Remember, the best way to lose weight is to do it slowly by making small, achievable changes to your eating and physical activity habits. You may like to set yourself one or 2 small changes to work on at a time, only adding to these once these have become your new way of life.
“Most studies have shown slow weight loss to be better for a number of reasons; one of these is that rapid weight loss can mean that more muscle mass is lost than if the weight loss is gradual; thus lowering the rate at which it burns calories.
People with gradual, steady weight loss (about 1 to 2 pounds per week) are more likely to keep the weight off than people who lose weight quickly.
Regardless of whether you're trying to lose that stubborn last 10 pounds or a good deal of weight, the best strategy is one that starts slow and stays steady over time. It's all about building healthy lifestyle habits—not just for a short-term fix, but for a sustained period of time.
Slower weight loss encourages habit development
If you do hard things to lose weight quickly, it's harder to keep doing those thing, and you're more likely to ditch those behaviors when life gets tough. This means it's easy for weight to come back on.
The best and safest way to lose weight is to do it gradually. When people lose lots of weight quickly, they tend to be losing the wrong kind of weight – muscle, water, and bone mass – rather than losing fat. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends trying to limit weight loss to one or two pounds per week.
So as you lose weight, your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight. Your slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, slow and steady weight loss is one that allows you to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week (0.5 to 1 kilogram a week), until you reach your desired body goals and weight.
"Slow weight loss is a sign that you're making slow and steady changes to your behaviors that are likely to stick for life," says Julie Upton, R.D., co-founder of Appetite for Health. She says that losing weight slowly is also an indicator that you're losing fat, not muscle.
Rapid and drastic weight loss can lead to various complications. It includes mainly muscle loss, metabolic changes and nutrient deficiencies. In addition, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, fatigue gallstone formation are other side effects.
As we reach our 30's, our bodies usually need less energy, meaning we may not be able to eat the way we did in our 20's. Then, as you move past 40 and head to middle age, changes in muscle, hormones and metabolism all make it harder to stay trim.
For most people, 1-2 lbs per week is a realistic rate of weight loss. But everyone has a different starting point. A better benchmark is 1-2% of your current weight. Keep to this percentage throughout your diet, and the amount you expect to lose will fall (in line with your new lighter body weight).
The finding of the study suggests that people in middle age certainly gain weight and it is harder for them to lose it, but slow metabolism is not the real reason behind it. It was revealed that from the 20s to the 50s the energy expenditure is the most stable.
Research suggests that alternate-day fasting is about as effective as a typical low-calorie diet for weight loss. Fasting also affects metabolic processes in the body that may work to decrease inflammation, as well as improve blood sugar regulation and physical stress response.
Your starting weight plays a key role in how fast (or slow) you lose weight. The more overweight a person is, the faster they can lose. Conversely, if you want to lose those last 10 pounds, the process will be painfully slow.
A systematic review of 40 studies found that intermittent fasting was effective for weight loss, with a typical loss of 7-11 pounds over 10 weeks.
Because average weight loss is approximately 1 kilogram per week, you can expect to safely lose 10 kilograms — which, at a conversion rate of 2.2 pounds per kilogram, equals 22 pounds — in about 10 weeks. Commit to losing weight the healthy way, which makes your weight loss sustainable.
So, if you're eating 1,200 calories and not losing weight, it could be that your body is really struggling to function on so little fuel and your metabolism is not functioning well enough to respond to a deficit in the way you'd like.
Sustainable weight loss should be achieved at a rate of 0.5-1 kg per week through a combination of healthy eating habits and regular physical activity. While it may be tempting to try to reduce 5 kgs in a week, it is not a realistic or healthy goal for most people.
You can further lose up to five kgs in a week by following a calorie deficit diet, though experts suggest that it is best to target losing 1-2kgs per week. The key is to keep the body in fat-burning mode with the combination of restrictive eating and increased physical activity.
By eating your breakfast, you will be able to ensure that your metabolism starts early in the day. This can assist in burning a lot of calories during the day thereby help you to lose about 3 kilograms in a week.
But do you really know what's realistic? Over the long term, it's smart to aim for losing 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a week. Generally to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day, through a lower calorie diet and regular physical activity.
Most people begin to see weight loss results in 3-4 weeks. If you're not losing weight in a calorie deficit you may need to adjust your stress levels, diet, and sleep patterns. Other reasons for weight gain during a calorie deficit are hormonal changes, aging, and other health conditions.