Can you lose two pounds a week on 1500 calories?

  • Logic does say that you would lose a pound a week on 1500 calories a day. But I find I lose about two pounds a week. Could this be because I am used to 2500 calories? I told my mother I had lost two pounds this week and she said that was nonsense. But it stays off and I am getting smaller so I think it might actually be fat. What are your opinions?
  • It really depends on how many calories you're burning. Before I got sick, I was eating 1800-2000 calories/day and losing 2-3 lbs per week. Just my BMR is 1900 though. By the time you add in normal daily activity plus all the running, I burn 3000-3500 calories per day. Now that I'm on a forced break, I've dropped down to 1400-1500 calories, and I'm still losing 1-2 lbs per week.
  • I agree with the above, it all depends on activity level and how much you burn throughout the day vs what you eat.

    I eat around 1500 and am somewhat active but I'm a stay at home mom. I only lose about a pound a week (if I'm lucky). But I've always been a slow loser, even when I was going to the gym every day after work.
  • If only we could count on our bodies to obey the numbers. We lose weight more quickly at the start of our diet, especially when cutting carbs, because we're using up the stored glucogen in our liver and all the water that is shed with it. Eventually, the rate of weight loss slows. It takes a bit more for our bodies to agree to release fat for fuel. And when that fat is pulled out of the fat cells, water remains in the cell for a bit longer. The body anticipates that we'll be replacing the fat that was vacated. Eventually the fat cell gives up the extra water. So you'll see some days/weeks when you won't lose any weight, and some times when you'll experience a huge whoosh of weight loss. Times when your clothes will feel looser but the scale won't indicate a loss. As long as you eat less than what you use daily you'll burn stored energy, but the rate will vary.