So you want to lose weight, you want results and you want them yesterday, right?!?
And why wouldn't you?
You see all these ads about being able to lose 10 lbs in 7 days, 20 lbs in 10 days, or 30 lbs in 30 days. Then you see supplement companies advertising and guaranteeing results in 48 hrs or less with their "magical instant gratification pill."
And well we live in a world where we can Amazon Prime just about anything these days and get what we want in about a 2-day max wait time. So why can't you just Amazon Prime your fat loss results?
So of course you're disappointed when you "only" lose 1 pound the first week and "just" 2 pounds the 2nd week. On weeks you lose 1 pound it doesn't seem like enough for you, you might be thinking you should have at least lost 2 pounds. And the week you do lose 2 pounds you might be wondering, "Why didn't I lose 3 pounds?"
When it comes to fat loss your results never seem to live up to your expectations. Right?
So you might start thinking, "If I'm not seeing dramatic results soon, I must not be doing enough."
So you start excessively doing cardio and drastically reducing your calories. You want to get to your fat loss goal as soon as possible so you're committed to doing this as fast as possible. Right?
Does any of this sound familiar?
I get it you're super eager and it might be super tempting to do too much too soon.
Well first... I'm here to help you set appropriate expectations for your goals. Because understanding what realistic fat loss success can look like is crucial.
Understanding What Realistic Fat Loss Success Looks Like And Setting Expectations
When it comes to fat loss you might often get frustrated by what you think is "poor" or "mediocre" progress. Expecting extremely rapid results can leave you feeling disappointed and discouraged. Worse, you might feel like giving up completely.
That's why first and foremost, you'll need to start by setting realistic expectations. This way you'll be less disappointed with your results. This might be hard to acknowledge, but it will probably take longer than you want, to lose fat, and your progress will not be linear.
That's why it's super important for you to keep a long-term perspective on your goals and not only focus on your daily or weekly rate of weight loss.
You'll need to mentally prepare for some bumps in the road. If you do you'll be more likely to handle certain situations better. This can help you lose fat faster by staying consistent with your process regardless of what gets thrown your way.
Something that is essential to understand is that rapid weight loss often involves losing muscle, and you might not feel your best. So something to keep in mind is that weight loss doesn't always equate to fat loss.
Now you might be wondering, "Well then what’s a reasonable and realistic rate of fat loss, and how long before I see results?" That's what I'll explain to you in this article.
But next, let's look at how you approach fat loss. Your approach to fat loss does matter. Especially, if you want to maintain your muscle mass, feel good, healthy, and happy, while keeping your sanity while trying to lose fat.
Your Approach To Weight Loss Matters
Your goal should be to develop the skills you need to not just lose fat but to maintain your fat loss in the long term.
With that in mind, if you are looking for results that last, you'll need to have realistic and sustainable fat loss goals. This will help set you up for success. Because having results that last will require long-term lifestyle changes.
You might be tempted to want to find shortcuts to speed up your process, but it's important to keep your long-term goals in mind. As incredible as it might feel to crush your goals in half the time, it might be more painful to keep backsliding because of an unsustainable approach.
Now to achieve your fat loss goal, keep in mind that there will likely be many healthy behaviors that you'll need to master along the way to make it happen.
So what this means is that you'll need to focus more on process goals to achieve your fat loss goal.
For example, let's take the goal of losing 20 lbs. Your plan might look like this: 3 workouts per week, increasing your NEAT (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis), and tracking your nutrition. This will make sure you're on the right track to achieve your fat loss goal in 3-5 months.
These changes are completely doable but they might not be so easy. I want you to realize that most goals especially an outcome goal of losing 20 lbs are going to require some behavior changes.
However, attacking everything at once and wanting to make every change possible might not be realistic. It might be better to tackle one thing at a time.
This is what it might look like: You'll have a workout goal, a nutrition goal, and a daily step goal. You should start by taking some time to order these from easiest to do to hardest to do. Then start with the goal that feels the easiest to do. Once you've accomplished the easiest goal start working on conquering your next goal while still accomplishing your first goal. And you'll continue this process until you are successfully accomplishing all your new behaviors consistently.
This way, not only will you have accomplished some wins but you will also have been reaping the health benefits that come with these behavior changes and you'll start to feel great!
Now I do want to clarify that you don't just have to focus on one behavior change at a time. If you feel like you can handle 2 or even 3 at a time by all means focus on 2 or 3. For example, focus on getting in a certain number of workouts per week. Then you can decide to focus on your nutrition and/or daily steps as your 2nd and/or 3rd focus. You'll want to stick with these goals consistently for 2-4 weeks before adding anything else to your plate though.
Keep in mind that your nutrition is what's going to play the biggest role in your fat loss goal.
Determining A Realistic Rate Of Fat Loss
First, it's not only important but essential to understand the difference between fat loss and weight loss.
Weight: The number you see on the scale shows you your entire body weight. This includes everything: Your organs, your muscles, your bones, your skin, your hair, your water content, your body fat, and your stomach content. All this is being measured and displayed to you on the scale. So your weight is the sum total of everything you are composed of.
Fat: Fat is Fat. The amount of fat a person has on their body depends on a lot of factors.
So this is why it's important for you to understand the difference between weight and fat. Because the scale you have at home will more than likely only show you your total weight.
Note: If you have a scale that also measures your body fat feel free to use it. But just as a point of reference, don't rely on it to be 100% accurate because they tend to be pretty inaccurate.
Depending on the amount of fat you might have to lose you might experience a rapid weight loss at the beginning of a diet. This is going to do with more water loss and less stomach content from overall eating less and making some changes to your diet. Which will cause you to overall weigh less and lose weight, this isn't going to be a significant drop in your body fat. However, something to pay attention to is the more you are consistent you might notice that the scale weight might start dropping at a slower rate. But this is a good thing, this means that the majority of the weight being lost is fat.
Note: make sure you are taking your body measurements as well. Because one way to know if you're losing fat is that your measurements are going down even though your scale weight might not be.
Ok now let's get into some numbers...
To lose 1 pound of body fat you need to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories. This deficit is crucial for fat loss, as it's the only method by which fat loss is achieved.
If you create a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day you would roughly be losing 1 pound of fat per week (500 x 7 = 3,500). Now let's say you created more of a calorie deficit, either by reducing more of your food and drink intake and/ or by adding in more exercise. And at the end of the day, you are averaging closer to a calorie deficit of 1,000 (1,000 x 7 = 7,000). That would mean you could be losing 2 pounds of fat per week.
(Now this doesn't necessarily mean that the lower your calories are for the day the more fat you will lose.)
But does this mean that you should be expecting to lose an average of 1-2 pounds per week?
Well, it depends, let's get into some more details.
A larger person with more fat to lose will have a higher maintenance calorie intake than a smaller person. This will make creating a calorie deficit significantly easier when you have more fat to lose.
For example, let's take two people, one has a maintenance calorie intake of 2,700 cal/ day (this person is bigger and has more to lose), and the other person's maintenance calories are 1,700 cal/ day (a smaller person with less to lose). Now in order for both to lose 2 pounds of fat per week, their calories would look like this, 1,700 and 700. Both calories deficits are technically equal, a deficit of 1,000 calories. However, a diet of only 700 calories per day isn't sustainable and quite frankly would feel miserable and you'd probably just want to quit.
It's important to be aware that, someone who might be relatively lean will lose fat at a slower rate than someone who has more fat to lose.
Realistic Fat Loss Timeline
There are some general timelines for a healthy and sustainable rate of fat loss. Which is about .25 to 3 pounds per week.
Understanding this general timeline might help you with your expectations. And help you avoid feeling disappointed down the road when you were expecting super-fast results.
Now there are a lot of variables that will affect your rate of fat loss and a lot more to consider here. Like your activity level, the amount of weight you have to lose, how much sleep you're getting, etc.
It will also depend on your compliance with your program. This factor here is super important. Because how fast you can lose body fat will depend on how consistent you can and want to be with your program.
If you give in to every single one of your cravings, or on the other hand overly restrict yourself. Don't make time for exercise. Don't try to increase your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). Only follow the program Monday-Thursday. Well, your fat loss will definitely be slower.
Now, this is ok, you just need to keep in mind why you might be losing weight at a slower rate.
You might need a slower approach like this but the important part is that you are highly consistent. This might just mean that you will be making fewer changes than what is needed to make a bit faster progress.
Keep in mind that consistency is needed not perfection. Some level of consistency and being able to track your adherence will help you see how consistent you are overall. That way you can look back to see in what area of your program you might need more help with staying consistent.
And even then when you feel like you are doing everything right, fat loss will always take longer than you want it to.
It's easy to get frustrated at this point, maybe even a little confused but I'm hoping that this article has helped you understand this a little better.
In Conclusion, Here Are Key Takeaways To Remember
It's essential to acknowledge that it might take longer than you want to reach your goals. However, you'll probably be able to retain more muscle, you'll feel better, and be able to eat more throughout the process than if you were to try to rush the process.
The goal should be to be able to eat as much as possible while still losing fat.
Give yourself double the time you think you might need to reach your goal. For example, have 20 pounds to lose and expect to lose it in 3 months? Give yourself at least 6 months to lose 20 pounds.
It's important to understand that there will be days you'll go over your calories and you may occasionally miss some workouts. But clearly the more consistent you are, the more progress you'll notice.
It’s super important to realize that weight loss isn't linear. It fluctuates from day to day and week to week. The goal is to see an overall trend downward over time. That's why keeping track of not just your weight but also your measurements to compare over time is super important.
Remember, fat loss is always going to take longer then you want it to. Some of the reasons are going to be behavioral, so things that you do have direct control over and that you will have to work on consistently to overcome.
Other things are out of your control, but, keep in mind that there are always things that you can do that are in your control. So your job is to just focus on what is in your control.
Start off by setting reasonable expectations for yourself. Focus on what you can control. And the other things that are out of your control won't seem as important as you might think.
I hope this article has helped you set a realistic fat loss goal so you can continue to make long-term progress.
If you have any questions regarding what realistic fat loss progress might look like for you, please feel free to reach out.
I'm here to support you,
Coach Deb
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