Online Personal Training Blog

What Is Reasonable Weight Loss?

How easy is it to lose weight in a limited time span? After all, TV and internet commercials claim that you can “lose 10 pounds in two weeks,” or even lose a pound every day. So after watching all these commercials and ads, we begin to believe that it’s an easy task to burn substantial fat in a short period of time. But you really need to ask, “Is fast weight loss really possible?

Two professional organizations, the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Sports Medicine, claim that no more than two pounds of weight loss a week is safe. It’s a guideline that medical experts use for helping individuals maintain a balance of losing fat while preserving lean body mass – and also for maintaining proper hydration. Granted that 2 pounds loss a week seems minor, compared to what the weight loss commercials offer the public!

To sort through what’s fantasy and what’s real, consider first what it actually takes to use the energy that 10 pounds of stored body fat represents. At 3,500 calories per pound, 10 pounds of fat represents 35,000 calories of stored energy. The average person burns about 100 calories walking or running one mile. So to lose the 10 pounds in one week, a person would have to run 350 miles or 50 miles per day. This is assuming, of course, that eating habits aren’t changed while adding all that exercise.

Can you imagine expending that much energy? Can you imagine covering 50 miles and not being hungrier than on a day when you didn’t? It is probably safe to say that losing 10 pounds of fat loss in one week, by exercise alone, is nothing short of laughable.

But what about losing 10 pounds of fat in a week by dieting? Is there a way to avoid eating 35,000 calories in a week (5,000 per day)? Considering that a typical middle-aged female (5′5″, 170 pounds, less than 30 minutes of vigorous exercise beyond daily routine activities) maintains her weight on about 1,900 calories per day, this too would be impossible. She can’t possibly eat less than nothing! How about eating nothing and running only 31 miles per day for a week? Now that would be a way to combine dieting and exercise to lose 10 pounds of stored body fat. Again, laughable.

Thus 10 pounds of body fat loss in a week isn’t possible. So alternatively, is the 2 pounds a week “safe” weight loss guideline a viable choice? Let’s answer this question by looking again at the math. Two pounds of fat equals 7,000 calories or 70 miles of walking or running each week. Can you expect a person to run 10 miles a day, 7 days a week while also eating their usual portion of food? Alternatively, consume 1,000 calories less than their usual diet for a full week – and not go crazy? Considering the typical woman described above, cutting out 1,000 calories involves eating about half of her usual diet and 500 calories less than what she needs to just maintain her daily functions when she’s resting.

It’s probably clear to you now that just one pound of that awful fat contains a lot of energy. If you reduce your food intake by 300 calories each day and add a 2 mile walk, you can lose one pound of fat every week. If you maintain this schedule every day of the year, you will have lost 50 pounds at year’s end. But keep in mind that if, instead, you add 100 calories each day (or exercise 100 calories less), you will have gained 10 pounds at the end of that year!

No matter how you do the math, successful weight management involves setting reasonable and realistic goals. One day’s diet and exercise routine won’t necessarily affect your weight the next day, and it may even take a few weeks for significant weight changes to register on the scale. Keep up with the habit changes, however, and they’re bound to pay off in fat loss as the energy deficits accumulate.

Check out lots of really great advice about weight loss on Kevin Taylor’s site. You’ll find many useful ideas for choosing the best weight loss diets that works for you.