Now here’s a topic people seem to be absolutely obsessed with… the ideal weight loss rate per week. Meaning, how fast should you lose weight?

And it’s pretty obvious why people are so interested in getting this question answered. Quite simply, knowing how slow or fast you should lose weight will allow you to estimate when you can expect to finally reach your goal and have the body you want.

People are super obsessed with reaching that point (especially early on), so it would only make sense that they’d be obsessed with figuring out when they will finally be there.

So, let’s answer that question right now.

To do this, I want to take a look at the two recommendations I give most often when it comes to the ideal weight loss rate per week…

Recommendation #1: Lose a pound per week.

This right here is the most basic and common weight loss speed recommendation you will see. Losing 1 pound per week is basically the textbook definition of safe, simple and healthy weight loss.

It’s not too slow (which is discouraging) and it’s not too fast (which is unnecessarily hard and potentially dangerous). This is right smack in the middle, which seems to be just right for most people.

In addition to being the most commonly recommended weight loss rate per week, it’s also the most generic. It really doesn’t take any outside factors into account at all (like you, your body, your preferences, your situation, how much weight you need to lose, etc.).

It’s just a solid universal recommendation for how fast the average person should lose weight. I like it.

However, despite the fact that I do like it and I have given this exact recommendation countless times before, it’s no longer the first recommendation I give. This is…

Recommendation #2: It depends on you, your preferences, and the amount of weight you need to lose.

That’s right, I think your ideal weight loss rate per week should depend on you.

What I mean is, I think someone who has more weight to lose should lose it faster than someone who has less weight to lose, and vice-versa.

This makes sense for a ton of reasons. For example, people with more fat to lose are less likely to lose muscle due to the higher abundance of fat on their body. Therefore, they can handle losing weight faster without the same risk of muscle loss.

On the other hand, people who are leaner or just have less fat to lose are at a higher risk of losing muscle. Because of this they SHOULD have a slower rate of weight loss.

Plus, this also takes into account how easy or hard it will be. Meaning, it’s a lot easier for a person with 100lbs to lose to lose it faster than someone with 10lbs to lose. They should take advantage of that fact, especially early on.

Let me throw some numbers out there to show you exactly what I mean…

• A person with an above average amount of weight to lose (example: 100lbs) should lose it at a rate of 2lbs (or more) per week.
• A person with an average amount of weight to lose (example: 30lbs) should lose it at a rate of 1-2lbs per week.
• A person with a below average amount of weight to lose (example: 10lbs) should lose it at a rate of 0.5-1lb per week.

I explain these recommendations in much more detail (along with the best way of actually making them happen) in The Ultimate Fat Loss Program.

So, while the standard “lose a pound per week” recommendation is still a perfectly fine middle-of-the-road goal to aim for, I think how slow or fast a person loses weight should depend more on them and be a little more personalized based on the exact amount they need to lose.

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