Ep. #627: How Fast Can You “Safely” Lose Fat (Before Losing Muscle)?

Google “how fast should I lose weight,” and you’ll get the same answer pretty much everywhere:

One pound per week.

And that’s not bad advice.

You’ve probably heard that a pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. To lose a pound of fat per week, then, you just need to eat 500 fewer calories per day than you burn (500 x 7 = 3,500).

Simple, easy to remember, and doable for most people.

There’s just one problem with this little weight loss heuristic:

If you have 25, 50, or 100+ pounds to lose, losing one pound per week means you’ll be dieting for months if not years.

That’s a long row to hoe, especially if you’ve tried and failed to lose weight many times in the past.

Now for the good news:

If you’re very overweight (25+% body fat as a man or 35+% as a woman), you can probably lose a lot more than one pound of fat per week.

In fact, if you know what you’re doing with your diet and training, you may be able to safely lose two, three, or even four pounds of fat per week.

Of course, this strategy isn’t without downsides.

You’ll be more hungry, you’ll have to be more strict about your diet, and you’ll probably need to do some exercise, too.

The payoff, though, is that you can lose fat two or three times faster than most personal trainers, dietitians, and weight loss gurus recommend, without risking your health or losing large amounts of muscle.

So, if you want to learn how fast you can safely lose weight when you have a lot of weight to lose, you want to keep listening.

In this podcast, you’ll learn ...

• What “safe” weight loss really means
  
• How fast you can safely lose weight
  
• Whether or not you should try to lose weight as fast as possible
  
• How to lose weight as fast as possible
  
• And more ...
  

Let’s start by taking an honest look at what constitutes “safe” weight loss.

6:49 - How much body fat can I safely lose per week?

12:39 - What should be my target rate of weight loss and why?

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Mentioned on The Show:

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