Tom Venuto - author of Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
Note from John: this is a guest article by Tom Venuto
Why do you always hear that 2 pounds per week is the maximum amount of fat you should safely lose? If you train really hard while watching calories closely shouldn’t you be able to lose more fat without losing muscle or damaging your health? What if you want to lose fat faster? How do you explain the fast weight losses on The Biggest Loser? These are all good questions that I’ve been asked many times. With the diet marketplace being flooded every day with rapid weight loss claims, these questions desperately need and deserve some honest answers. Want to know where that 2 pounds per week rule comes from and what it really takes to burn more than 2 pounds of fat per week? Read on.
Why Only 2 Pounds Per Week?
The truth is, two pounds is not the maximum amount you can safely lose in a week. That’s only a general recommendation and a good benchmark for setting weekly goals. It’s also sensible and realistic because it’s based on average or typical results.
The actual amount of fat you can lose depends on many factors. For example, weight losses tend to be relative to body size. The more body fat you carry, the more likely you’ll be able to safely lose more than two pounds per week. Therefore, we could individualize our weekly guideline a bit by recommending a goal of 1-2 lbs of fat loss per week or up to 1% of your total weight. If you weighed 300 lbs, that would be 3 lbs per week.
Body Weight Vs Body Composition
Weight loss is somewhat meaningless unless you also talk about body composition; the fat to muscle ratio, as well as water weight. Ask any wrestler about fast weight loss and he’ll tell you things like, “I cut 10 lbs overnight to make a weight class. It was easy – I just sweated it off.”
You’ve also probably seen people that went on some extreme induction program or a lemon juice and water fast for the first week and dropped an enormous amount of weight. But once again, you can bet that a lot of that weight was water and lean tissue and in both cases, you can bet that those people put the weight right back on.
The main potential advantage of any type of induction period for rapid weight loss in the first week is that a large drop on the scale is a motivational boost for many people (even if it is mostly water weight).
Why do you hear so many diet and fitness professionals insist on 2 lbs a week max? Where does that number come from? Well, aside from the fact that it’s a recommendation in government health guidelines and in position statements of most nutrition and exercise organizations, it’s just math. The math is based on what’s practical given the number of calories an average person burns in a day and how much food someone can reasonably cut in a day.
How Do You Lose More Than 2 Pounds Per Week?
Can you lose more than 2 lbs of pure fat in a week? Yes, although it’s easier in the beginning. It gets harder as your diet progresses. How do you do it? My rule is, extraordinary results require extraordinary efforts. An extraordinary effort means a particularly strict diet, as well as burning more calories through training because you can only cut your calories so far from food before you’re starving and suffering from severe hunger.
Simply put, you need a bigger calorie deficit.
If you have a 2500 calorie daily maintenance level, and you want to drop 3 lbs of fat per week withe diet alone, you’d need a huge daily deficit of 1500 calories, which would equate to eating 1000 calories per day. You would lose weight rapidly for as long as you could maintain that deficit (although it would slow down over time). Most people aren’t going to last long on so little food and they often end with a period of binge eating. It’s not practical (or fun) to cut calories so much and in some cases it could be unhealthy.
The other alternative is to train for hours and hours a day, literally. People ask me all the time, “Tom, how is it possible for the Biggest Loser contestants to lose so much weight? Well first of all they’re not measuring body fat, only body weight. Then you have the high starting body weights and the large water weight loss in the beginning. After that, just do the math – they’re training hours a day so they’re creating a huge calorie deficit.
But without that team of trainers, dieticians, teammates, a national audience and all that prize money, do you think they’d be motivated and accountable enough to do anywhere near that amount and intensity of exercise in the real world? Would it even be possible if they had a job and family? Not likely, is it? It’s not practical to do that much exercise, and it’s not practical to cut your calories below a 1000 a day and remain compliant. If you manage to achieve the latter, it’s very difficult not to rebound and regain the weight afterwards for a variety of physiological and psychological reasons.
Note from John:
If you want more advice on losing fat and fat burning diet tips, let me direct you to a great video where Tom explains how to lose at least two pounds per week for the first 49 days of your body transformation.
Tom’s video explains how to lose 2 lbs a week or more, and you’ll also get a bunch of other fat loss diet tips, too.
Just click on the image below to jump to the video (opens new window).
For Fast Fat Loss: Less Food Or Harder Training?
Trainers are becoming more inventive these days in coming up with high intensity workouts that burn a large amount of calories and really give the metabolism a boost. This can help speed up the fat loss within a given amount of time. But as you begin to utilize higher intensity workouts, you have to start being on guard for overtraining or overuse injuries.That’s why strict nutrition with an aggressive calorie deficit is going to have to be a major part of any fast fat loss strategy. Unfortunately, very low calorie dieting has its own risks in the way of lean tissue loss, slower metabolism, extreme hunger, and greater chance of weight re-gain.
My approach to long term weight control is to lose weight slowly and patiently and follow a nutrition plan that is well balanced between lean protein, healthy fats and natural carbs and doesn’t demonize any entire food group. To lose fat, you simply create a caloric deficit by burning more and eating less (keeping the nutrient density of those calories as high as possible, of course).
But to achieve the extraordinary goals such as photo-shoot-ready, super-low body fat or simply faster than average fat loss, while minimizing the risks, I often turn to a stricter cyclical low carb diet for brief “peaking” programs. I explain this method in chapter 12 of my e-book Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (it’s my “phase III” or “competition” diet).
The cyclical aspect of the diet means that after three to six days of an aggressive calorie deficit and strict diet, you take a high calorie / high carb day to re-feed the body and re-stimulate the metabolism. Essentially, this helps reduce the starvation signals your body is receiving. It’s also a psychological break from the deprivation which helps improve compliance and prevent relapse.
The higher protein intake can help prevent lean tissue loss and curb the hunger. A high protein diet also helps by ramping up dietary thermogenesis. A high intake of greens, fibrous vegetables and low calorie fruits can help tip the energy balance equation in your favor as fibrous veggies are very low in calorie density and some of the calories in the fiber are not metabolizable. Healthy fats are added in adequate quantities, while the calorie-dense simple sugars and starchy carbs are kept to a minimum except on refeed days and after (or around) intense workouts.
There’s No Magic, Just Math
In my experience, a high protein, reduced carb approach in conjunction with weights and cardio can help maximize fat loss – both in terms of increasing speed of fat loss and particularly for getting rid of the last of the stubborn fat. It helps with appetite control too. But always bear in mind that the faster fat loss occurs primarily as a result of the larger calorie deficit (which is easily achieved with sugars and starches minimized), not some type of “low carb magic.” If your diet were high in natural carbs but you were able to diligently maintain the same large calorie deficit, the results would be similar.
I’m seeing more and more advertisements that not only promise rapid weight loss, but go so far as saying that you’re doing it wrong if you’re losing “only” two pounds per week. “Why settle” for slow weight loss, they insist. Well, it’s certainly possible to lose more than two pounds per week, but it’s critically important to understand that there’s a world of difference between rapid weight loss and permanent fat loss.
It’s also vital to know that there’s no magic in faster fat loss, just math. All the new-fangled dietary manipulations and high intensity training programs that really do help increase the speed of fat loss all come full circle to the calorie balance equation in the end, even if they claim their method works for other reasons and they don’t mention calories burned or consumed at all.
Beware of The Quick Fix
Faster fat loss IS possible. My question is, are you willing to tolerate the hunger, low calories and high intensity exercise for that kind of deficit? Do you have the work ethic? Do you have the supreme level of dietary restraint necessary to stop yourself from bingeing and putting the weight right back on when that aggressive diet is over? Or would you rather do it in a more moderate way where you’re not killing yourself, but instead are making slow and steady lifestyle changes and taking off 1-2 lbs of pure fat per week, while keeping all your hard-earned muscle?
Remember, 1-2 pounds per week is 50-100 pounds in a year. Is that really so slow or is that an astounding transformation? You don’t gain 50-100 pounds over night, so why should anyone expect to take it off overnight? Personally, I think short-term thinking and the pursuit of quick fixes are the worst diseases of our generation.
If you want to be one of those “results not typical” fat loss transformations, it can be done and it may be a perfectly appropriate short-term goal for the savvy and sophisticated fitness enthusiast. It’s your call. But when you set your goals, it might be wise to remember that old fable of the tortoise and the hare, and buyer beware if you go shopping for a fast weight loss program in today’s shady marketplace.
Click Here to Learn How to Lose 2 Pounds Per Week or More
Train hard and expect success,
Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com
About the Author:
Tom Venuto is the author of the #1 best seller, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle: Fat Burning Secrets of the World’s Best Bodybuilders and Fitness Models. Tom is a lifetime natural bodybuilder and fat loss expert who achieved an astonishing 3.7% body fat level without drugs or supplements. Discover how to increase your metabolism and burn stubborn body fat, find out which foods burn fat and which foods turn to fat, plus get a free fat loss report and mini course by visiting Tom’s site at: www.BurnTheFat.com
Just seeing if I have this right,
If I need 2300 calories to maintain, and I only eat 1000/day, and work out enough to burn 1,500/day would I lose 5lbs per week?
Is that just incredibly unhealthy, or even doable??
Hi Nikki,
Your math may be right, but I think you missed the point of Tom’s article. Losing more than 2 pounds per week is possible, but not necessarily realistic or desirable long-term.
If you’re losing much more than 2 pounds per week, then you’re likely doing three things:
1) losing not just fat, but also valuable lean body mass
2) losing water weight
3) weakening your metabolism
If your daily calorie needs are 2300, then I wouldn’t drop any lower than 1840 calories daily (a 30% deficit). Much lower than that and you’re playing with a starvation level diet, which will have metabolic consequences and won’t work long-term. Realistically, a 15-20% deficit works better long-term, especially for consistent progress for FAT loss, not just weight loss.
okay i am 13 and i am 5.3 or 5.4 and i weigh 119 lbs. i dont think im fat but i want to take off the extra “fat” off of my stomach. today i started my fat burn training but as most people know on facebook my 6 pack training. i know that a low carb diet is good when it comes to stuff like this, and so is a high protein diet, but i want to know what foods are high in protein. also for this fat loss diet i am taking what carby materials should i stop eating, like not cut back on but just stop eating. i do work out at the gym too so should that help? i want to lose “FAT” not weight. please help me.
from, james
Good for you, James!
Foods that are high in protein include:
1) meats like beef, pork, buffalo
2) poultry like chicken and turkey
3) most fish like salmon or catfish
4) a lot of other foods have a decent amount of protein, too – like dairy products, nuts and seeds, beans, and others.
Just to clarify, eating carbs isn’t a problem, and at your age – I would worry more about WHAT kinds of carbs you’re eating, rather than your total carbohydrate intake on a daily basis. Carbs aren’t the problem, it’s the processed carbs that you want to avoid. Many foods that are rich in carbs have health benefits and will actually help you in your gym training – like potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolled oats, brown or wild rice, and practically any vegetable.
If I were you, I’d keep it pretty simple. Stay away from sweets and simple carbohydrates (like white bread, soda pop, “snack foods” like cookies and crackers, and anything else that is high in sugar). If you avoid the sweets and simple carbs, and focus on eating healthy foods the rest of the time, then you’ll be well on your way to six-pack abs.
The training will help a bit, too ;-)
Hi,
I am 5’9 and 235 lbs. I am male, 38 yrs old. I estimated my BMR as 3300 calories working out 3 to 5 days per week. Now I want to lose 2 lbs per week. I read burn the fat, feed the muscle and i read where the maximmum would be a 30% deficit for like 3 days and maybe a 10% deficit on the 4th day then back to 30%. The question is I want to lose 2 lbs a week. That would be approximately 2300 calories a day (1000 deficit). Now I want to maintain a a 2300 calories every week to have that constant 1000 deficity per day. I know that I should be raising calories every 4th day to prevent my metabolism from slowing down. Would it be ok if I did like 2000 calories for 3 days and then raised it to 3200 calories on the 4th….that would still be an average of 2300 a day but I would benefit from the lower calories and raising the calories but still maintain a constant 1000 calories deficity. Or would dropping to 2000 a day cause a problem with the diet?
Hi Ravi,
The Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle system recommends only dropping calories to a 30% deficit, and no lower. Anything lower than that, and you’re flirting with a starvation diet that may have metabolic consequences. With the stats you’ve posted, you should be able to lose 2 lbs per week at 2300/day with a 4th refeed day.
Thanks so much for writing this, I’ve been fooling myself with stupid diet pills and starvation which has made my weight so much worse. I feel like i’ve gotten a small reality check and I’m going to do my best to discipline myself and my body. I do have 1 question though.
I’m stuck working at McDonalds Fast Food and this makes it incredibly hard not to binge or be tempted to chow down on the food :-( how can i avoid eating the crappy food i gotta serve???
I need advise. I have been going to the gym three times a week for the past month. Each time I meet with a personal trainer for 1/2 hr and then do about 20 minutes to 1/2 hr cardio. I’ve also been keeping to a diet of about 1200 – 1500 calories a day. I’m vegetarian so my diet already consisted of mostly fruits and vegetables and I take supplement protein. I also cut out all junk food or foods with processed sugars.
After a month I had my measurements retaken yesterday and guess what, I LOST ZERO!!!. How is this possible? I wasn’t hoping for 2 lbs a week but I thought after a month I would have lost atleast 1 pound! Why is my body not cooperating?
I currently weigh 136 and need to go down to between 110 and 115, to fit within the healthy range for my height (5′).
Any advise???
Hi Michelle,
Im not a professional or anything just someone who is losing weight and has gained some knowlege. I think you might be eating too many calories for your height and weight to lose weight. For your size it takes about 1700 calories just to maintain your weight so if you want to lose a decent amount of weight you would need to lower your calories to about 1100 calories per day. As a vegitarian protein supplement I would suggest Nutiva Hemp Protein. And Also if your just going to workout 3 times per week then do it intensely with more interval cardio with light weight training. (ex: 45mins cardio with intervals and 15 mins of light weights. push ups, squats, 5 lbs weights ect.) If your not drinking enough water then that will definately slow down your weight loss and also lack of sleep. ALWAYS warm up, cool down, and stretch for at LEAST 5 mins. If the low calories is starving you then add 200 to 300 calories twice a week to zig zag your calories. Its said that it helps to confuse your body into keeping a high metabolism. Eatiing 5 to 6 small meals increases metabolism also.
One last thing i would suggest is to see your doctor for a full health assesment to see where you stand. Sometimes health issues can cause you to hang on to weight.
Good Luck!:)
Hey, I really need advice on weight loss! I’m 17, 5″5 1/2 and I’m 150lbs (so yeah I’m fat) but I have lost weight before quite fast, it was about 8lbs every 2-3 weeks and then I sadly put it all on again :(
So as a new years resolution that I am set on completing is to lose roughly 30 lbs in about 18 weeks. Is that possible? I am desperate to lose weigh since I’m a brides maid this year and I want to look good.
What foods would I need to eat and foods that I should not, I know the basics.
I’m not really active so what excersises are best? I can’t sign up for the gym cause I’m broke but I do have wii fit and an excersise bike plus weights and stuff like that. Also I walk a bit anyway at least 30-40mins a day.
If you could help you would be a life saver. Thanks
In order to lose 2 lbs a week all i have to do is reduce my calorie intake and workout more. i need advice im 5’8 146 1bs and i am trying to lose 18 lbs in two months. how can i lose the weight and keep the weight off in a healthy manner.
I’m a 28 year old female, I am 5’4, and starting weight was 156. I’m trying to lose 2 pounds a week so I cut my calories to between 1100 – 1250 (at least a 500 calorie deficit from my maintenance intake) which I log online every day. I work out every single day with a heart rate monitor that says I burn 450-460 calories. I’ve been doing this for over a month, and I’m only down to 154. What am I doing wrong? I am so frustrated!
could be that even though your burning fat
your putting on muscle as a result of your workouts hence your weight isnt dropping as much
but your body fat percentage is
thats thats what you really want to use
bodyfat percentage and the way your clothes fit is a better indicator than weight which can be really misleading
i myself started training again a month back i started at 166lbs and 5 foot 10
ive dropped to 160 lbs but ive gone down a waist size and my body fat has dropped by 4% so
thats really a much better way of measuring fatloss
I’m a 41 year old female. I’m 5’5″ and my goal weight is 125lbs. My starting weight 2 1/2 weeks ago was 170. I am now down to 165lbs, which is the standard 2lbs a week weight loss.
My regime is eating 1500 calories per day (3 meals and two snacks a day). I walk 4 miles after work. And I do situps and pushups 3 times a week.
This week I started adding an extra 4-mile walk on my lunch hour for a total of 8 miles a day. I am still eating 1500 calories and don’t feel weak or excessively hungry. I only do the 8 miles during the week. On the weekend, I do one 4-mile walk and then rest one day totally.
I have been logging my food in MyFitnessPal and based on the reports, I average 140g of carbs, 50g of fat, 80g of protein, and 18g of fiber. I don’t eat much sugar and most of my food is prepared from scratch…lean proteins, lots of veggies, and carbs are mostly rice. Snacks are things like Greek yogurt, string cheese, chips with salsa and avocado, pistachios, and fruit.
Beverages include coffee in the morning, a diet soda after lunch, and water throughout the day (about 48oz total). And occasionally I have a cocktail made with diet cranberry juice).
I’ve read that if you over-train, you stress your body and it causes you to lose less weight.
Do you think that doing two 4-mile walks during the week is considered over-training?
I really want to get this weight off – I pulled an abdominal muscle last year (that still isn’t healed) and I have back spasms and I know that this excess weight isn’t helping me recover.
two 4 mile walks isnt exactly overtraining
but the situps you do wont exactly do much
if you want a toned mid-section you need to burn fat from all over your body and regardless of what women think
you need to do some sort of weight lifting
it wont make you bulk if you dont overdo it otherwise youll be never achieve that toned look.
situps may work the abdominals but that in itself doesnt burn many calories
you need to do exercises which engage multiple muscle groups such as light free weights which any trainer in a gym will show you.
hello tom, i read your book ( burn tha fat feed the muscle) and thank you for that amazing book, it really inspired me and it coverd everything .. i have aquastion and i hope you answre me. i gaind som muscle over 5 months i traind hard but i had atime was stresful i gaind fat now i wanted to cut and lose tha fat but i don’t want to lose any muscles or any mass, now does lossing 2 lbs per week is too much , couse i heard when you cut you ll’ lose muscles! i train with weights and do cardio daily for 30 min. and eat som 25% defict from my mantaince ( close to 300- 400 cal.) should i keep doing this ir what ?
many thanks …
Hi,
I’m 13 years old and I weigh, may be just under, 60kg.
I hate it. I think I am fat and that I have huge thighs and bottom. I really want to lose 2 pounds a week to reach my goal (56kg in 4-5weeks).
I am trying to diet, and do very well in the mornings….However, my family are not very supportive and have sweets and high calorie foods around the house, which do not help. I snack at them at night and I hate my self so much for it.
Have you got any tips on how to lose 2pound a week and to stop my cravings?
Help please….I hate myself for being this weight.
Hi im 5,7 and i weigh and im 184 pounds my calorie intake is 2200 calories everyday and i was wondering if i only consume 1500 calories per day how much weight will i lose? Thank you
Hi. Im 5’9″ and Im 194 lbs. I have been doing a lot of workout for the past year, and I have had a lot of results. My arms and chest are in really good shape, and my waist size is 33, and I’m built muscle wise.
But, ive had a problem with love handles. My stomach is almost flat now, but they are still there, and I can’t seem to get rid of them. I eat probably around 2000 calories a day. What should i do?
Hi, Im stephanie im 14 years old im a freshman in high school and i weigh 126 pounds. I want to be on a healthy diet so I can control my weight and keep it around the 120′s. I was wondering is you could help to tell me what kind of foods I should be eating.
Everyone has six pack abs, bar none. We just hide them under fat. Get body fat under 10% and the abs will begin to define. Then one will not be frustrated by ab workouts apparently accomplishing nothing. I think thats a big reason why arm workouts are so popular among beginners, they can see the muscle and get immediate satisfaction. Even if you can’t see those abs, work em out! The core strength is critical to posture and stability going forward to avoid injury and keep good forms. One day, those abs will even be visible to admire.
I picked up “the warrior diet” about a year ago and stuck to it. now it’s second nature and I’m very happy with the yield. Good book.
Hi im 19 years old, 5’4 , 240, i am content with my body and the weight is not all in my stomach but i would like to loose 70 pounds in 7 months, what do you suggest i do,take, and eat?
What is your opinion on HCG and Simeon’s Protocol?
Hi,I’m 13, 155 pounds, 5’3″. I want to lose weight at a steady rate of say maybe 2-3 pounds a week? My BMR is estimated to be 1,500. And if i eat around 900-1000 calories a day? will I be able to do it? All my previous attempts have been unsuccessful. Also, I don’t have access to a gym or any equipment, So my exercise is generally indoors exercise i.e.Cardio, leg raises etc. What do you suggest to do?
ok i’m between 5 f and 5.2 and weigh 140 pounds I have three kids under the age of 4 with the youngest being 5 months. I have just recently started decreasing the amount of calories I consume with exercise and have lost roughly 8-9 lbs. my baby is exclusively breastfed, is decreasing my calorie intake by a considerable amount detrimental to my baby’s health
Hi, I’m 18 and I weigh 175 pounds. I want to get to about 130-135 pounds. I was just wondering how many calories I would need to take in, and how many to burn off. I have an app on my iPod, but it’s really not helping much. I usually walk a mile on my treadmill a few days. But I’ve been slacking off and I’ve lost motivation :’( I’m really hoping that I will achieve this goal by March.
hiya every time i try to lose weight i fail miserable im totally unsure what cals i should be having im 28 5.2 and 154lbs wanting to get to 116lbs but cant afford to be buying any help could you advise me what to do
@minnie, I’d watch the documentary called “fat, sick, and nearly dead.” Then do the same. I lost 30lbs over the last 5 weeks – first 10 came off in the first week or so. I’m making vegetable juice and fruit juice lmost daily. Its amazing how you don’t get hungry cause you are not NOT eating you just cut out all the bad stuff. I know you canr maintain this juicing but I wanted to do it just to get to my ideal weight and then slowly start adding in just the good stuff. Haven’t had bread, pasta, sugar, etc. etc. in over a month – although I did have 2 In N out protein style burgers in the last month. I’m reduced red meat to only twice a month. Good luck.