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Old 04-21-2005, 03:09 AM   #1  
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Well I have set a mini goal. I figure this is the only way I am really going to succeed. Well I plan to lose 26 lbs in about 3 1/2 weeks. I just want to know... Is this an ok goal? I dont know what is a good time frame and weight range to set. I have heard that losing 2-3 lbs per week is best... but Ive also heard that 5lbs per week is ok... and so I figure why not 7lbs... 10 lbs. Do you think this would cause me to look funny (like loose skin etc.) or would this be a healthy amoung in that short of a time frame. Im so totally clueless
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Old 04-21-2005, 03:18 AM   #2  
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I think that a 1 to 2 pound loss a week is a pretty reasonable goal. Past that, the body has hard time losing fat and will instead be shedding water and muscle.

Personally, I think it's a bad idea to set tight goals period. It's easy to have an off week or two. I'm having that right now. I'm eating as I should, keeping up with my exercise, and so far staying steady this week. Might next week as well, I dunno. If I had set some sort of weight loss/time goal, I might be concerned about this. As it is, I know that if I keep doing the right things, the weight loss will eventually continue.

Dieting is stressful enough. Adding to the stress of it doesn't make sense to me. And many of us end up over eating as a way to deal with stress!
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Old 04-21-2005, 03:27 AM   #3  
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I have lost 15lbs in 3 weeks and I think that is great. That is 5lbs per week, average. Don't want to loose too fast. Not good for ya.

I have a goal set of 10% by the end of May. I have 16lbs left to hit my goal. Then I will up it to another 10%, and so on.
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Old 04-21-2005, 09:25 AM   #4  
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Hello Tahiti!

I pretty much think along the same lines as Tealeaf. Slow and steady wins the race and having goals set for dates can become very frustrating. At the same time, however, if having those goals will keep you motivated then it's a good thing as long as you are trying to reach them in a healthy fashion.

Conventional wisdom is that 1-2 lbs per week is an ideal weight loss. This gives your body some time to adjust to the changes so it doesn't freak out eventually. At your weight though (which is about where I started losing) it's probably possible to lose more than 2 lbs a weeks safely. Be prepared that this rate will slow down as you come closer to your healthy range.

The most important things in my opinion, goals or no goals, is that you are dieting in a way that is healthy for your body and that you are following a plan which you will be able to work with for the rest of your life. However you are eating or exercising now is basically the same plan that you will have to continue to follow to maintain. Some people prefer rules and goals for their diet; I understand that completely. But all I am suggesting is that you not be too strict with yourself. Remember that this is your new life and you want to be happy living it (hehe even if you can't have every ice-cream sundae that you want)

Best of luck to you and I hope to see you around the forums more!
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Old 04-21-2005, 09:48 AM   #5  
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I agree with Luciole, you don't want to do it too fast. You will probably lose fast at first but dont' expect to be able to keep it up. Eventually, your body evens out and it become harder to achieve 1-2 pounds much less 5 pounds.
Also I have learned any time I set up hard to atain goals, I some how sabatoge my self and don't make it then I get mad and I am off track for a week or two then....it starts a bad cycle.
so I would say set a goal but don't expect to lose 26#in 3 weeks or a month more like 15lbs. 26 could happen and that would be nice but it might not be that healthy. The first week or two most people lose a lot. I think the rule of thumb after that is to lose 1% of your weight a week or for you, 2.4lbs. It will add up faster than it sounds like and you will be a lot healthier and retain all of your lean muscle mass. Plus your skin with shrink with you it won't be so drastic.
you can do it and once you get the hand of it, you will start to learn from your body what is do able and what is not.
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Old 04-21-2005, 11:10 AM   #6  
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There is no way you can get adequate nutrition and cut out that many calories. It's crazy to think you can lose that much in so short a time and be healthy. Set a reasonable goal of 1-2 pounds per week and you will be much more likely to be able to maintain the weight loss. This is a time of learning how to eat for the rest of your life that that means you need to learn good, healthy eating habits.
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Old 04-21-2005, 11:40 AM   #7  
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I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but what you are trying to do is basically physically impossible. You are talking about losing a pound a day, essentially. If you ate NOTHING, not a single calorie, for 3 1/2 weeks, you STILL couldn't lose that much weight, fat or muscle or anything else. People who lose 5 and 10 pounds in a week are people who weigh a LOT more than you do, and often you see that in the first week or two of any diet because of water weight loss. Very few people under 500 pounds could sustain that kind of loss more than a couple of weeks.

First of all, I have to agree with another poster that setting "goals" of losing a certain amount of weight in a certain time period is a bad idea. For one thing, what happens when you don't meet that goal for whatever reason? You wind up getting discouraged. You want goals that are ATTAINABLE within reason, and even if you stick to your plan perfectly, your body may not cooperate. For most people, women especially, it does not release fat on a steady, even schedule. So, setting small goals like 26 pounds is fine, but you don't want to attach a timetable to it.

Everybody likes to contemplate how quickly they might lose, so let's look at some facts to help you think about it in a reasonable fashion.

First of all, a pound of body fat is worth 3500 calories. You have to eat 3500 calories LESS than you burn in a given time period in order to lose a pound of fat. Let's say you ate 500 calories less per day than you need to maintain your weight. That means you would lose 1 pound in a week. You might cut calories a little more to try to lose more quickly, but if you dip below your basal metabolic rate, your body will be thrown into crisis mode. It will assume there is a severe food shortage, and it will adjust systems in your body to help you survive. For one thing, it'll slow down your metabolism so that your body can run on fewer calories. This will cause your weight loss to slow down. Second, it will start burning muscle tissue in order to PRESERVE your fat stores. It considers muscle expendable in the face of famine. So, your weight may not change very much, but your muscle-to-fat ratio will get WORSE, and you'll be LARGER than if you had lost that weight in fat alone.

I don't know your age or height, but I plugged some sample stats (30 years old, 5'6" tall) into a metabolism calculator using your weight and gender, and assuming an ordinary activity level. It said that your basal metabolic rate would be 1808, and your active metabolic rate would be 2350. That means that you would never want to eat less than about 1800 calories per day, and if your activity was more than just average light daily activity, you might want to eat more. It's somewhat of a balancing act.

So, let's say that for now your activity level stayed the same and you ate 1800 calories per day. That would allow you to lose a pound per week. That is perfectly safe, it protects your metabolism so that you continue to lose, and protects your muscle tissue. Do you see why losing a pound per day is impossible? Your body need much less than 3500 calories per day to stay at the same weight, so it's literally impossible to create a 3500 calorie deficit to burn off a pound of fat or anything else.

Why don't you go to this web site: http://www.jimkaras.com/loss_math01.cfm. You can plug in your actual stats and obtain the calorie level that will allow you to lose safely and steadily and not damage your metabolism and lose muscle tissue. Remember that weight loss goals are fine in terms of total number of pounds, but try to abandon the crash-diet marketing mentality that promises miraculous weight loss. That's just fantasy and is not based on any kind of biological truth.
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Old 04-21-2005, 06:39 PM   #8  
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i was unsure if it was possible or healthy. I just want to look better for my boyfriend and my 2 year anniversary but I started too late. I guess I will get as close to the goal as I an but not get my hopes up on it. I am working my *** off to lose what I can though. THanks everyone.
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Old 04-21-2005, 07:52 PM   #9  
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My short term goal is 130 by May 27. IF I can lose 2 pounds a week I'll make it... but I have my doubts as I have been stalled out for almost 2 weeks. :-(
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