It’s halfway through February, and we want to build on our last email, Creating Fitness Success in 2020 (<-- click the link if you missed it), and talk about what is reasonable when it comes to weight loss.
Yes, we would all like to lose that 20lbs by tomorrow, but that is not very possible; or lose 10 lbs in 10 days, which might not be healthy or sustainable (email on fat loss vs. weight loss here)
So how do we know what is possible?
At AMPT we like to look at what is reasonable in two different ways:
What is physiologically possible while maintaining lean muscle mass, and creating sustainable results?What lifestyle are you realistically willing to live to reach and maintain your goals?
#1. What is physiological possible?
It is possible to lose between .5-1% of your body weight per week. These percentages are important because if we lost weight faster then that, we risk losing lean muscle mass. Remember that the more lean muscle mass you have the more calories that you burn while at rest, which means that your burning more calories reading this email while sitting on your couch, at your desk or in your car.
Its important to realize that the actual amount of weight is specific to each individual person. For example, a 225lb person can lose between 1.1 - 2.25 pounds per week, and a 150lb person may lose between .75 - 1.75 pounds per week.
Another factor to think about is that as your total weight goes down so does the amount of weight you can lose per week. The 225lb person can’t lose 2.25 pounds every week indefinitely. The numbers for realistic weight loss will go down as body weight goes down.
#2. What lifestyle are you realistically willing to live to reach and maintain your goals?
Depending on what your goals are, you may need to make a few lifestyle changes. To move below 20% BF in men and 30% in women, is a pretty simple change in nutrition and exercise habits. It may take more time depending on your current level but its not extremely difficult.
As you drop down in percentage ranges it requires one to become more aware from a lifestyle perspective. For example, moving from 30% in women to 25% is going to require you eat slowly and stop when satisfied more often, eating your proper hand servings of macros more consistently, getting more exercise, and better sleep. As you move down into a leaner body fat percentage the lifestyle habits become much more demanding, and you have to ask yourself: what lifestyle am I willing to live?
For men to be 10-12% body fat, and women to be 20-22%, they would need to eat slowly and stop when satisfied 90% of the time they eat, follow their hand portion sizes 90% of the time, exercise for 30-45min daily, sleep 7-8 hours per night, and on average have only one drink of alcohol drink per week.
So, now that you have your fitness goals in place for 2020 ask yourself the following questions:
What is reasonable for me to achieve every week?What lifestyle would I like to live, and do my goals complement that lifestyle?
For more information on the habits that are needed for different levels of body fat percentage click the link below for a really cool infographic from our friends at Precision Nutrition.
----> Download "Cost of Getting Lean" Here <----
