First of all, thanks to every one that sent tons of cyber hugs my way on Thursday. I couldn't write back immediately - but please know that I felt much better after I cried on here and received so much support.

Now to the question: how many lbs do each of you believe is essential to lose each week? I'm breaking down my long term, Jan 1, 2008 goal, into managable propotions into weekly objectives.

So, how much is a reasonable weekly loss with a moderate exercise regime (4X a week) and a 1400 calorie diet?

Thanks in advance and I'm so glad I found you all folks!

-Dhvaya

I would advise making your goals something YOU can control - you can not control the scale. Goals of a certain amount of weight by x time can just lead to frustration. There might be some weeks you lose 2+ lbs, there might be other weeks where you lose nothing, there might be several weeks in a row where you lose nothing. If your success is tied up in your weight loss, it may be hard to stay motivated.

Any weight loss over time sounds good to me. A half a pound a week is still nearly 30 lbs in a year.

I agree with Glory. Setting goals with timelines on them sounds like a great idea at first, but if your body stalls, or your mind stalls, or anything gets in the way, you start to feel like a failure, even if you're still losing weight!!!!

I did great losing weight for a long time and then hit a stall. I think mine is more mental than physical, but nonetheless haven't lost weight in 3 months. Had I set a deadline for myself I think I'd be really disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I'd love the scale to move, but instead I'm celebrating maintaining my weight loss and trying to celebrate all the things I can do now that I couldn't before.

And sometimes the scale just stalls, even when you do everything right.

I guess what we're trying to say is try not to set strict deadlines, and find other issues to focus on. One behavior I can control is my exercise, so I set monthly goals that, for the most part, are under my control.

Yup I agree with the other posters - its really easy to get dis-heartened if the scale doesn't move for a week or too....personally my scale goes up at least 5lbs before TOM but comes right back down again after.

Try makes goals for exercise as suggested, either minutes or distance. Amount of water to drink, join a challenge e.g. lenten challenge on the boards here. You can always keep track of weight loss/inches lost too but try not to focus too much on it or it could be anti-motivational.

p.s. you're doing great so far! well done!

Also measure yourself even when the scale isn't moving your waistline may be and it is nice to have have as a reference point a few months down the road so you can see progress.

I have also not set up any specific goals for myself in terms of when I would lose the weight. Even if we were to do the same exact thing week after week after week, calorie wise and exercise wise, that does not mean you will see the same weightloss week after week. Our bodies are not that precise. It just doesn't work that way.

For me the focus was on eating healthy foods with lots of protien and fiber and adding exercise and activity to my life. The scale will do what the scale will do. Looking for a specific numberon the scale is impossible and will only lead to frustration.

1400 highly nutritional calories and exercise 4x a week seems like a good place to start.

I agree with everyone who has posted so far. Although 1-2 pounds per week is not unreasonable, that's an AVERAGE loss over WEEKS of time, and it won't happen every week. There will be the great week where you drop 3 pounds, boom, and then the rotten week where you don't lose anything--and may even gain. Gaaahhh!! So the trick here is to HAVE a plan, whether it's FitDay calories and activity, or Weight Watchers points, or whatever, and stay with that plan consistently.

Also, it helps to be willing to alter the plan if after a few weeks you're not seeing results. I've had to fine-tune FitDay in order to lose, but now my weight loss is doing exactly what FitDay predicted.

Go for it! You can do this! We'll help out!
Jay

Yup, I agree. You see I have a challenge posted to myself in my siggy. I gave myself 5 weeks to lose 10 pounds. If I don't meet it, I'll shrug and move on. My personal challenges are to drink water, and MOVE. Unfortunately human bodies aren't known sciences. Sure, you give your body adequate/healthy nutrition in 1400 calories a day, you force it to work out, 4 days a week for a specified amount of time. The result won't always be the same. My best advice, stay the course, research nutrition, learn what works for your body. Most people enter weight loss plans, full of "I'll lose x amount of lbs by dates a,b and c" when that doesn't happen, they throw up their hands, take their marbles and go home. Sadder and wind up BACK on the diet path, usually fatter and more unhealthy. Our bodies didn't gain 1-2 pounds a week while we were getting in this state, it won't come off that way either. I lost steadily, 1-2 lbs, every 3 weeks, with a 2 pound gain on week 4, followed by a 3 lb loss the week after TOM. When that stopped I got frustrated, I got angry, but I kept going. I tweaked my fitday, upped my working out, for 4 weeks, and had a 5 lb loss. But, if you break the weight down into weeks, you'll see for those 4 weeks or so, divided by the 5 pounds, it STILL comes out to about 1.5 pounds per week. There is no magical science to weight loss, unfortunately. It happens, if you make it happen, but you can't force it faster than is natural and expect it to stay off.

You've gotten such a wealth of information in the responses so far! Just a couple things I'd like to add. I do set small goals for myself, like the St. Paddy's Challenge, but it's more important to me to achieve the loss than it is to do it by a certain date. I like accomplishing these smaller goals, so I continue to set them. You may have noticed that I missed my Valentine's goal by about 3 pounds, but it didn't matter, it was just something to work towards! The other thing I wanted to bring up is that you typically the closer you are to your optimum weight, the slower you will lose. Even if you're dropping 1/4 pound per week, you're still improving your overall health, so hang in there!