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2 pounds per week?

wishingiwasfishing5037
wishingiwasfishing5037 Posts: 16 Member
edited March 7 in Health and Weight Loss

I set out to lose 2 lbs per week and this is how it’s going. I found that as I lose weight I definitely need to eat less calories and or step up my exercise . Plateaus are real as I am fanatical about tracking.

Month 1 -13 lbs sedentary

2 -9.5

3 -9.3

4-5 -7.1 45 day cruise; 10k steps

5 -8.2

6 -7 15-25 miles per week

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,210 Member

    Can you give us a bit more information? What are your current stats? Losing 2lbs per week really is only possible for very obese people, thus maybe you can't. But every bit of weight lost is good!

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,591 Member

    Seconding that: Once a person is under 200 pounds - and maybe even well before that - losing 2 pounds a week may not be a great idea.

    Fast loss isn't better loss. Fast loss increases health risk, can depress energy level, may lower calorie needs long term making it harder to maintain the loss (basically because our bodies can't tell an aggressive diet from a famine, so they may adapt expecting there to be future famines), and more. Some of the "plateaus" that can result from lengthy fast loss may simply be stress-related water retention, because fast loss is a physical stress on the body.

    Without details about you, no way to know how risky your current trajectory is. It may be fine, but I'm concerned just in case. I lost too fast at first by accident (MFP underestimates my calorie needs), got weak and fatigued, took multiple weeks to recover back to normal even though I corrected quickly. No one needs that!

    At minimum, please don't just keep cutting and cutting on the eating side, ramping up exercise/activity without fueling it, to always keep 2+ pounds weekly loss all the way. At some point, that's not a path of thriving.

  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 4,307 Member

    Congratulations! You're doing so well!

    Weight loss is not linear, and no matter how hard you try, you will never lose exactly 2 pounds a week for 26 weeks straight. But you might very well lose 40-60 lbs over 6 months. And you have!

    Good job!

  • wishingiwasfishing5037
    wishingiwasfishing5037 Posts: 16 Member

    I started at 220 and now weigh 165. I am 5 3” the goal weight I picked is 120 so I lose and even hundred. It’s right in the middle of an average weight for my height. My calories are set at 1200 but even though I track, measure, weigh everything.. i figure it’s +/- 100. I was sedentary for the first couple months but I started walking 10k a day on a cruise. Now I’m hooked. I actually tried running a few times but it’s just not comfortable for me so I try to walk at quick3.5 mile pace 3 miles a day 5 times a week. I feel a lot better than before … little aches have disappeared and I suspect I was suffering from sleep apnea when I was heavier. I think I am max’d out…my weight loss is slower and I’m not ready to increase my exercise yet. Maybe after I drop another 30-40 I’ll feel like it. I weigh myself once a week and it’s hard to see a 1 lb a week loss. Maybe I should only weigh every 2 weeks? I don’t really want to drop my calories any lower.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,591 Member

    So don't drop your calories. One pound per week is a pretty perfect weight loss rate at a current weight of 165 pounds, if you ask me. If weighing every 2 weeks helps you stick with that rate more happily, sure, do that.

    Faster loss is likely to mean unnecessarily much lean lost alongside fat loss, maybe hair thinning, and maybe worse.

    At some point - now would be a good point - change focus from "how do I lose weight fast" to "what eating and activity habits can I find that are pleasant, practical and sustainable to stick with for life" then practice those habits until they happen almost on autopilot. Sure, keep a modest calorie deficit while you do that, but start setting yourself up now for successful maintenance.

    Most people find staying at a healthy weight quite a bit harder than getting to that healthy weight in the first place. Start planning for that phase now, I'd suggest. Fast loss is a trap, potentially.

  • wishingiwasfishing5037
    wishingiwasfishing5037 Posts: 16 Member

    thanks for your advice. I really appreciate your comments. I have changed the way I eat and I’m more mobile. It’s easy to see how I got so fat. I kept a couple old habits like half and half in my coffee, never joining a gym again because I know I won’t go and I will never like quinoa. I got new really good ones also like pre planning my meals, eating clean and not sitting around so much. I can see problem areas coming up such as maintaining while traveling and other situations where I have no control over preparing meals. I’m going to work on “eyeballing” my food and then weighing/ measuring at home to see how close I can guess. Yuup, new challenge. Thanks!

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