4 pounds a week?

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samantha115
samantha115 Posts: 371
in Health and Weight Loss
Is four pounds a week a reasonable amount of weight to lose in a week? Im thinking about working out for a hour in the morning and a hour at night. Except on mondays when I will have and extra hour for my yoga class. I am trying to lose (I use trying loosely) 30 pounds by the end of the month. I know that I may not be able to lose 4 pounds every week but thats what I would strive for. Am I crazy for trying this?

Replies

  • JoyousMaximus
    JoyousMaximus Posts: 9,285 Member
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    YES!!! It is crazy and you are setting yourself up for failure. Unless you are morbidly obese, (and I see from your ticker and picture, you aren't) it is completely unreasonable and unsustainable. You should try for 1-2lbs a week MAX. There are a lot of good posts on here about this. Read this one:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
  • LeanLioness
    LeanLioness Posts: 1,091 Member
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    YES!!! It is crazy and you are setting yourself up for failure. Unless you are morbidly obese it is completely unreasonable and unsustainable. You should try for 1-2lbs a week MAX. There are a lot of good posts on here about this. Read this one:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition

    Well said!!!

    You are better off sticking to the 1-2 pound guideline. You don't have that much to lose, considering.....
  • amymeenieminymo
    amymeenieminymo Posts: 2,394 Member
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    YES!!! It is crazy and you are setting yourself up for failure. Unless you are morbidly obese, (and I see from your ticker and picture, you aren't) it is completely unreasonable and unsustainable. You should try for 1-2lbs a week MAX. There are a lot of good posts on here about this. Read this one:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition


    Agreed. It's good to have a goal, but 4 pounds a week is unrealistic and setting unrealistic goals is dangerous and a set up to fail.
  • AlmostHot
    AlmostHot Posts: 312 Member
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    Like they said! I would love to love 4 pounds a week, but I also know that if I have that as my goal and don't reach it I will blow out and eat, thinking "it's to hard"" whats the point". Give your self a smaller gaol and keep working hard, then you have more chance of reaching it! If you do reach 4 pounds some weeks well thats fantastic! But remember the slower you lose it the more likely it will be to keep it off and it also gives you skin a chance to shrink with you! Probably more important for me than you because I have sooo much more skin to shrink!!!:laugh:
  • omid990
    omid990 Posts: 785 Member
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    i would say that this is a very unhealthy and unrealistic goal. also, even if you did manage to lose four pounds in one week, the chances of you keeping that weight off are very low.
  • Johnnyswife
    Johnnyswife Posts: 1,447 Member
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    8 pounds a month is a good goal. Instead of trying to kill yourself in dieting, why not treat yourself to an awsome new outfit, that shows off the weight you've lost so far?
  • jsonnett02
    jsonnett02 Posts: 110
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    as said before you are setting your self up for failure. losing 4 pounds a week is not only unrealistic but unhealthy. There are those on BL who spend 6+hours a day working out and are able to lose 5+ pounds a week, but in real people land (us) we can't workout 6+ hours a day. We are lucky if we can get 1-2 hours in a day. Set goals that are attainable. 1-2 pounds a week is the healthy route to go and realistic! I too wish we could just drop the weight quickly, but that's not real either. Good luck with your goals and achieving them! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • karenmacneil
    karenmacneil Posts: 34
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    I understand where you're coming from, i've wanted to drop large amounts of weight before in a short period of time - however - every time i tried i failed. i say try your hardest, workout and follow 'myfitnesspal' calorie guide and you will do very well!! you may even come close to your goal, however i think that making the 30 lbs goal may be too hard to reach (so fast) and hard to then maintain. that being said, good luck and keep up your good work!!
  • dclarsh
    dclarsh Posts: 364
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    Well, let's look at the math here...
    In order to lose 4 pounds in a week, you would need a weekly defecit of 14,000 calories. That is a daily defecit of 2,000 calories. Since we all know that you should not go below a net calorie intake of 1,200 calories, your maintenance calories would need to be 3,200 per day or more. For a 5'4 woman (I have no idea how tall you are, I just took the average female height), that would mean you would currently weigh 350 pounds or more. So, I'm going to say no, it's not realistic.

    HOWEVER... that being said, maybe there is a realistic goal that will get you where you want to go. What about making your goal inches instead of pounds? If you want to lose 30 pounds, that translates to about 3-4 inches off your waist. This might be possible with a lot of strength training and a sensible diet with a higher protein ratio than what is usually suggested on MFP and a low sodium content. You might not actually lose all the weight you want, but you might LOOK like you did.

    Good luck!
  • leann_m_olson
    leann_m_olson Posts: 363 Member
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    Is four pounds a week a reasonable amount of weight to lose in a week? Im thinking about working out for a hour in the morning and a hour at night. Except on mondays when I will have and extra hour for my yoga class. I am trying to lose (I use trying loosely) 30 pounds by the end of the month. I know that I may not be able to lose 4 pounds every week but thats what I would strive for. Am I crazy for trying this?

    i agree with all the rest but if you stick to your work out plan I think you will find that you will lose alot of inches and really firm up so it will look like you lost more. Running or intense cardio is the best way to lose weight.

    Good Luck.

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