How much weight can you lose a week?

[mitafi]

I know some people loose so much weight that they can loose skin and it only can be fixed by surgery.

Another question would be, having fat around the belly and on the hips (women), which are the best exercises to make them tighten? And doing exercise will increase muscles and then the weight won´t be lost so quick.

[A_Lurker · Accepted solution]

Speed of loss may make loose skin worse.  However, there are so many factors that affect it.  Your age when you start, how much you lose, how long you've been overweight, and then genetics.  You can take two different people, have them lose 50 pounds and one will have loose skin and another won't.

Spot reducing is pretty much impossible.  Again, look at your family, especially the older ones or ones carrying a little extra weight.  Or, just lose the weight and worry about it later.  I've seen people claim that if you go under your goal weight and then build muscle up to your goal weight that you can lessen lose skin overall.  I don't know that anyone has proved that yet though.  Oh, plenty of people will take your money and tell you that you can spot reduce using a certain pill or certain exercise program.  Mostly it's a myth.  If you carry excess weight in your lower half you can build muscle in your upper body that might make you look more balanced.

[AndyDandyPandy]

Loose skin depends on age, how long you've been obese, how fast you lost your weight, and how much muscle you have. If you've just recently gained fat for a year or less you can lose weight quicker and possibly have a low chance of sagging skin or none at all. If you've been very fat for 3 years or more or maybe your  whole life then you're likely to have loose skin.

There's no chance in hell that people who are obese for more than 3 years or most part of their life can lose weight and have perfect skin. You're scarred for life with stretch marks and loose skin but it is better than being obese. To reduce it would be building muscle and losing weight slowly but there is no doubt you won't get loose skin. 

[mitafi]

Andy: Thanks! Your answer was very clear. I had doubts which one to choose as the correct answer. 

[Dominique]

Almost everybody carries some fat in their midsection, men too. The health benefits of lowering your weight closer to a normal range far outweigh the aesthetic aspects (e.g. loose skin) in any case. If – as a woman and while dieting – you’re able to gain muscle (which is quite hard), the slower weight loss should be the least of your concerns.

[mitafi]

Dominique: I am 47 years old. I gained a lot of weight due to my moving from one Country to another, with all the family. It was a very stress time. I was loosing weight quick, but not now. I started doing strength exercises and my weight even went a little up. My body fat % has been dropping (Aria scale). I think this means I am gaining muscle (I hope).

[Dominique]

---

@mitafi wrote:

My body fat % has been dropping (Aria scale). I think this means I am gaining muscle (I hope).

---

Not necessarily. Let’s say (this is an example out of my head, I didn’t try to estimate your weight & BF% based on your tiny profile photo!) you were 180 lb at 35% BF, and you dropped to 165 lb at 32% BF. At 180 lb, your fat mass was 63 lb and your lean mass 117 lb. At 165 lb, your fat mass is 52.8 lb and your lean mass 112.2 lb. You lost 10.2 lb of fat (63 - 52.8), but also lost 4.8 lb of lean mass (117 - 112.2). In other words, your BF% decreased, but you didn’t gain muscle.

It’s very hard (though not totally impossible) to gain muscle while being in a caloric deficit. Your focus when in a deficit should be on minimizing loss of lean tissue. Hence the importance of resistance training (provide a stimulus to your muscle / a reason not to shrink) and eating enough protein.

Also take into account the limitations of scales that rely on bioelectrical impedance analysys (BIA) for estimating body fat %.

[mitafi]

---

@Dominique wrote:

---

@mitafi wrote:

My body fat % has been dropping (Aria scale). I think this means I am gaining muscle (I hope).

---

Not necessarily. Let’s say (this is an example out of my head, I didn’t try to estimate your weight & BF% based on your tiny profile photo!) you were 180 lb at 35% BF, and you dropped to 165 lb at 32% BF. At 180 lb, your fat mass was 63 lb and your lean mass 117 lb. At 165 lb, your fat mass is 52.8 lb and your lean mass 112.2 lb. You lost 10.2 lb of fat (63 - 52.8), but also lost 4.8 lb of lean mass (117 - 112.2). In other words, your BF% decreased, but you didn’t gain muscle.

It’s very hard (though not totally impossible) to gain muscle while being in a caloric deficit. Your focus when in a deficit should be on minimizing loss of lean tissue. Hence the importance of resistance training (provide a stimulus to your muscle / a reason not to shrink) and eating enough protein.

Also take into account the limitations of scales that rely on bioelectrical impedance analysys (BIA) for estimating body fat %.

---

Let me do it again "My body fat % has been dropping (Aria scale). I think this means I am gaining muscle (I hope). Last time my weight went up and my body fat % still dropped."

Now, I got confused! Difference was less than 2 pounds but I was happy thinking it had been muscle.

[A_Lurker]

@mitafi- if you're not doing so already, get yourself a trendweight account.  Bodyfat can very easily be affected by hydration, you need to look at trends.  If you are new to lifting you can build lean mass even in a deficit.  However, it is difficult.  Sometimes sore muscles retain excess water, which will show up as a drop in bodyfat.  I clipped a piece of my upward trend from last year.  I'm not new to lifting but I had been away from it for a while.  If you look at it you will see huge variations day to day.

The dark blue line is the overall trend.  The light blue lines are the daily lean mass readings.  The horizontal lines are 2lbs apart so you can see that I saw jump ups and downs overnight of almost three pounds at times.  I was losing weight though at the time and still building lean mass.  Now that's definitely stopped and now I'm more interested in maintaining.

[mitafi]

---

@A_Lurker wrote:

@mitafi- if you're not doing so already, get yourself a trendweight account.  Bodyfat can very easily be affected by hydration, you need to look at trends.  If you are new to lifting you can build lean mass even in a deficit.  However, it is difficult. 

---

Thanks a lot! This really helped.

I got a trendweight account. It shows that last 2 weeks my weight trend was down and that I am effectively gaining lean mass. I was also thinking this was difficult but it seems it is happening, though it is probably too early to draw a conclusion. I am going to keep an eye, following up the trendweight.

Thanks again!

[Dominique]

---

@mitafi wrote:

---

Let me do it again "My body fat % has been dropping (Aria scale). I think this means I am gaining muscle (I hope). Last time my weight went up and my body fat % still dropped."

Now, I got confused! Difference was less than 2 pounds but I was happy thinking it had been muscle.

---

As noted by @A_Lurker, changes that occur over a very short period (a few days) are primarily related to changes in water weight: you just can’t lose/gain 1-2 pounds of fat in a couple of days, nor lose/gain 1-2 pounds of muscle in the same period. Losing/gaining fat is faster: all you need to do is undereat/overeat a sufficient amount of food for several days straight. Gaining muscle is very slow, it’s more like watching hair grow.

Water is part of your lean mass (together with bones, tendons, muscle), so an increase in water weight will show as an increase in lean mass. This doesn’t mean you have been building muscle. If you are able to build any noticeable amount of muscle in two weeks time, you should consider yourself very gifted and lucky. If you are able to do so while eating at a deficit and without lifting weights (or doing any other kind of resistance training), you are a genetic freak.

Trendweight is an excellent tool to see where things are heading, especially after you have accumulated a sufficient amount of data (e.g. a few months). Make sure you always step on your Aria in the same conditions and at the same time of the day (ideally, first thing in the morning after trip to the bathroom). BIA scales are very sensitive to your body’s hydration level.

[mitafi]

---

---

Losing/gaining fat is faster: all you need to do is undereat/overeat a sufficient amount of food for several days straight. Gaining muscle is very slow, it’s more like watching hair grow.

Water is part of your lean mass (together with bones, tendons, muscle), so an increase in water weight will show as an increase in lean mass. This doesn’t mean you have been building muscle. If you are able to build any noticeable amount of muscle in two weeks time, you should consider yourself very gifted and lucky. If you are able to do so while eating at a deficit and without lifting weights (or doing any other kind of resistance training), you are a genetic freak.

Make sure you always step on your Aria in the same conditions and at the same time of the day (ideally, first thing in the morning after trip to the bathroom). BIA scales are very sensitive to your body’s hydration level.

---

I´ve been on a work leave to take care of me. It has been really hard work, mainly eating and cardio. I started doing more muscles exercises, recently. I was in a very low condition for my time life usual, due to exceptional situation. I will keep an eye on my weight trend. You may be right and it may be water. I got it! I will keep for now thinking it is muscle, only for motivational purposes LOL

Thanks a lot, Dominique! 

[josephz2va]

It depends on how much effort has been put into the weight loss to lower the fat percentage and extra weight plus the tone up of the (loose skin) that they say can only be fixed by surgery. I don't plan on any surgeries because what I did worked before and I'm starting back up today to do it again. Tracking all my foods, elliptical machine up to 30 minutes a day, and Fitstar Get Lean up to 50 minutes per 3 days a week maybe more. I got down from 35 percent to 14 percent before a hiatus and plan on doing that again.

[potato123]

i agree. Andy's awnser was very clear.