Why is everyone saying that it is better to lose 1 or 2 pounds a week? Does the fat come back quicker if you lose more per week?

If you lose more it can be unhealthy. And if you have a really quick weight loss you're less likely to keep the weight off because you might have a huge binge when you reach your target.

I assume it has to do with regaining it back. I lost about 60 in about 10-11 weeks before and regained every last lbs within a year. It's also probably not healthy because u would be eating way too few cals and exercising like crazy to attain those higher numbers.

They reckon that you're more likely to lose fat and not starting breaking down muscle to fuel your body as you go into a starvation mode. Also I think the theory is that you're more likely to incorporate achievable and lasting changes to your lifestyle.

most the recent things I've read say that it's no different - whether the weight comes off quickly or slowly has no difference in whether it stays off.

But most people just don't lose that quickly, esp. when you start off a relatively low weight. Our bodies are programmed to carry excess weight for most people because that gives you an advantage if food becomes scarce. That doesn't happen for most people any more (well, not most people reading and posting on an internet forum, anyway) but our bodies don't know that, so they become more efficient at holding on to weight.

I just can't eat so little that I am ravenous all day. I work with the public and have to be nice. I am a very NOT nice person when my body is screaming for food from shear hunger. Most of us have lives where we can't spend 6 hours a day in a gym like they do on the biggest loser, so there you go-1 to 2 lbs per week!

Well, for me it's this. There is losing weight and there's keeping it off. I "could" just eat less and exercise like a maniac for a short while and get great results, but I didn't find a balance. What happens when I get skinny enough? Do I now just go back to eating like I did? Do I just stop exercising? How do I KEEP it off?

So, this has been a journey. I know some people don't like that term, but it's the most accurate for me. I want to KEEP this weight off. Even if it takes me 5 years to finally stabilize at my goal weight, that is still far better than me going up and down in huge swings without learning anything about keeping the weight off. Plus, it's not just about the number on the scale. I want to be healthy. Thin does not equal healthy - active does.

What matters is the way that you are putting off the weight. If you are exercising regularly, averaging 30 minutes a day as well as healthy eating (eating 1200-1700 cal a day depending on height), it doesn't really matter how much you are losing. HOWEVER this style of healthy weight loss equals to about 1-2 lbs a week. If you are eating less than 1000 cal a day and exercising more than an hour a day, you may lose the 3-5 lbs a week. BUT you cannot keep this lifestyle up. As I've heard everyone say, a diet and exercise routine is not a temporary thing, it's a lifestyle change. Whatever you are sticking to now, you will have to keep it up pretty much the rest of your life. Those that do the less than 1000 cal and exercise excessively will only do it until they accomplish the goal, then go back to their routine before the change, such as eating 2000 cal a day and no exercise. That is when you gain all the weight back.

Losing weight slowly gives your body time to adjust to your new metabolic rate. The fast you lose weight the more out of whack your body feels, it goes into panic mode and starts to work against you, see your body is programmed to hold on to fat.

You want to find a new normal for your body. It takes time to form and keep a habit, and a healthy lifestyle requires vastly different habits than an unhealthy lifestyle. Each has to be incorporated slowly and steadily so that they take hold in your life.

That's just how I think of it.

I don't think it's that you CAN'T keep fast weight loss off, I think it's more that if you used a method that makes you drop weight that fast, then you probably haven't changed your core behaviors.

Folks that lose weight with a slow loss, usually are overall making healthier and more sustainable choices, and they don't just stop that when they have lost their weight.

But, let's say you lose weight with a two shakes a day, and a mini meal approach. You may lose the weight very fast, but it hasn't CHANGED your base habits at all, basically you've just put real life on hold while you focused on the weight thing.

When you go off the shakes, well, then you still have the same foods that you had before to go back to. More than likely nothing will have changed and you still associate with the comfort foods that got you to that weight in the first place.

I know several ppl that have lost weight extremely rapidly and then went on to keep it off for years afterwards, BUT they totally changed their eating habits at the end of the weight loss process too. Then I know others that have lost it slowly, but then gained it back because they went back to old eating patterns.

It's just a matter of going at the rate you can, and making sure not to look at dieting as a temporary fix, that you are teaching yourself a new life skill that you will always carry with you.

It's debatable, I think. Like somebody else mentioned, recent studies show otherwise, but who knows? There always seems to be conflicting studies about *everything*. There's this one: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/188045.php

I've seen others recently that support faster weight loss, but I'm not convinced either. I'm not saying one way or another, just that it's debatable whether or not that's true.

I thought it was that you have to cut calories too low to lose more than that and at an extreme low calorie diet your body starts breaking down muscle. Then you can't keep it off because you don't have any muscle burning off calories all day