Anyone else get discouraged at 1lb a week?

KerrieTyler · August 12

My mom is 56 and she cant walk fast at all, she has to walk slow and with a walker because she has degenerative athritis in her knees and it hurts. All her life she has been overweight. Im losing 2lbs a week and I can walk so much faster than her and she is only losing a lb a week. She was losing 2lbs a week for a month in the beginning then it slowed down to 1lb a week! I measure her food and we stay at 1200 calories a day but Shes feeling discouraged and alone like a lb a week is useless. Does anyone else feel like this?

sollyn23l2 · August 12

1 pound per week is plenty. Probably actually better for her body than 2 pounds per week. Slow loss is maintainable loss. Fast loss is more likely to be regained.

nossmf · August 12

A pound per week is over 50 pounds a year. We're in this for the long game, rest-of-life.

Strudders67 · August 12

You don't give us any useful info about yourself or your mum (height, weight) to know what is a reasonable rate of loss (or whether 1200 calories is suitable - how did you get to that figure?), but I agree with both posts above that 1lb a week is pretty good going.

I'm fairly short, so my deficit was naturally small, therefore I was losing at a much slower rate than that. After reading so many posts on here, I developed the mindset that, if I looked back, at any given point I could still say "but I weigh 'this amount' less than I did back then".

AnnPT77 · August 12

A pound a week is about what I averaged, when losing from class 1 obese to a healthy weight 9+ years ago. The quality of life benefits have been huge. A side benefit of the moderate loss rate was being able to find new habits I could stick with long term to stay at a healthy weight, ideally permanently. I've been at a healthy weight ever since.

There's not a thing wrong with a pound a week. Fast loss increases health risks, as well as potentially having appearance penalties like hair thinning/loss.

I'm older than your mom - was 59-60 during weight loss. I don't know about your mom, but I'm less resilient now than I was when half that age, so the health risks of fast loss can loom larger for people in my and your mom's demographic.

I don't have arthritis as severe as your mom's, but I do have some, plus a torn meniscus in one knee. Being at a lighter weight significantly decreased both frequency and severity of pain I experience from those things. Each pound loss equates to something like 4-6 fewer pounds of stress on hips/knees as we walk. That's a big deal. It takes a bit of time to truly feel that, I think maybe because some recovery needs to happen, but that's a benefit that's coming to your mom if she sticks with it.

Those weeks are going to pass no matter what, right? As Nossmf said, 50 pounds lighter in a year is a big deal . . . and I'm saying that from personal experience.

I'm cheering for your mom to succeed - if she hangs in there, it will improve her quality of life, I'm sure.

yirara · August 13

If you're both on 1200kcal per day then this indicates that you both have chosen a too aggressive weightloss goal. If your weightloss goal is too big then MFP will always default to 1200 calories for women because anything less would be rather unhealthy and impossible to keep up. Even 1200 is very little to be honest. This also means that you will not lose at the rate you've chosen but slower. It looks like your mother doesn't have that much to lose to start with, and hence she will lose slower. A smaller body doesn't need as much energy going through 24hrs than a bigger one. It takes a lot more energy for a bigger body to pump blood around, to run the organs, also just walking to the loo requires more energy. And in return, a smaller body requires less energy for all these things.

PAV8888 · August 13

Also if two people eat 1200 Cal and one is smaller, older, less active and therefore spends less calories in a day their deficit and loss rate will be smaller by definition.

That said depending on available fat to be lost (often approximated by BMI level) anything from 250 Cal to 1000 Cal a day could be optimal as a deficit.

A lb a week indicates a consistent deficit of at least 500 Cal a day which is actually quite substantial and would result in a 50+ lb loss in a year

PAV8888 · August 13

springlering62 · August 14

I come from a background where my mom would get jealous if I started losing, and would try to sabotage. Would sabotage, period. Not “try”.

Of course she’s losing slower. She’s older and more sedentary.

Remind mom it’s not a competition, or a silent criticism of her, and make sure neither of you (unintentionally or not) are making it one, or discussing comparisons, etc.

Weight loss is an intensely personal journey. For some reason it was far less emotionally difficult doing it with my husband, versus than with my mom.

Maybe it’s because they see us as mirrors of themselves, or we see our older selves in them.

Support, don’t judge, encourage. I begged my mom to at least get up and move. She refused, and declined pretty rapidly from lack of movement.

Kudos to your mom if she’s trying. If a walker is her new reality, help her optimize how she can best move, check into chair classes, low impact water classes. We’ve had several parent/child duos and trios doing aquafit together at our pool, and it’s just lovely to see, plus it’s a social outlet.

But don’t compare your losses. She may experience a “whoosh”, have a sudden loss, and surpass you, and then the shoe is on the other foot.

Just celebrate each one if you’s small wins.

TiffyTipp · August 19

Are there any fitness centers with an indoor pool that she could use? This would help her body and with burning calories, and would be easy on her joints.

Anyone else get discouraged at 1lb a week?

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