how feasible is it to lose 1.5-2 lbs a week? I know it differs from person to person, but is it generally achievable if you keep to a certain calorie and exercise level? The reason I ask is that I calculated how long it will take to hit 135, and it seems like I have another 6 months ahead of me if I manage to keep consistently losing 4-5 lbs a month (which may taper off when I get lower, sigh).

I know patience is a virtue, but I essentially start a new life in september, and I'd like to get a jump on shedding the last of this weight so that I can experiment some with maintaining, instead of sort of skidding under the door at the last second. Also, I plan on focusing more on resistance training at that point, and I'm looking forward to starting that sooner than later

To answer this question it may help to do the math. 1 lb = 3500 calories. 1.5= 5250, 2 lbs = 7000. Divide by 7 days in the week. Can you maintain a 750 or 1000 calorie deficit each day healthily? Some people can, some cannot. It depends on how much exercise you get, how much you eat, what your BMR is, etc.

Well, I'm kind of wondering where the balance is. I know that I could easily eat a low enough deficit, but I feel like the weight loss slows when I get into too-low numbers. At the same time, I've never felt like hitting the gym has sped up my weight loss significantly, and especially not when I'm eating below 1200 cals a day.

I'm looking for some sort of synergy between my eating and exercising...whether it means eating more AND exercising more, or more or less of just one.

At your height and weight, I think it's unlikely. Keep playing with food and exercise, but, as you say, there are biological limitations.

The good news is that those last 20 lbs are amazing. Each one makes as much of a difference as 5 lbs did at the start. If you are five pounds away from goal in September, you'll still be delighted with what you have.

For me- and this is just from my own experience, not a scientific study- the best combination is a low cal diet (I'm at 1200) with regular exercise that I do NOT eat back in calories. So sometimes my deficit, if I don't exercise, is 200-500, sometimes it's more if I do a hard workout since I don't eat back the cals. I have no idea how many calories I'm burning exercising so I don't want to risk eating the same/more than what I burned. Not exactly a scientific method, but it has seemed to help with steady weight loss at .75-1 lb a week.

I have no idea if this helped at all or if I'm just blabbing about my own process either way good luck!!

None of us can tell you where your "balance' or "synergy" is, or even the answer to your original question, how feasible is it to lose 1.5-2 lbs a week?

Only your experimenting is going to tell you that. Personally I avoid "goal by dates" because they backfire on me. If I "fall behind" schedule, I'm tempted to do crazy stuff to "catch up," which makes it harder to stay on plan and I fall further behind. Eventually I start feeling "I'll never catch up, " and then I'll never lose this weight in time," becomes "I'll never lose this weight," which is only a hairs breadth away from "If I'm never going to lose this weight anyway, why am I depriving myself."

Also even if I do stay the course and keep trying, when I finally reach the deadline day, if I'm even a little behind my original goal, instead of celebrating the success, I start punishing myself for the failure. I obsess over every tiny mistake I made over the course of the time, and tell myself "if you hadn't made these 5, or 50 mistakes you'd have made it on time, you ginormous, ugly, moron."

For me, it makes more sense to decide what is mentally and physically best for me, and accept whatever weight loss is the reward for that behavior. What am I willing to do? What am I able to do, both physically and mentally. What sacrifices am I willing to make, and are any of them going to make me miserable? Am I really willing to be miserable, even in the short term. Which are the changes am I willing to make forever? Which changes am I only willing to make temporarily, and what are they and for how long?

I don't have the strength or stamina for "hard core" dieting any more. Not only does it backfire on me, it requires me to put weight loss not only as my top priority, but essentially my only priority. I have to "give up" too much to experience results that still aren't very impressive. I can be physically and emotionally miserable and lose 3 lbs a week, or I can have a life and be happy and lose whatever my body is going to lose (which right now is a couple pounds a month).

After decades of crash dieting (and thinking slow weight loss is no better than no weight loss), I'm surprised to find that I'm not only happier, I feel more successful when I choose the latter.


Only you can find your balance, and you have to do it by experimenting.

On a practical note, many people lose best/fastest on a low-carb diet. For me, it's just about the only way I can lose weight. However, if you hate eating like that, or do not believe a low-carb diet is healthy, I wouldn't recommend it.

Diets are like romantic partners, you won't stick with one you don't like and respect (and if you do, you're settling for abuse).

You've got another six months ahead of you anyway. Just keep going with your good behaviors, and let the scale do what it will. You will drive yourself crazy if your goal is a particular amount of weight lost each week (especially since weight loss is not linear, and will slow down as you near your goal.)

You can start resistance training now, and doing a slower weight loss (rather than heavily restricting in an attempt to get it off faster) will be very good practice for maintaining, since you'll just need to make small changes and not add way more calories that could cause a gain.

I think if you're dedicated it can happen. Six months is a long time and if you can really watch what you eat and excersice at least 3 days a week.. Any kind of exercise I think you can do it. And Like you said it will go fast for a month or so.. then taper offf.

Part of the problem is that as you weigh less, your body needs fewer calories, so it gets harder to reasonably create the calorie deficit...

But if you keep at it, you'll definitely weigh less in 6 months, and probably feel better about yourself too. You may or may not be at your goal, but you'll already have your new, healthier lifestyle!

Why not set a realistic goal. At your weight, it's not going to happen.