Everyone is different, but it appears to be that the more you weigh, the more you may be capable of losing. The general rules seems to be 2 pounds a week is safe. However, I've noted that for myself and many others here, when in the over 200 lb. range, we tend to be able to lose around 5 pounds a week. I lost about 5 per week until I was down to around 220 or 210 (don't recall exactly). Then my loss started dropping, first to 3 a week, then 2, then I had to drop my calories for 1 to 2 a week after dropping below 170. And dropped the calories more as my weight continued decreasing. I ended up at about 1300 calories a day toward the end...but found out I'd been pregnant too. No wonder it was so danged hard to lose.