Okay I need to know how much on average do people counting calories lose per week.
I know healthy weight loss is 1-2lbs per week. But I am just not sure what to set my goals at. I was thinking about setting my first goal to lose 42lbs by Christmas which is 21 weeks away from this week, which would be exactly 2lbs weekly. It would put me in onderland which would be a nice way to ring in the new year under 200lbs. I am at 242 now. I kinda think that a slow pace though, it seems like a lot of people on here are loosing a little faster then that sometimes and I am just starting so it may come off fast to begin with anyways.
Also I wanted to know Do you set weekly or monthly goals for yourselves?
I can only speak for myself, but I just try to take it 5 lbs. at a time. If I set up a goal to lose x amount of lbs. per month and I don't get there, I would probably fall off the wagon. My goal is to stay on plan and do my workouts to the best of my ability. Sometimes, I fall off the wagon, but I try to get right back on and that has helped a lot. I started this way of life on March 20th of this year, so that should give you some idea of how fast I've gone, given my stats. There are lots of factors that can effect how fast you lose. Age & muscle mass, not eating enough, sugar intake, workout regimen, water retention (effects weight on scale, rather than fat loss). I hope that was a bit helpful. Good luck!
I agree with LuckyMommy that trying to lose a certain number of lbs per week or a certain number of pounds by a certain date can be counterproductive. I have learned I need to set my goals in terms of actions that I have control over (staying on plan, exercising a certain amount, etc). The scale will fluctuate, sometimes up several pounds, because of water retention, TOM, etc. and that is when I need the boost of knowing that I am meeting my goals.
Regarding your original question, I've found that I only lose on average about a half a pound a week when I am just restricting calories It's really hard to see that amount of loss in the "noise" of scale fluctuations. But when I add in about an hour of exercise a day, I seem to lose an average of about one and a half pounds a week. Again -- that is an average, and in a given week I can still easily see an apparent gain from the fluctuations.
That said, one frequently loses a lot of water weight when starting a diet, so you may well see some good early progress. But after that initial effect wears off, you will have to see for yourself how quickly you can lose weight (on average) given the diet and exercise plan you are following.
That's really a hard question to ask. How much you lose in a week is dependent upon so many factors.
I would just work your plan and see where you end up at Christmas. Whether you meet, exceed or don't quite make the weight amount - you will be successful. Any weight loss is good.
I lose very slow now. About 4 pounds a month (July was 3.5). But - you know over time it all adds up to a lot of weight .
I don't set weight/date goals, but I do set other types of goals such as:
- This week I will exercise x number of minutes
- This week I will eat veggies every day
- This month I will try a new exercise routine
- Today I will get in 64 oz of water
All little goals to work on that I can achieve without trying to force the scale to be where I expect it (cause it never gets there LOL )
I would always set my goals where I would say, "I will weigh x by December"... and I have NEVER reached those goals. My goal now is to take everyday one day at a time. I think to myself, I am 100% committed to staying on "plan" and working out my x number of minutes today. I actually try not to weigh myself very often, because if I see I gained .5 lbs that will send me into a tail spin and I'll binge. If I stay on plan I will lose the weight. I don't really care how long it takes, just as long as it happens.
Just remember inch by inch life is a cinch, yard by yard it's very hard. Its the little goals you need to meet, as long as you meet them, the big goals will take care of themselves.
I set goals for myself, knowing there's a good chance I won't reach them. Regardless, I love a challenge and am not disappointed when it doesn't happen. I like concrete goals to work towards. Even when I don't make it I still am healthier than I was before.
Although I do set time goals I also work towards other goals like Fiberlover/Lori mentioned (good post!).
Just do it if a goal motivates you. And if the goal gets elusive do NOT give up - keep at it!
Then it slowed down to an average of 1 lb per week for about 2 months.
When I say average, that means that some weeks I might see up to 3 lbs gone, and some weeks I wouldn't lose anything.
For the past month, however, I've gone back to a steady rate of 2 lbs per week.
I know and expect that I will again plateau or slow down, though, especially as I get closer to my goal weight.
My goals are just to lose the weight in a healthy manner, no matter how long it takes. I would like to be at my goal weight by Christmas, but it's not necessarily a goal.
Last edited by Apple Cheeks; 08-04-2008 at 12:51 PM.
I would say averaging 2 lbs per week over the long run is a bit aggressive. There will be weeks where you lose 3, 2, 1 and 0.
I try to not put too may deadlines on my weightloss. I focus week to week on whether I am staying on plan and whether the scale is consistently moving in the right direction.
Everybody is different. I just try to stay on plan and each week may vary in how much I have lost. Eat fewer calories and exercise more and you will lose.
There's simply no way to give hard and fast numbers. If you look at what I just posted on the 5# challenge (#21), you'll see that while I lost 70 lbs pretty quickly (in about the space of a year or less), I'm now hovering in a Bermuda Triangle where each 5# increment is a huge struggle.
Don't know why. I eat on plan for weeks at a time, exercise (hard) 5 days out of 7, and still spend weeks at a time working on the same 5# until something gives and I drop suddenly.
It's not predictable at all ... all I know is that if I stick with it, it will happen and the trend of the scale is down overall - even if it's not as fast as I want or as consistent as I want.
I think my body is really going through a huge adaptation - I spent 10+ years in the mid-200s, and it's just going to take me some time to adjust to weighing a lot less. Some people never have to go through this and just whoosh right into their goal weight (lucky dogs! ).
And then there are some people who struggle with it even harder and longer than I have.
Which is the long winded way of saying ... it just all depends.
I hope I don't hit a Plateau, I know I probably will though. My personal trainer at the gym said the best way to avoid a plateau is to change your work out and diet consistently. If your weight loss stops you should change your work out or what your eating because sometimes your body just kinda of adjust to whatever your doing and needs to be changed up. I think I am going to for now just set goals like you all have been saying like I will stay OP and continue to work out, and as long as the scale is moving it doesn't matter how much. Really it will probably change often. One week I might lose 3 or 4 lbs and the next only 1 but atleast the scale is going down and not up. lol.
The reason I asked this question to begin with up top is because a lady at work has lost like 60lbs and she said it took her two years. I just don't want it to take that long, that seems very long to lose just 60lbs. I am wanting to lose roughly about 100lbs for now.
I just hit four months this morning. The first month I lost 10 pounds, second month 7, third month 6. So it was trending down. I wasn't thrilled about that, but I wasn't to worked up about it either, because it seemed reasonable. I expected it to slow down over time. But this month I lost 9.5 pounds. So overall, pretty close to an average of 2 pounds per week.
Congrats Julies sounds like you are doing great! What plan are you following?
Thanks . I've been calorie counting and focusing on wholefoods and low sugar; good sleep; and I've been doing yoga 1.5h every morning (has built a lot of muscle and some aerobic conditioning as well), and I started Couch to 5K this morning. I haven't been doing low carb per se, but I have much reduced my daily portions, and only whole grains.
I've been averaging around 1450-1475 calories most days, 1500-1550 about once a week. I think I'm going to shoot more for 1500 - I'm going to be exercising more, and I don't want to get stuck with low calories. But I'm also moving towards becoming vegetarian and also less dairy, so my diet will be changing some. I'm hoping change means good things . Because I'm about 1/2 way to goal now, and I know the pace has to slow down.
two years ago I weighed nearly 300 pounds
today i weigh a bit over 200
i'd LIKE to be at goal but i'm not.
but if I had not lost over 70 pounds over 2 years I'd still be nearly 300 pounds and unable to do any of the things I do now.
IF i gave up when I didn't meet a goal where would I be.
I always worry when folks want to set goals like "I will weigh XXX by XX/XX/XX" and then talk about how they could not bear to take months and months to get there....
why not? what will happen in a year if you've only lost 30 pounds? will you quit, call yourself a failure because you did not meet your goal and then regain the 30 and then some?
it happened to me many years ago. I lost 60... i was so close to goal... i quit. now i have to lose over 100....
i would have been better off remaining a 'failure' at 160 pounds....
How much
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. Because I'm about 1/2 way to goal now, and I know the pace has to slow down.
