Does losing more than 1 lb/wk hurt you at maintenance?

My current schedule is to lose 2 lbs./wk. I have a friend that has been doing one of the meeting type places for quite a while,and says that much loss puts your body in the starvation mode, and makes it next to impossible to not regain weight when you finally make it to the maintainance phase. Does anyone know anything about this? TIA

It largely depends on how much you have to lose. As a general rule (this is a generalization and not universally true) heavier people will have higher maintenance intakes and more pounds to lose. This allows them more room to create larger caloric deficits than a slender person.

Conversely, someone with a very low maintenance intake might not even want to lose 1lb/week, because a 500 calorie deficit is too large of a percentage of their maintenance. For example, a 105lb person losing 3lb/week is absurd, but a 500lb person losing 3/week is within reasonable.

Lastly, starvation mode isn't nearly as literal as people make it sound. You don't suddenly store fat. As you endure long periods of caloric deficit you will slow production of a few thyroid hormones and this lowers your metabolic rate. Having a few higher calorie days offsets this, which is one benefit of incorporating a few days at maintenance during long term diets.

that's what I've read about the subject anyways.

I hope that isn't true. I have my goals set as 2 pounds per week, even though I am a normal weight. I would like to know why it might be bad.

My current schedule is to lose 2 lbs./wk. I have a friend that has been doing one of the meeting type places for quite a while,and says that much loss puts your body in the starvation mode, and makes it next to impossible to not regain weight when you finally make it to the maintainance phase. Does anyone know anything about this? TIA

Metabolic slow-down is not an all-or-nothing thing. Any time you diet or maintain a caloric deficit, your body will always fight back to some degree. But like the previous poster mentioned, as long as 2 lbs per week isn't a large caloric deficit, you shouldn't notice much metabolic slow-down.

As an example, if your daily maintenance level with exercise is 4,000 calories and you consume 3,000 calories daily for a weekly 2 lbs loss, we are talking about a moderate to a moderately high deficit (25% below maintenance).

If you are worried about regaining when transitioning to maintenance, consider narrowing the deficit for a week prior to moving to maintenance.