is 1.5lb loss per week to much?

[johnnymctrance]

Hi,

I started cutting exactly 4 weeks ago and weighed myself this morning and im down a total of 6lb (which averages out at 1.5lb loss per week)

I had my tdee estimated at approx 2400kcal/day

Im currently eating approx 1900kcal

But I do HIIT cardio x 2/3 per week and lift weights 2 or 3 times per week


Is this to much loss of weight per week?

Thanks

[M302_Imola]

I don't think 1.5 lbs. loss per week is to much but I personally wouldn't be comfortable losing more than that especially if you're not obese. So you've only weighed once since the start of your cut 4 weeks ago? If so, how do you know you didn't lose 3-4 lbs. the 1st week and then 2-3 lbs. the following weeks? I'm not one of these guys that weighs himself everyday but I do like weighing once a week and making adjustments at that point if needed.

[Docd187123]

I don't think 1.5 lbs. loss per week is to much but I personally wouldn't be comfortable losing more than that especially if you're not obese. So you've only weighed once since the start of your cut 4 weeks ago? If so, how do you know you didn't lose 3-4 lbs. the 1st week and then 2-3 lbs. the following weeks? I'm not one of these guys that weighs himself everyday but I do like weighing once a week and making adjustments at that point if needed.

^^^^exactly.

1.5lbs may not be too much if you're getting enough of the essential macros but the leaner you get the harder it will be to sustain that kind of weight loss without it significantly eating into your lbm. Also as mentioned, did you only weigh yourself once or a few times? If you weighed once for all you know you lost the 6lbs the first week and have plateaued since. The first weight to come off when transitioning into a cut is water weight also, so when you say you dropped 6lbs, it most likely isn't 6lbs of fat but a mix of fat and water.

[krugerr]

As Docd said, weight can fluctuate quite dramatically, I can manipulate my weight by 3-4lbs if I want by just playing with the water I consume the day before.

Can I suggest setting up a simple excel spreadsheet and trying to weight yourself fasted every morning. This way you'll better understand the trend of your weightloss. If you just weigh every 14 days for example, you might have weighed the first one on a 'heavy' day and the other on a 'low' day and that can be misleading.

[Docd187123]

As Docd said, weight can fluctuate quite dramatically, I can manipulate my weight by 3-4lbs if I want by just playing with the water I consume the day before.

Can I suggest setting up a simple excel spreadsheet and trying to weight yourself fasted every morning. This way you'll better understand the trend of your weightloss. If you just weigh every 14 days for example, you might have weighed the first one on a 'heavy' day and the other on a 'low' day and that can be misleading.

^^^a good bowel movement for me can easily shed ~4lbs hahaha. I do exactly as you said, weigh myself fasted in the am after going to the bathroom, usually 1-2x/wk and look for trends not always the actual number. Good advice with the spreadsheet brother.

[krugerr]

Yea - Here's an example of my spreadsheet - its a relatively new thing Im doing. I dont record weight everyday on it, but I record weight daily on my calendar.

I programmed it so that it when you put your BF% in it then calculates the lean/fat mass, otherwise displays nothing, took me a while to figure that one out. It was trying to say that if I didnt put a value in, then BF% was zero and it was giving me 100% lean mass a displayed! Nightmare! Im a geek for Excel, I love tinkering with spreadsheets. It adds points to the graph as you enter them too.

[gbrice75]

I aim for 1-2lbs per week. I'm happier at 1lb/week (because I'm less inclined to think I'm burning much LBM), but 1.5 is definitely a nice number. Anything over 2, other than a random week here and there (it happens), and I start worrying.

[tarmyg]

Is this to much loss of weight per week?

No!

~T

[Brazensol]

I've been dopping an average of 3.1 pounds/week so far. Lost ~38 pounds of fat over the last 12 weeks. Some days I feel a bit tired but overall no problems with fatigue. I do 60-80 minutes of fasted cardio (bicycle riding) in the mornings (just started fasted cardio on 7 Jun) and lift 3 times/week. My TDEE is ~2260 and I aim for 1810 daily calories in 35/40/25 macro.

I just started austinite's fat loss protocol and hope to continue dropping at least 2 pounds week. It does get harder to lose fat as your body fat percentage drops.

[Damienm05]

My $.02 is that it depends a lot on genetics. If you're prone to making gains quickly and generally find that you may fall into the mesomorph category, you can easily run a big deficit, do cardio, and lose a lot of fat per week without risking your gains. If, on the other hand, you're a true hardgainer, it's better to be careful and go slow/steady, using cardio to create the deficit.

Short Answer: If you're feeling good, strong, and energetic -- hell no, it's not too much.

[Shadow530i]

What if you're on cycle....then would 1.5-2 pounds a week be too much?

[Docd187123]

What if you're on cycle....then would 1.5-2 pounds a week be too much?

That would depend on the context. The leaner you are the harder it is to mobilize and oxidize fatty acids. The higher your body fat the easier it is and thus you can expect to cut at a greater rate. The most important thing to take into consideration is your total daily energy intake, macro/micro intake, and proper modulation of intensity and volume in training. During a cut it is more difficult to keep up high intensity and volume since you're in a calorie deficit and you are at a greater risk of overtraining. Gear can help to a degree with this by increasing nutrient partitioning, increasing hormonal levels, and increased recovery but its still possible to overtrain and lose lbm during a cut. My suggestion to you is if your not particularly lean >15% bf you can start a cut at around 1.5-2lbs/wk but make sure that you're nutrition is spot on and you're training is tailored to a cut. Take body measurements, scale readings, and keep a training log and when you notice a decrease in strength and/recovery lighten up volume or intensity and scale back on the deficit. The slower you cut the lower the risk of losing lbm, all other factors being equal.


Edit* also when transitioning into a cut, you'll be losing mainly water weight in the beginning so the rate of loss of BW can be higher but after this water weight loss BW loss slows down as well.

[Shadow530i]

That would depend on the context. The leaner you are the harder it is to mobilize and oxidize fatty acids. The higher your body fat the easier it is and thus you can expect to cut at a greater rate. The most important thing to take into consideration is your total daily energy intake, macro/micro intake, and proper modulation of intensity and volume in training. During a cut it is more difficult to keep up high intensity and volume since you're in a calorie deficit and you are at a greater risk of overtraining. Gear can help to a degree with this by increasing nutrient partitioning, increasing hormonal levels, and increased recovery but its still possible to overtrain and lose lbm during a cut. My suggestion to you is if your not particularly lean >15% bf you can start a cut at around 1.5-2lbs/wk but make sure that you're nutrition is spot on and you're training is tailored to a cut. Take body measurements, scale readings, and keep a training log and when you notice a decrease in strength and/recovery lighten up volume or intensity and scale back on the deficit. The slower you cut the lower the risk of losing lbm, all other factors being equal.


Edit* also when transitioning into a cut, you'll be losing mainly water weight in the beginning so the rate of loss of BW can be higher but after this water weight loss BW loss slows down as well.

Great post.

What are your thoughts on using T3/Clen (along with gear) on a cut? Will it improve the rate of fat loss per week or just increase the chances of losing LBM?

[Docd187123]

Great post.

What are your thoughts on using T3/Clen (along with gear) on a cut? Will it improve the rate of fat loss per week or just increase the chances of losing LBM?

My thoughts on clen/t3 are they're a bandaid if not used properly. You will not lose weight with them if you're diet is not up to par. If your diet is so so they can help be the difference between getting results or not. The problem with that is you'll start to think you can sustain results or always get results with an average at best diet. Not a wise approach IMO. If your diet is top notch and you're pretty lean to begin with, then I could definitely see them serving a purpose to help mobilize the last few pounds worth of fatty acids.

Clen won't so much have an impact on lbm but t3 certainly could, especially if you're not on some sort of test or AAS. If you're lookin to do them both, on cycle is your best bet. Off cycle I'd stick to clen alone or ECA maybe. Most of what we know about clen is anecdotal evidence (to my knowledge at least). Very few human studies have been performed on it in the oral version and the results they've had with rats and cows haven't translated over into humans as expected. It increases perspiration, thermogenesis, heart rate, etc so it Ives you a high similar to amphetamine use (just without a lot of the sides).

Bottom line is too many ppl out there misuse them and expect to see miracles. It just won't happen like that. Diet remains the utmost priority when looking to improve body composition it also happens to be the most effective, most reliable, and least likely to cause long term health problems. I would avoid their use until you have a firm grasp on nutrition and need to lose those last few pounds. Using them as a crutch will more than likely leave you disappointed.

[MakeEveryRepCount]

Gotta wonder the same as everyone else...if these measurements were taken intermittently over the course of four weeks or just once at the end of the four.

I just started a cut (was sitting around 13%, down to 12% last I measured a week ago). I lost about 8 lbs in the first couple days just switching over to a lower carb/carb cycling diet. Remember, 3g's of water for every 1g of carbs stored in your muscle. Definitely looking flatter on the lower carb days but I know from experience I'll blow back up when I do a refeed or cheat meal.

[johnnymctrance]

I don't think 1.5 lbs. loss per week is to much but I personally wouldn't be comfortable losing more than that especially if you're not obese. So you've only weighed once since the start of your cut 4 weeks ago? If so, how do you know you didn't lose 3-4 lbs. the 1st week and then 2-3 lbs. the following weeks? I'm not one of these guys that weighs himself everyday but I do like weighing once a week and making adjustments at that point if needed.

I have been weighting myself every week, thats how i know ive been loosing 1.5lb per week

[johnnymctrance]

Thanks for the replies i was just worried that 1.5lb per week would be to high! i am due to weigh myself on wednesday

[baseline_9]

It depends on stats....