what is a safe weight loss per week?

[PiPi84]

How much weight is considered safe to lose per week?

[Sparkle883]

For the average person, a loss of 1-2 lbs per week is considered to be the safest rate of loss.

[LewWagner]

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@Sparkle883 wrote:

For the average person, a loss of 1-2 lbs per week is considered to be the safest rate of loss.

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What can I say, Sparkle?

I've averaged about 2.8 pounds per week since Nov 1, 2013.  I've lost over 130 pounds in that time frame due to my new religion of healthy diet and lots and lots of walking.  Just like Sheldon Cooper, I've been tested and I'm not crazy.  My docs and nutrionist have monitored my progress and haven't put me in the loony bin, yet....I'm also off my Type II Diabetes meds and maintaining strictly with diet and exercise (also doctor approved).

Lately, because I have reached my initial target weight goal of 170 pounds, I am losing at a much slower rate and really sometimes plateauing because I'm pretty much maintaining vs. negative cals.

Go figure...

Lew

[brunna]

1 lb a week sounds good to me, doing it slowly is the safest way to acchieve your goals, good luck.

[mack2506]

I've only got my Fitbit for the past week and am averaging a calorie intake of 1,000 - 1,100  with a daily calorie burn of 2,200 is this going to cause me a problem in the long term with losing & subsequently maintaining my weight?  Plus I've set my calories manually so have I ruined the Fitbit for myself now? Waaah!!!

[Maxit]

Your deficit sounds too steep to me, mack.  If you have a lot of weight to lose, from what I have read, you can tolerate a larger deficit, burning more fat than muscle.  As you drop weight you are going to want to back off the deficit, concentrate on proper nutrition ("macros") and do strength training to help you maintain muscle mass.  If you are under nourished your body will attempt to preserve itself by slowing metabolism. This makes maintenance very difficult, and is not healthy.

In terms of "ruining" Fitbit - you can change your settings as needed/wanted.  

[Heybales]

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@mack2506 wrote:

I've only got my Fitbit for the past week and am averaging a calorie intake of 1,000 - 1,100  with a daily calorie burn of 2,200 is this going to cause me a problem in the long term with losing & subsequently maintaining my weight?  Plus I've set my calories manually so have I ruined the Fitbit for myself now? Waaah!!!

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So if you aren't aware, your body wants an intake of 2200, and it will adapt if it doesn't get it.

Hence the idea of reasonable weight loss, to minimize those effects.

So does eating 50% less than your body is burning sound good to you?

You may not even have to wait long term and maintenance to discover if you keep that up.

With TDEE that low, you must either be under 5 ft tall, or not have much to lose, in which case 1000 deficit is totally unreasonable.

So if you feel like losing muscle mass as your weight loss, making it harder to adhere to diet because you must eat even less, failing at maintenance, and doing this again next year because it was easier to gain it back, but it'll be harder to lose again, then go right ahead.

Otherwise, be smart and if up to 25 lbs to lose, only do 1 lb weekly, 10 lbs is 1/2 lb weekly.

[mack2506]

Right - I'm 5'3'' and want to lose about 30lbs - so I should increase my food intake now to about 1450 calories assuming the calorie burn shown is correct. Well I suppose I should do that - I totally get the science behind the argument - I've proved it myself and found maintenance so hard that I (obviously) failed.

Anyway I really appreciate your response; I'm going to think this out (and have a glass of wine tonight); thank you very much.

[mack2506]

Maxit - Thank you very much for your reply - I'm obviously not used to using these or any other boards so just saw your reply now; I'll increase my intake and see what happens. I suppose Im just afraid that I'll now gain the littel weight I've lost because I've done the low calories for the last week - probably sounds pathetic I know but its the truth.

I'll adjust my intake goal accordingly.

[Heybales]

One week isn't enough time, your body's first response is to slow down your sponateous activity - fidgeting, moving slightly, ect, which may or may not show up on Fitbit as reduced steps.

Conserve calories there, can spend it on the required basic metabolism functions.

But keep it up, and the body will adapt by more harsh measures, some just happen naturally.

Body is always tearing down muscle and rebuilding it, if not eating enough, the least used just doesn't get rebuilt. That's another savings because muscle requires a tad more energy to maintain (6 cal / lb / day).

So if not doing strength training to tell your body you need this muscle, that happens in a diet anyway, even if reasonable deficit. But there is a difference losing muscle infrequently used, and losing that which is least used of what you do use.

And then after longer time, body just becomes more metabolically efficient, expending less energy doing basic functions of metabolism by slowing down what it can, slower nail/hair/skin growth (or none if extreme diet), keeping warm, ect.

So that takes time, but amount of deficit can make it take shorter, but not 1 week.

So I'd suggest you have a few pounds for a 750 cal deficit, but then switch to 1 lb weekly after 5 lbs are lost.

And yes, Fitbit is actually underestimating your daily burn, and if you don't manually log non-step workouts, you are creating bigger deficit because it underestimates those too.

[Maxit]

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@mack2506 wrote:

Maxit - Thank you very much for your reply - I'm obviously not used to using these or any other boards so just saw your reply now; I'll increase my intake and see what happens. I suppose Im just afraid that I'll now gain the littel weight I've lost because I've done the low calories for the last week - probably sounds pathetic I know but its the truth.

I'll adjust my intake goal accordingly.

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If you do gain a little weight, it is probably water related to increased food intake 🙂 

[Ch59yl]

1 to 2 pounds is average if you are watching your calories and making your step goals. As of today I have lost 20 pounds since August 25. I started a diet on the first day of a three week vacation (who does that). My husband bought my Flex (because he knows I wouldnt spend the money on myself) for my birthday Sept. 13. I have learned to trust my dasboard when it says I can eat more based on my steps/activity. I started on a old fashion 1,000-1200 cal/day diet . found my body resisting the weight loss. Now I eat 1200 to 1600calories per day and still lose my pound per week.

[HelenaFitbit]

1 to 2 pounds per week, but usually it gets harder to reach it once you've already lost. 

I lost about 5 pounds the first week, then another 5 and then 1 and 1... I was a bit frustrated but I recognized that my body was doing some adjustments and mostly the first amount lost was water weight probs. 

[Lauran123]

I have lost 13kg in 4months sticking to about 1200 cal a day but also exercise 3times a week at gym

[divedragon]

Weight loss does not equal fat loss.  If you restrict calories too much, you won't be getting enough protein either and your body will canabilize muscle to get what it needs.  You metabolism will also be affected by too much of a calorie restriction due to both adaptation and the muscle loss.  As a rule of thumb, women should take in minimum of 1200-1400/day and men 1600-1800.  These figures assume an average caloric burn of 2000-2400/day (women-men).  This would give between 1 and 2 lbs a week weight loss and that will include some muscle loss as well, although minimal. 

[Lulii]

I got my Fitbit on December 25th 2014 as a gift. Falling into the overweight-but-not-obese category, I have lost nearly 3 kg so far in 3 weeks without too much trouble, which is the 2 lb per week weight loss target. So I agree with the majority of posters here.

Have to say though, I am sleeping a lot more because of the increased exercise/ reduced calorie intake!

[Heybales]

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@Lulii wrote:

I got my Fitbit on December 25th 2014 as a gift. Falling into the overweight-but-not-obese category, I have lost nearly 3 kg so far in 3 weeks without too much trouble, which is the 2 lb per week weight loss target. So I agree with the majority of posters here.

Have to say though, I am sleeping a lot more because of the increased exercise/ reduced calorie intake!

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Be very concerned with that effect.

That is the first thing the body does to slow you down from burning as much daily, so that it can conserve more calories for the base metabolism functions.

It does that when it doesn't like the amount of deficit you've taken, and is stressed out. Other body stresses can make that happen sooner for you compared to others.

As you can imagine, you burn a lot less sleeping more.

[Lulii]

Interesting point.

I don't have a lot to lose in all fairness, so I should be at a good weight in a month or two even if I up the calories a little bit. 

Maybe time to add in a morning veggie juice/ smoothie.

[Myladyballs]

I just want to say thank you to everyone who gave advice on this topic. I hope we all keep the weight off and strive to a better and healthy life. 

[lottosal]

Thanks for your post - I think my body works this way as well. I began two weeks ago, and lost 8.5 pounds my first week, and 3 pounds this week. When I try to lose weight, I often plateau around this time, and lose momentum, so it is good to get into the mindset that this may happen, and to just keep up what I'm doing. So, I'm getting ready to begin week 3 - am consistently hitting my steps goal, although my legs are short so I don't often get to 5 miles...yet. 🙂  I've been increasing the amount of time I work out on my elliptical (am up to 30+ minutes/day during the week), and this week will work on taking the stairs more often (my office is on the 11th floor of my building) to increase my steps. I'm really working on eating, and got an infusion water bottle so drinking water is no problem now (lemon makes it much yummier). I'm turing 50 in May, and want to get as close to losing 50 pounds as I can (although my overall goal is 75, and Fitbit says I can do that by October). I'm already feeling better than I have in awhile, and my stamina is up. It's good to see what helpful messages as posted here. 🙂

[kamiller]

I know that I have lost 14.4 lbs since I got the FitBit and eating less and burning more calories. I would say that most say 1-2 lbs. but it seems to be coming off with eating so much less. When I kicked soda out of my life and drink more water. I walk everywhere at work and to and from the train station. Then I do cardio for about 20 - 30 minutes. All before work.

I seemed to be just dropping it.