Hello everyone, I wondered if anyone is doing/has done a diet that allows you to lose 3-4 pounds a week, every week? I can control my eating to a large extent now, but low carb/no carb does not work for me. Ive tried, & failed with Atkins, Sth Beach & Dukan & felt like rubbish 90% of the time.

I think I could probably get down to about 1000-1200 cals a day if I had to, & could even give IF a go if I could get those losses. But Im female (we lose a lot less than the men) & fairly mid size (weight loss is often not that quick if youve a bit less to lose). Giving up alcohol completely is not an option (Ive dieted whilst drinking & it was fine).

Ive been doing the homeopathic HCG diet *waits for lightening to strike me down* & used to losing a pound a day...but if you cheat (which I do) its just as easy to put ON a pound or 2. Plus 500cals a day is not something I can do more than 4 days a week. Plus its nearly summer & Im sick of having my social life on hold.

Help, oh diet experts! I would even do those bloody shakes if I had to!

Nope. Unless you are very overweight and are on a medically supervised weight loss plan. In addition, your honesty to what you will and will not do tells me that those strict diets leave you to binge and give up. What's the hurry? Why not find something you can do forever? That you enjoy and makes you feel like you can still drink and have a social life and not give up (calorie counter, here). I recently read a very wise diet blog....from tippy toe diet....begin at the end. Choose things that you want to be doing when you are in maintenance mode. It is unrealistic to think that you won't have to watch what you eat and exercise once you get to your ideal weight. So why not do it now? Find foods you love and incorporate treats as allowed. Find exercises you love and start living your lifestyle as you would when you are at goal. By the way...calorie counting and exercise I lose about 1-2 lbs a week. I go out to eat once a week with my husband and maybe have drinks and apps once a month (sometimes more in the summer). I fit it all in and still lose. Good luck to you. There is no quick fix or easy answer....or this board would not exist.

You are 147lbs at 5'5. I think you need to get it out of your mind that a crash diet will lead to permanent weight loss. How is that working for you so far?

Take a good 6 months on a reasonable deficit (300-500 calories below maintenance which at your height would mean eating 1500-1600 calories a day) and STICK TO IT for several months.

It isn't going to happen overnight. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you might actually hit your goal and stay there. 3-4lbs a week at your size will not happen, end of. Even 2lbs is unrealistic, 1lb on a good week.

It took me 5 months to go from 147lbs to 127lbs. 5 months. On plan, with a 300-500 calorie deficit and 4-5 consistent days in the gym. Nope, no magic quick results within the 1st few weeks.

But I'm here, at goal, and I look fantastic, and those 5 months went by far easier than constant crash dieting and failure on multiple plans.

I agree with what kmac1196 and sacha have said...very wise words indeed.

Sorry but you don't weigh enough to lose that kind of weight. And if you did, you'd be asking us again the next month how to do it again (except it would be even harder the 2nd time around).

Losing 1-2lbs a week at your current weight would be totally reasonable and maintainable.

Good luck.

I wasn't able to lose weight until I put all unreasonable expectations out of my head. I stopped trying to cram my weightloss into some small amount of time.

3 or 4 pounds of what? If you mean water weight, low carb diets shed much water from the body the first two weeks. Then, reality sets it and people find the rate of loss after that is no different than with a reduced calorie diet. That's why so many folks abandon these plans.
The only way I have ever heard of anyone consistently losing 3-4 pounds, week after week, is with bariatric surgery. But even this slows down as you approach your normal weight. Sorry we all burst your bubble, but this is reality.

Thanks for your answers everone
I understand what you mean about doing something long term...& I have already got it in my mind that I will dedicate the next few months to it & find a long term solution..but its nearly summer & I just dont want another summer of cringing at photos, fitting none of my wardrobe & not being prepared to wear a swimsuit. I have enough to deal with in my life & just didnt want it to be winter again before I was anywhere near my goal weight (& the weight I was for years). Everything is on hold, I dont want to meet anyone while Im this weight & Im really sick of not even being able to wear short sleeves. Im not lazy, or deluded, or looking for something for nothing. 1 pound a week = the end of august and Im STILL not where I want to be. And summer has virtually finished. I actually want 2 diets, the fast one to kick start & the slow one to keep..this forum is great for finding the 'keeper' (a combination of the 8 hour diet & calorie counting I think).

I was just wondering if any of the millions of diets in existence actually allow you to make extra sacrifices when you need to step up the weight loss when you need to before settling in to a more long term approach. Surely if you are fasting on alternate days you would lose more than if you were fasting 2 days a week for example? Both are supposed to be healthy & long term. Surely if you can stick to 1000 cals a day you can lose more than if you do 1200? What about 800 cals a day? 800 cals a day is not sustanable for long, but if I could lose 9 pounds in 3 weeks....

I was interested to read the comment on water loss with low carb diets, I never lose weight on the damn things but I do know a few men who have done really well on them. But I lost well while eating plenty of carbs (but not many calories) a few years ago. Although they do seem to be making the biggest promises.

Well, thank you for your answers, if anyone knows a way to get more than a pound a week off please enlighten me! A pound a week is ok once I hit 9 stone 10 or so but before that it sucks. Especially since I have addressed the causes of the weight gain & know that once its gone it will stay gone.

Rate of loss has a lot to do with what you weigh to begin with. A 300 pound person on a 1200 calorie diet will certainly lose more every week than a 150 pound person. I'm no expert, but if you want to increase your weekly losses, burning 500 calories a day through exercise equals a pound lost per week. Ninety minutes of walking would do that for a 150 pound person. Ninety minutes is a lot, but you could split it into 2 or more sessions. This, combined with enough calorie reduction to lose a pound or 2 a week might just give you the 3 pound weekly result you want. Again, I'm no expert or athlete, just trying to help.

I don't think there are any healthy recommended diets that do what you want. I'm sorry--I know that's not what you want to hear.

People have been known to do some crazy things, and as others have pointed out, they're not particularly healthy or medically recommended.

I know you really want some type of magic and trust me, if there was some type of magic we'd all be overdosing on it right now. You wrote that you don't want something for nothing but your whole post is asking for that! And the part that says "everything is on hold" makes me sad. We aren't guaranteed a tomorrow, we should be living our life to the fullest every day no matter our weight (easier said than done). And so what if you aren't to goal by August. At least you will be on your way to goal. And really, what choice do you have anyways? Time goes by either way. So either have the pity party that you can't be exactly where you are or start now and see how far you can get and be proud of your progress.

Again, no magic. The extra sacrifices means starting today, right now, get on plan NOW. Not tomorrow, not Monday, not next month. NOW.

I wouldn't have your heart set on a pound a week as any type of guarantee or you might be disappointed. Weight loss isn't linear, you may go up or down each week and there is no way to predict that. But I don't think a pound a week "sucks" at all. If we could all lose a pound a week guaranteed we'd all be 52lbs lighter by this time next year. There is nothing that sucks about that at all.

I wish you a lot of luck, I truly do. But I assure you, dropping the negative attitude towards weightloss will do more magic for you than you could ever imagine. And I don't say that lightly.

Walking is a great idea. Ive had holidays where there has been a lot of walking (shopping) & found weight mysteriously vanishing or not being put on. It doesnt make me hungry the way running/the gym does (I used to do a lot of fairly tough exercise & was still a stone overweight because I ate so much!) & my dog would love it too. Maybe even a sort of walk half the time, run half the time thing? Like you say, its all a calculation..even the IF diets are running off a calculation of total cals a week.

Oh, & elvislover I have lost weight steadily & fairly dramatically on 500 calories a day. So trust me Ive done the hard work. And I know ALL about sacrifices. I just wanted to switch to something less quick but where I could actually still lose weight, as this is getting too difficult & it is not supposed to be long term. But a pound a day or a pound a week...if Im lucky..what would you do? Oh, & yes, I do have a 'negative attitude' to dieting. I hate having to eat strange no fat versions of food, & artificial sweeteners & be hungry most of the time, or feel rubbish because Im not eating carbs. I know a number of people on the gold standard of 'healthy eating as a way of life' diet, weightwatchers....but they are not actually losing weight.

I think the bottom line is that NO diet will give me or anyone like me more than 1.5-2 pounds a week & I will only get that by sticking to an exactly calculated number of calories & walking. I managed 1.1 pounds easily a week a few years ago eating exactly the same food most of the time (about 1100-1200 cals I think) AND going out to the pub at least 4 nights a week (drinking beer!) And even less exercise than now. Like clockwork, every week, until I added an 80 cal snack to the mix every day & didnt lose weight for 2 weeks till I realised what had happened. Looking at the threads NO ONE is getting more than that no matter what. So no point in starving myself half the days of the week, or giving up carbs, I think I will tough it out with HCG for another 10 days then switch to a 1000cal (+ red wine, which is not fattening!) + walking regime for the rest & settle in for as long as it takes. 1000 calories is double my current allowance & I wont have to eat specific foods so it will be LUXURY! Add in eating as few as possible of those cals after 7.00pm (like last time).

Toast! With butter! a 500 cal lunch! Yoghurt! Bananas! A skinny latte/cappucino on the weekend! Rjoca! If it works well I might even write a book So, 10 more days of **** & then its time to break out the calculator, find a good app, & find out the calories of EVERYTHING. And buy some suitable footwear..

I would take a look at "The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook" by Lyle McDonald... I'm pretty sure if you google it you can find it in PDF format so you can take a look at it... I've used it before and I've dropped weight with it very quickly... It definitely works and it can be a good way to "jumpstart" your weight loss... Or another PSMF type of plan...

I think one thing you are not considering is that as time goes on, we get older, and you are doing more and more damage to your metabolism with these extreme diets.

You said:
I know a number of people on the gold standard of 'healthy eating as a way of life' diet, weightwatchers....but they are not actually losing weight.

Well, then look harder. I have maintained for 10 YEARS now, with the exception of my 2 pregnancies, by this 'healthy way of life'. There are lots of us in the maintainer forums, and we didn't stay there from HCG or other fads.

Genuine question- if your crash dieting works so well, then why are you still doing them years later? Sorry, but your unsustainable plans and arbitrary goals have you going in circles for years. The "plan" isn't the problem, it's your classic diet mindset that keeps the billion dollar business going. Nobody wants to take the slow permanent path. Too bad, because things have been great on that side of the fence.

You said:
. I hate having to eat strange no fat versions of food, & artificial sweeteners & be hungry most of the time, or feel rubbish because Im not eating carbs.

Well, yeah I'd feel like crap too if I ate that way. It's unnecessary. It seems you have so many dieting myths ingrained in your head that you've made it impossible for yourself to do this the easy way.

Based on the OP's last response she seems to have all of the answers. (500 calories a day?? Beer, wine, HCG, time limits...no wonder it wasn't sustainable.)

If people put half the effort into a real diet that they do into trying these tricks, they'd be at goal by now!