Weight loss rate - Anything about Exercise - Trainer's Corner

I've read in many places that its unhealthy to lose more than 2lbs per week.

Now say you go from complete couch potatoe for like 4 months. I mean minimal activity, maybe run once a week, eating more tha necessary during meals, eating junk between meals, and eating late at night. And again like running once a week if that.

Then you go from that to a very healthy controlled diet and exercise every day. Would it still be unhealthy if you found you were losing more than 2lbs a week? Even if it was just at first?

Nir
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Joined:	11 January 2006
Location:	Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Posts:	8252

Posted: 24 September 2009 09:49 pm

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Some thoughts on this:

1) if it was just at first (first 1 or 2 weeks) then that's water weight which doesn't count, so no it does not matter

2) beyond that, it is more a function of how much you have to lose, i.e. what is your BMI. Someone who is normal weight or just a little overweight probably shouldn't lose more than 1-2lb a week. If you're nearly at your goal with a BMI of 20 you probably will lose at 0.5lb-1lb any faster and you're losing muscle. Conversely someone who is obese or morbidly obese can probably safely lose more.

There's a formula for largest deficit: figure out how much excess fat you have (in lbs), multiply by 31 and you have your daily deficit. For example if you have 33lb of fat to lose, 33 x 31 = 1023, you could have a deficit this large and probably mostly still lose fat, and at that rate you'll be losing about 2lb a week. Thus if you have more than 33 lbs to lose you could probably lose at a faster rate.

However remember that you don't want to eat less than your unadjusted RMR (or 75% of unadjusted RMR if you're obese - BMI > 30) so a large component of that larger-than-1000-calories deficit will come from increased activity.

Increased activity for someone previously sedentary increases the risk of injury for example to your joints (knee, ankle etc.) so it would be wise to be careful.

Gink
New Member

Joined:	13 September 2009
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Posts:	106

Posted: 25 September 2009 02:49 am

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thanks!

that was a lot of help!

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