Simplest breakdown of how to lose a lb. a week...ever

It really is that simple. If you eat at a deficit, you will lose weight. A pound is equal to roughly 3500 calories, so if you burn 3500 calories more than you take in, you'll lose about a pound.

The problem is that these are estimates on top of estimates. The first and probably biggest is how much you're burning. Calculating calories your body has burned can be very difficult to do, particularly if folks haven't taken the time to do the number crunching.

People are also notoriously bad at logging food intake. Not that actively try to leave things out, but more often that they misjudge a serving size, or neglect to include all the ingredients, or have a bad reference point for caloric value of what they're consuming.

It really is a simple matter of creating a deficit, but it can still be a lot of hard work to iron out a plan the works for you and gets you the results you're looking for. And in theory, theory is the same as practice, but not as practice.

i am a little confused with alll the replies. i want to lose approx 3lb per week i think that is just right for me as i have over 100llbs to lose, so according to my math i should be burning approx 1500kcals per day in order to achieve this right???

The first thing I'd ask is what brought you to the number of 3lbs per week? Why do you need to lose at that speed? The more a person has to lose, the larger the deficit they can safely create in their diet (and yes, 3lbs per week would be 1500 cal/day deficit). Read: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/setting-the-deficit-small-moderate-or-large.html

One thing to recognize though is that although the deficit will generate weight loss, it does not happen linearly. On top of the my point about errors with estimations, there are all kinds of bodily functions that can skew the number on the scale. The most prevalent that I know of is water retention. Whatever your deficit, you need to be looking at it over a longer term than just a week. Do not expect to see the same constant loss every week or you will likely get frustrated at some point. Read: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html

Finally, consider going with something more moderate. Speaking as someone with a lot of experience with crash dieting, more moderate approaches tend to have more lasting effects. Would you rather lose 100 lbs in a year and gain it back 2 years later or lose 100 lbs over the course of 3 years but keep it off? One really important aspect of changing your eating habits is when you come off the diet and go into maintenance mode. Dieting in a more moderate fashion means that the transition from cutting to maintenance will be much closer, and much less of a shock that could potentially send you back to old, bad habits.

My $0.02, take it or leave it.

Good luck either way.

I am very surprised that a physician would recommend you eat only 800 calories. That is way too low for anyone, even my 17 month old that weighs 27lbs is supposed to eat at least 1000 calories/day. Your body IS in starvation mode and is holding on to every reserve that you have; you maybe damaging your muscle, tissues, and other vital organs. If you have been doing this type of diet for any length of time, I would suggest 2 things: 1) change doctors and 2) ask for a complete blood count workup from your doctor- to make sure everything is ok..

Okay I know I'm going to sound thick but what's TDEE?

Total Daily Energy Expenditure - the amount of calories your body needs to function in a day.

Edited to add link to a site that shows you how to calculate your own TDEE:

http://www.free-workout-routines.net/tdee.html

me ages at first to starting loosing weight an i started drinking more water an exercising and it started coming off slowly at firs and then more gradual dont give up.xx

bump

Bump this for later.......Thanks :bigsmile:

The problem is everybody is different and we all lose weight at different rates. One size does not fit all.
Last week a girl commented on how she was struggling to use all her calories each day but she was still losing weight. Everyone jumped on her warning her about starvation mode and that she must eat them all including any extra gained from excerise.
Each day I struggle to eat all my calories so after reading these threads and being worried about this starvation mode I decided to give it ago. I've eat every calorie awarded me, continued excersing and guess what this is the first week I've NOT lost any weight at all.
So maybe my body doesn't work the same as everyone elses, maybe this is only a guide and a tool for each individual to find what works for them because lets face it, we all eat different types of meals at different times of the day and have different medical conditions.
I suggest you find you find out what works for you, if that means you feel healthy eating 1100 cals per day and have loads of energy and lose a safe amount of weight per week its all good.
Good Luck

When you up your calories, it's not unusual to gain a few pounds while you're body readjusts. After a month or so, your body's furnace (your metabolism) should start burning hotter and you should start losing again while being able to eat more.

I disagree - extremely overweight people can lose 5 lbs or more a week safely.

How do you work out your daily decifit is it the =net ??

And if I won't to loose approx 2IB a week does this need to be at 1000-1500 a day ??

You should only go for 2# a week if you're extremely obese (at least 75# overweight).

I suggest you go to the stickies at the top of this forum and read them. Lots of good information in there that should answer all your questions better than I caan.