What is a healthy weight loss pace?

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Some people drop weight faster than others but I'm interested to hear what is the ideal healthy weight loss within say 6 weeks?

I've been eating well and seeing a PT for 8 weeks now, since then my weight loss has been a lot slower than usual, with me dropping about 1/2 kg in that time.
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  • frhaberl
    frhaberl Posts: 145 Member
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    The further along this process I get, the more I think the ideal pace is the one that you feel you could maintain for the rest of your life. I still sometimes feel (mostly when I step on the scale and don’t see a drop) that this is going too slow. At those times, I ask myself “what would you change about what you’re doing, knowing you’ll need to do that long after the weight is gone”. More and more, I find that the answer is “nothing” and that helps me have confidence that this time I will be able to keep it off.
    A few tricks I use to keep that mentality up:
    -Track things in addition to weight so you can see progress when the scale is stalled and focus more on health than weight. With help from my Apple Watch I’m tracking number of steps, VO2 Max, average heart rate, average respiratory rate, and lots of other fun stuff. I track measurements and time to finish a mile and other health victories as well.
    -Look at average weight loss, especially when you feel stalled. I still need to do that, and it reminds me that my average pace since I started is >1.5 lbs/week and my past 8 weeks is >1 lb/week. I’m good with that dropping to <0.5 lbs/week as I near my goal as long as I feel like I can live that lifestyle indefinitely.
    -Be willing to change the things you aren’t loving even if it slows down your loss rate. Truth of the matter is that it’s the idea of having to do those things forever that has made me give up in the past, so they don’t really make it go faster.
    Now for the textbook answer- 0.5-1% of your body weight is considered an acceptable and sustainable pace, with the percentage lowering as you near your goal weight.
    Best wishes on your journey.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,558 Member
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    frhaberl wrote: »
    The further along this process I get, the more I think the ideal pace is the one that you feel you could maintain for the rest of your life. I still sometimes feel (mostly when I step on the scale and don’t see a drop) that this is going too slow. At those times, I ask myself “what would you change about what you’re doing, knowing you’ll need to do that long after the weight is gone”. More and more, I find that the answer is “nothing” and that helps me have confidence that this time I will be able to keep it off.
    A few tricks I use to keep that mentality up:
    -Track things in addition to weight so you can see progress when the scale is stalled and focus more on health than weight. With help from my Apple Watch I’m tracking number of steps, VO2 Max, average heart rate, average respiratory rate, and lots of other fun stuff. I track measurements and time to finish a mile and other health victories as well.
    -Look at average weight loss, especially when you feel stalled. I still need to do that, and it reminds me that my average pace since I started is >1.5 lbs/week and my past 8 weeks is >1 lb/week. I’m good with that dropping to <0.5 lbs/week as I near my goal as long as I feel like I can live that lifestyle indefinitely.
    -Be willing to change the things you aren’t loving even if it slows down your loss rate. Truth of the matter is that it’s the idea of having to do those things forever that has made me give up in the past, so they don’t really make it go faster.
    Now for the textbook answer- 0.5-1% of your body weight is considered an acceptable and sustainable pace, with the percentage lowering as you near your goal weight.
    Best wishes on your journey.

    I just had a look at this often quoted 0.5-1%. A woman being 70kg could be looking at 0.35-0.7kg per week. That still sounds rather high for someone who is likely not overweight. It's certainly about 0.25kg/week.

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,349 Member
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    I'm not surprised your weight loss rate has slowed with a PT: working out harder = more water retention for muscle repair and/or less loss of muscle mass while losing weight.

    I'm a huge fan of slower weight loss: less muscle loss, less hunger.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    You didn't mention anything about your diet.

    Fat loss comes from a consistent caloric deficit and what's considered a healthy rate of loss varies widely with how much you have to lose. MFP''s recommendation s to aim for about 1lb (454g) a week someone who is morbidly obese can lose faster, someone closer to their healthy weight would probably find 1lb a week unattainable)

    Ideally you're developing healthy eating habits that you can sustain for the rest of your life rather than getting into yo-yo dieting.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,863 Member
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    Generically, I usually suggest 0.5-1% of current weight per week as a max, with a bias toward the lower end of that. Someone severely obese could lose faster, but they should be under close medical supervision IMO for deficiencies or complications.

    But you're not generic, you're an individual.

    Like others said, it matters how much fat you have available to lose. It's smart to lose slower as one gets lighter. (Research suggests we can only metabolize a certain amount of stored body fat daily, and that is a loss amount per pound of stored fat.) As loss rate increases, risk goes up for losing unnecessarily much lean tissue alongside fat.

    Nutrition matters, probably, too. Moderate loss with poor nutrition might risk more lean tissue loss than the same loss rate with excellent nutrition. I'd guess the same about exercise stimulus: More likely to lose more lean tissue when losing at X rate if not reminding our body we want to keep it.

    Beyond that, assuming body weight itself is not an acute health risk, "best" weight loss rate will vary with athletic or fitness goals. Certainly someone strength training (for either strength or mass) is likely to get better results with those if losing slowly rather than fast. It's probably somewhat true for other athletic goals as well - training for races or whatever.

    I think this probably doesn't apply to you (you didn't mention it), but I'd also vote for a slower loss rate if there are other substantial physical or psychological stresses in a person's life. (Examples: Stressful job, family crises or drama, health conditions, big ramp up in exercise, etc.) Stress from all sources is cumulative, and too much stress can have negative consequences on physical health as well as mood and such.

    If you've been working with a trainer, but doing about the same or more exercise activity as before the trainer, plus doing the same amount/type of daily life activity (job and chores, etc.), and eating at the same calorie level but losing slower, I think one of two things is likely:

    1. Water retention from the exercise. (8 weeks is a long time for that to mask any but slow fat loss, though, I think - based on experience. I've gotten to maybe 6 weeks, but I was losing at less than half a kilo a month (on purpose)).
    2. Exercising too hard with the trainer (or overall), getting fatigued (perhaps subtly) to the point that it bleeds calorie burn out of the rest of your day. (Even fidgeting can burn up to low hundreds of calories daily, according to research. Would you notice if you fidgeted less? I wouldn't.)

    If you're not calorie counting pretty meticulously, there's another option: You're eating more. Exercise tends to spike appetite, and if not counting, or eyeballing rather than weighing portion sizes, it can be easy for calories to creep up.

    TL;DR: The "ideal" rate isn't universal, it's individual.
  • deadlymosquito
    deadlymosquito Posts: 10 Member
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    I am 50yrs old 225#s 16-17% BMR. My diet 3000 calories per day not counting excessive calories added back consists of 1.1 grams protein per/lbs, .4 grams fat per/lbs, and the remainder in carbohydrates. I add back in half of my excercise calories. This is what works for me to maintain with no issues. I bulked to 271 but needed to be smaller so I lost 1.6 lbs per week eating the same as above except 2500 calories. When I had to diet I cut the calories out of my carbs only. Maintaining these macros kept any cravings and hunger away. So 1.6 was healthy for me.