The myth of the 2lb a week weight loss

Have you seen this rule of thumb? Anyone who commits herself to losing weight [exercising, eating right] should aim for losing 2lb a week until she reaches her goal.

Is this realistic?

If you think you’re a failure because you can’t sustain the much quoted “2lb a week weight loss” then I can confirm that it didn’t happen for me either!

Weight loss history tells me I could never rely on the scale in the short term. Sometimes I lost ½ lb in a week, sometimes it was 2lb, occasionally I would actually put on weight, other times my weight would plateau for a few weeks. My clothes fit better, I felt fitter, I had more energy but that darn scale just would not budge.

How gratifying it would be if the scale immediately reflected our hard work and healthier bodies. The problem, of course, is that the human body is a complex system which doesn’t resolve issues as succinctly as a math problem.

What I do know is this. If we are committed to losing weight and feel we are moving in a good direction – but the scale does not confirm this – we simply need to remember our choices: We can throw up our hands in total frustration and go back to old ways of eating, or, we can trust that we are doing the best we can, and the scale will eventually reflect our hard work.  Whichever path we choose, we can learn valuable and insightful lessons!

This entry was posted on 6. June 2009 at 13:49 and is filed under Healthy Body. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.