How Much Weight Should You Be Losing and How Fast?

A healthy weight loss is gradual with the average maximum of only 1-2 pounds per week. Those are recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This might be a surprise to many as there are multiple programs that claim they’ll have you losing 10 pounds in a week. However, even if you manage to achieve those results, they will not stick. You will also run the risk of damaging your health quite badly as extreme weight loss can only result from extremely taxing your body.

Why Is 1-2 Pounds a Week the Best Healthy Weight Loss Rate?

According to general health recommendations, an adult should consume about 2,000 calories daily. If your diet is well-balanced, this amount of food should provide you with healthy nutrition and help maintain your weight. Cutting your calories under 1,500 isn’t advisable unless the person has some specific health concerns or leads a very ‘inactive’ lifestyle.

This means that on average, a healthy weight loss program should cut calories by 500 a day max. This will amount to 3,500 calories a week, which amounts to the lost weight of about 1-2 pounds.

But you should never forget that average numbers mean very little in every individual situation. The exact number of calories you should consume or restrict from your diet is affected by many factors. These include your health, genes, diet, activity level, and some others. Therefore, to ensure the healthiest rate of weight loss you should consult a professional who can create a personalized diet plan for you. Such a ‘custom’ approach will allow accounting for your natural metabolism rate, lifestyle, current weight, and your weight goals.

How to Stay Healthy While Losing Weight

The most important rule of healthy weight loss is eating a healthy diet. It’s imperative that you get all the essential nutrients with every meal. It’s also equally important to avoid unhealthy foods that contain a lot of sugar, carbs, and ‘bad’ fats.

Eating a well-balanced diet and avoiding overeating will help you lose weight by default, even if you don’t cut your calories significantly. However, in this case, the weight loss will be extremely slow.

To achieve any significant results you’ll need to ensure that you burn more calories than you consume. This means that a healthy weight loss program has to include exercise as well. Cardio and resistance training are among the most efficient fat-burning workouts. However, even a 30-minute walk gives you enough exercise to make a difference for your figure.

You can also use weight loss supplements and a variety of tricks to enhance a healthy weight loss program. For example, a recent study showed that eating slower can help lose excess weight faster, reports Forbes. Drinking no less than eight glasses of water per day and flavoring your meals with metabolism-boosting chili peppers and ginger also make effective weight loss tricks.

How Much Weight Should You Lose in Total?

The ‘healthy standard’ of body mass index (BMI) is between 18.5 and 24.9. You can determine yours using a BMI calculator. However, you shouldn’t consider that number the absolute truth. While the healthy weight guidelines advise that to be the number you should aspire to achieve, you also need to be realistic about your chances.

It’s always best to discuss your maximum total weight loss goal with your doctor and a professional dietitian. These experts will be able to determine what kind of weight loss will be truly best for your body.

While getting a healthy BMI is a good goal, it might take you years of hard work to achieve this. As motivation is essential for the success of your weight loss program, you should start with setting realistic goals.