How fast will I lose?

There is no correct answer to this question.  It is important that you understand what is involved in losing weight and be able to calculate the rate at which you will lose based on your daily calorie intake.  The American Diabetic Association suggests a rate of about 2 pounds per week.

 First a few points:

1.                  Weight consists of your lean body mass, your fat mass, and the fluid that you retain.

2.                  Calorie reduction will take into account both fat and carbohydrate reductions.

3.                  Each person has their own set point for how well they burn calories. This is usually called the metabolic rate.  Diseases such as hypothyroidism can reduce this point but there are no medications that will increase it.  Increasing muscle mass will help burn more calories each day.

4.                  Fat is equal to about 3500 calories of energy.

 To see how this is used follow the following computations.

Skip if you hate math!

 Though it is not possible to put all of the factors in a single formula to how fast you will lose, the following will help you.

 In each day:

 Calories expended - Total calories eaten  = number of excess calories burned each day

 3500 / number of excess calories burned each day = number of days to lose 1 pound

 An example:  A 40 year old woman who wants to lose 70 pounds to go from 220 to 150 and wants to know how long it should take.  She agrees to go on the Carolina Lifetime MODIFIED Program and minimize any deviation from the program.  The following information is obtained:

1.                  Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) = 1500 calories per day

2.                  Her work is moderate = approximately 500 calories will be burned per day

3.                  She does some walking (1½ miles in 30 minutes 3 times/week) = 180cal/time = 540 cal/week or about 77 calories/day

 Her calories expended each day are 1500 + 500 + 77 = 2077 calories each day

 The 'modified' diet is about 800 calories per day.

 2077 – 800 = 1277 excess calories burned

 3500 calories in each pound / 1277 excess calories burned = 2.75 days to lose each pound.

 70 pounds to lose X 2.75 days to lose a pound = 192.5 days to lose 70 pounds

So in 6 months she should be at the weight she wants to be.

The one thing that this example does not show is that she will lose faster initially and then her weight loss will slow as she gets closer to her goal but the overall estimate of time to lose her weight is still a reasonable estimate.