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Originally Posted by cadre
Ding, ding. It is unhealthy to lose more than 1-2 pounds a week. That said, your recent loss was probably mostly water. But, don't continue eating at that level thinking you'll lose another 17 pounds. It's too low and your body will respond by dropping your metabolism causing you to lose no weight.
This is wrong. Losing weight can be very unhealthy. Being overweight is also unhealhy but shedding weight very quickly will not help anyone in the long run. 1500-1800 calories per day is probably low also.
The alcohol, and lack there of definitely could make a huge difference. Beer has a lot of carbs also.
Losing 17 pounds a week is bad. I sincerely hope that you do not continue on this path since it will not work for you in the long run.
What is your age and your height? Once we can calculate a relatively accurate BMR (basal metabolic rate) for you we can see how many calories your body needs to sustain itself (this does not account for exercise). Then the way you should lose weight is to either add exercise (to burn extra calories), or lower your caloric intake SLIGHTLY. You've already done both of these but we need to fix your caloric intake if you're going to continue with this. You should be eating at about 80% of your daily expenditure. If you drop your calories too low, you will force your body into starvation mode and your metabolism will slow down.
As far as your workouts are concerned, you should consider doing some strength training in addition to your cardio. Muscle burns extra calories so adding extra muscle will help you lose weight and add some shape so that you seem more fit even with a higher body fat percentage.
Disclaimer: I am currently studying to become a personal trainer, I've had nutrition courses in the past. I am not an expert though.
Edit:
One other note is that if you lose weight faster than 1 pound per week your skin will not be able to keep up and you will end up with loose skin.
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It is entirely possible to lose more than1-2 lbs per week healthily. It's quite possible to lose 10lbs per week healthily - it's just very, very (very) difficult.
Cutting your calories to extremes (aka crash diets) and neglecting nutrition is unhealthy.
Exercising until you collapse, especially multiple times per day is unhealthy.
The 1-2 lb figure comes out of data on successful weight loss. As a statistical average people who lose weight and keep it off do so gradually. This is related to the fact that most people who lose weight successfully make small, permanent changes over periods of time because this strategy recognizes a fundamental truth about weight control.
Temporary changes to diet and exercise to not yield permanent weight-loss results.
If your current diet and exercise routine leave you as a 400lb tub of jelly, they're always going to leave you that way, no matter how many diets you 'go on' because 'going' on a diet means eventually 'going off' and back to your old habits.
If you want to lose weight and keep it off you have to make lifestyle changes - permanent changes.
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Originally Posted by Martian
The key to understanding this is that there are 3500 calories in one pound of fat. When dealing with anything other than fat, that number isn't really applicable.
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I realize, my goal was to illustrate what it would take to lose 17 lbs of 'healthy' weight in a week, and to point out that unless his week looked like that it wasn't 'healthy' weight that he lost.
I've seen wrestlers in high school 'lose' 10 lbs in a single practice, but nobody doubts it was anything other that water weight (crazy asses practice in sweat shirts under garbage bags).
I've also seen a documentary on a fellow swimming the English Channel - how that will burn about 15 lbs worth of calories and can be completed in less than a day. I seriously doubt you could claim that man as (physically) unhealthy.