it depends on your current BF%, the higher you are the more you could pull it off. Once you hit the teens your body doesnt want to let it go as easy and starts to hold onto it (22 to 30% bf for women)

Maxxitt · May 2019

One month of aggressive dieting is unlikely to do any lasting harm if you are a youngish and healthy person, but it may backfire, in that with a severe deficit (and 750 deficit a week for a normal weight female person is severe), your non-exercise activity level is likely to drop as your body compensates for being malnourished, which means your body is requiring fewer calories, which isn't helpful to your overall goal. You would also have to be extra conscious about meeting minimum nutrition requirements for fats and micronutrients, and do some kind of resistance training + eat 115g protein (.8g X goal) to help most of the weight loss be fat as opposed to muscle.

heybales · May 2019

If starting weigh-in is morning after eating big Chinese meal night before with decent amount of fluids.

And ending weigh-in is morning after sweating profusely on 2-3 hr bike ride after normal to low sodium meals.

This could be accomplished possibly my only that 1 day tweak.

Throw in some reasonable weight loss rate during that month (1/2 lb weekly), and confirm your cycle is hitting at correct time to be low on retained water weight - and this could be accomplished without even getting into a foolish level of fat loss attempt.

As mentioned above, you'd probably start aggressive and body would adapt - perhaps not that fast - perhaps it would.
And during this time of potentially minor stress and slowing down - it would likely have increased cortisol from the stress retaining water also. Opposite effect.

Time based weight-loss goals rarely work at all unless just totally reasonable and long term.

kimny72 · May 2019

A 30 day diet bet is basically a roll of the dice. Regardless of how realistic or not the numbers may be, it is impossible to control how much weight you lose in that short amount of time. Even if you successfully ate at a 750 cal deficit per day for all 30 days, one weird water weight swing on weigh in day and your 6 lbs of fat lost could look like 1 lb on the scale.

As others have said, trying to do it would be unwise but probably not cause physical damage. It would be fairly aggressive though, which could lead to a rebound after its over, especially if you do all that work and fall a lb short.

I guess the questions you have to consider is, why do you want to crash diet for a diet bet? Is there a reason you think this will work out better for you than losing these few lbs at your own pace and your own reasons?

If it's just about the money, this imho would be about the same as buying a raffle ticket. You have about as much control over what the scale will exactly say on the 30th day as you'd have over a raffle.

PAV8888 · May 2019

Not a great idea.

MikePTY · May 2019

HulkV2 wrote: »

I dont like BMI, it doesnt take into account lean body mass. Example, the Rock is 34.3 which is obese, makes no sense right? My answer would be that it depends on your current BF%, the higher you are the more you could pull it off. Once you hit the teens your body doesnt want to let it go as easy and starts to hold onto it (22 to 30% bf for women)

BMI may not work well for The Rock, but it was not designed for him. It works well as a general indicator for the vast majority of the population, including people many people who don't like it because it correctly points out things about their weight that maybe they are not ready to accept.

staticsplit · May 2019

1. Yes, pretty aggressive.

2. A lot of people in those dietbets cheat--they binge/eat super salty food and weigh in higher, so it's easier to lose the 4%. They end up gaining and losing around the same amount of weight every month--not healthy.

3. Dietbet takes 15% of the pot and the host takes another 10%, so you're really only splitting 75% of the pot. They're the real winners, here.

4. You end up winning at the expense of people who couldn't lose.

5. I've heard it encourages disordered eating behaviour (see point 2). People sharing tips on how to lose weight super fast near the end--not drinking, overexercising, long fasts, etc.

6. Sometimes the hosts aren't very active/don't give good, measured advice.

TBH I'd just make a loose bet with some close friends if you think that's more motivating, and you could set different goals like hitting x steps, or drinking y water, or eating z serving of vegetables, or lifting 3x a week. Something that's actually building good lasting habits instead of gaming a scale for like $15 more than you put in.

Cahgetsfit · May 2019

If you want to do it, just cheat the system, as mentioned above by @heybales

Start off the weigh in the morning after eating a massive meal with heaps of sodium and carbs and drink heaps of water. Get that nice big bloat weight in as you starting point.

Then go about your next 25-ish days in normal fashion, a slight, healthy deficit to lose at a normal healthy rate.

Then, in the last week, 25%-30% calorie deficit (as in from your maintenance calories minus 25-30%) and go semi-keto. Carbs max 50g, protein 2.2g per kilo bodyweight and the rest fat. Watch the water weight drop like a mofo.

Job done.

Is a 4% bodyweight reduction too much for my current stats?

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