The FastDay Forum

Im always thinking about numbers.. anyway

I reached a new low today when i weight in, which is a total of 3.6k loss in past 5 months (say 150 grams loss a week on average)

My sis, who is able to proudly say she has lost about 12kg in past 3 months which is say 900 grams a week.

So I'm thinking that as she has more weight to lose her weekly average loss needs to be seen as a percentage of her target weight loss which probably means we are equal in our goal achievements.

Most people here talk about raw numbers (eg losing a pound a week) and for people who only have say 10kg to lose, we probably we expect to lose at lower speed in terms of raw numbers but same rate which you think of it in terms of percentage. For me its taken me 5 months to lose say 3.6kg which is 45% of my goal weight loss

So in summary, target percent weight loss is the key so if you haven't been losing the 1/2 kg (1 pound) a week every week, it may be that you just have less to lose in total but you are doing great if you think int terms of percentage.

So when the September weight in results says Average weight loss in the forum was 1.33kg a month I shouldnt feel so bad

[Moogie]

Thanks for this Julia! I should probably try to add some kind of estimator into the tracker, based on average losses & percentage of total loss. Bit late for my brain to get around it right now and I've been working this evening so I'll try to have a think over the weekend

I like your thinking Juliana.

I don't get it. A fixed reduction in calories 2 days a week should give a fixed fat loss (after excess water has been shed) regardless of how adjacent to target we are.
I lost 10% in 12 weeks starting from a BMI of 21.5 (now 19.2 and in maintenance).
Maybe the effect you are noticing is due to water associated with fat or carbohydrate -rich diets; as larger people change their eating habits to lower carbs they might be losing more water weight?

Thought about it some more

and possibly a simpler way to gather stats Moogie..

to record/track your total body weight loss as a percentage.

for me its 4.8%

and for my sis its 10.6%

but that means my sis is beating me. lol but thats ok of course.

so i like percentage of target weight loss as we are both on about 45% though ive had 2 more months at it.

anyway.. point is that raw numbers are evil when you plot them against a group "average"

and it means that roughly speaking to get to your "target" weight, its about 10% of target loss a month so it means generally speaking most people should take a good 10 to 12 months to reach their target weight.

would that be right for anyone reading this..

are you losing say 10% of your target loss in every month?

I've found with most diets I've lost more at the start and then it slows the closer you get to target. But it's all part of the journey.

The percentage thing is interesting but I don't really have a proper goal to work it out at this stage so can't help

[carorees]

I don't get it. A fixed reduction in calories 2 days a week should give a fixed fat loss (after excess water has been shed) regardless of how adjacent to target we are.

That is true, however, for most people, the reduction in calories is not fixed. Consider someone with a TDEE of 2000, who eats 500 cals on two days a week and eats up to their TDEE on the other five days - they will be having a weekly calorie deficit of 3000 cals. But someone who has a TDEE of 1500, eats 500 two days a week and 1500 the other days will only have a weekly deficit of 2000. So the person with the higher TDEE will lose more weight per week. The idea about the size of the target weightloss relates directly to this concept because in most cases, someone who wants to lose 50lb will be heavier than someone who wishes to lose 20lb and so their TDEEs will be correspondingly different and their weekly calorie deficit also different. As the larger person loses weight, her TDEE will decrease and the calorie deficit will also decrease and the weightloss will be slower (and this assumes she adjusts her non-fast days to accommodate the change in TDEE).

The percentage idea probably doesn't work in practice as the difference in weightloss is mostly due to the difference in calorie deficit.

This "percentage concept" is not related to what your TDEE or calorie intake is or indeed the size of your calorie consumption or even activity levels, I am referring just the percentage of your target weight loss.

The target weight loss as defined in the Progress Tracker if you use it never changes. It remains the same from the moment you started the "diet" project.

so lets say you want to lose 20kg (e.g your on 100kg and want to get to 80k)

the 20k will always be there as your target.

What I am thinking is that "on average" every month you would be losing
10% of this target weight loss, and for the example of a targetted 20kg loss, this is 10% of 2kg0 or 2 kg each month

Remember, that's an average so maybe at the start the loss would be 3kg , 2nd month 2kg or similar. Some months may be 1k or even nil k. but cumultively, the average roughly may work at 10% a month.


So on basis of 10% you will need about 10 to 12 months to lose the 20kg.

If your weight loss target is only 10kg, (bit over mine) then you'd expect to lose, on average 1kg per month. But you still need that 10 to 12 months.

Thus, raw numbers are a bit misleading when we compare notes, as those that have more may seem to be doing better but not when you look at percentages.

Are there stats on the forum on the target weight loss of most people. Maybe there are more people with 20kg or more to lose, and hence the pound a week is reflective of that. And explains why im no where near the "average"

[carieoates]

I hear what you are saying and tend to agree. My starting weight was 13.6. Would love to get to 12. The lowest I've been since having kids was 12.4 so if I get there I will still be happy. I am about 40% fat. Today I weighed in at 13.1. I have basically lost 5lb since mid august. But I do exercise 5-6 times a week with 5k training and jazzercise classes. My calorie burn is massive. So I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to be slow, very slow. But I am enjoying the ride.

and it means that roughly speaking to get to your "target" weight, its about 10% of target loss a month so it means generally speaking most people should take a good 10 to 12 months to reach their target weight.

would that be right for anyone reading this..

are you losing say 10% of your target loss in every month?

@Juliana.Rivers yes that is right for me. Been doing this 4 months and lost 8lb and want to lose 20lb, so have lost 40% of the total so far. But not evenly over the weeks and months - lost inches first before weight. Yes it is slow, but as carieoates says, along for the journey and not particularly bothered how long it takes, want to enjoy things along the way as well

#slowlosersclub

Anyone else close to having lost say 50% of what they wanted to lose in say the first 5 to 6 months after starting IF

[carorees]

Err, hang on while I get my calculator...

Want to lose 40kg :-O! Time taken to lose 20 kg was about 8 months, so no didn't apply to me.

I lost 30 kgs since february so 7 months and only have 5kgs left to lose so no, it didn't apply to me either

Edit to correct a mistake I made, it's not 35kgs I lost but 30. 35 is the target weight.

Interesting

I want to lose 35lbs and I have lost 21 so far