What is a normal rate of weight loss?
 

I've been reading the fitness board for a bit now and have started some toning. I bike 4-5 days a week about 30 miles each time. I'm also doing weight training 3 times a week. I've also decided to eat healthy due in great part to advice in this forum.

I weigh about 225lbs now and would like to get down to about 205lbs. What's a reasonable amount of time to allow for this. I'm 6'2" if that matters.

Also is there anything else I could do that would make the goal more easily attainable?

Thanks,

123dsa
:)

most experts say that averaging two-pounds a week at most is the healthiest rate to lose weight

Yeah - try to lose about 2lb a week. Any more and you're probably losing muscle and water rather than fat (muscle is good -> looks good and burns energy so helps you lose further fat!)

Look at it this way: 1lb of fat = 3500 calories. So to lose a pound you need to burn 3500 calories more than you eat in any given period of time. If you run a 500 calorie deficit each day - totally do-able - that's 1 lb/week. How much you can lose depends on how much you exercise and how many calories you eat. Keep in mind that if you're lifting weights and building muscle, muscle mass weighs more than fat, so you may not be losing weight but you'll be changing your body composition. It's good to measure body fat as well as weighing yourself. 205 at 30% body fat looks a lot different than 205 at 10% body fat.

All of the above. Yeah, more than a couple of pounds a week and you'll lose muscle. Fun fact: the heart is a muscle; which is why extreme crash dieters have been known to have heart attacks.

As i have been told by my doctor, once you get into a steady exercise program etc about 1kg a week is good.

much slower than everyone wants it to be... yea i've heard 2lb/week, after you loose all the water weight.

What MacGnG said is important.
I started excercising about 5 weeks ago. I noticed an extreme weight loss in the first couple of weeks. Then it was like I hit a brick wall. Weight loss slowed down immensely. I really had to pay attention to my eating habits at that point.

In my experience of losing 70lbs, the first week was about 10lbs (WATER), then it is about 2 lbs/week. It is frustrating to only see 2lbs gone/week, but you have to remeber your goal, not your incremental steps along the way.