Lbs per week

MamaMc3
MamaMc3 Posts: 213 Member
edited April 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
I have about 40 lbs I would like to lose. My goal is set at 1 lb loss per week. I am ok with slow and steady, but should I be setting it at 2 lbs instead? I want to set a reasonable goal, but I don't want to be a slacker, either. :) Opinions?

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,847 Member
    You're not a slacker by setting realistic goals. Please be realistic. Sustainable weight loss is slow, but the chance of keeping the weight off is so much bigger. It allows you to eat what you want to eat (just a bit less) and it teaches you how to eat once you've reached your goal weight. If you restrict too much now you don't learn how to eat sustainably once at goal weight, plus there's a higher risk of binging.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,748 Member
    At 40 pounds to goal, a pound a week is perfect. Two pounds a week would be heading into the riskier zone, health-wise, for most people, with only 40 to lose.

    Also, a slower loss rate is more sustainable for most people. Some people who start off with aggressively fast loss goals have a sort of "honeymoon period" where they feel great, not hungry, high energy, all systems go . . . then that aggression comes home to roost with increased hunger, maybe binges, maybe giving up altogether in a month or two.

    No matter which of these loss-rate goals, you're looking at a many-months-long process, realistically. Make the process easy to do, use this time to learn ways you can eat that will help you stay at a healthy weight forever, rather than adopting some extreme set of restrictions that (1) are more likely to fall apart somewhere on route to goal, and (2) don't help you understand how to eat sustainably to maintain weight, if/when you do reach goal weight.

    (BTW: The replies you've gotten are from people who have been successful at this, not new MFP-ers speculating. Personally, I'm in year 4+ of maintaining a healthy weight, after 3+ previous decades of obesity.)

    Wishing you much success!

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