If I weigh 375 pounds, can I lose a pound a day for 6 months? Is that possible?

Question

*I'll be following a Dr supervised liquid diet for six months.

Um.... for the person that called me a "genius". You do the math. Do you know the caloric requirements just to make a 375 pound person live, breathe,etc?? My basic metabolic rate is 2434 calories. That's how much I burn just by doing NOTHING. so YOU do the math!

Answer 1

Yes,

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Recent medical discoveries reveal a method you can use to lose almost a pound of body fat a day. He did it without drugs, without hunger, and his energy shot through the roof.
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http://www.apoundadaybook.com/

but VERY tough:
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Can you lose one pound a day?

Most experts agree that slower weight loss is best. Two(2) pounds a week is considered an ideal rate. It is fast enough for the dieter to see the changes yet slow enough to not cause health hazards. Any weight loss faster than 1/2 pound per day (3.5 pounds per week) is considered too fast and could be dangerous.

Losing "water weight" is the only way you can lose weight fast. But, the only water weight you want to lose would be associated with the fat you are losing. To reduce the water in the body without proportionate tissue loss causes dehydration. This is a dangerous thing to be doing to yourself. Thirty pounds of water is all of the water associated with over 38 pounds of body weight. That would be an 18.8% reduction in water that the body needs. This much water loss could cause blood pressure changes, dizziness, dark urine, a reduction in skin elasticity and many more undesirable effects. The only way to get rid of these side effects is to put the water back. If you do that -- what have you gained?

There are products on the market that claim to burn or block calories so the body cannot use them. But consider this: If your body required 2800 calories to maintain it's present weight and you ate 2800 calories, this substance would have to burn up 6300 calories per day for you to lose one pound. If you ate nothing it would still have to burn up an additional 700 calories. We know the body goes into starvation mode at approximately 600 to 700 calories per day. What this means is the body stops using stored fat and begins using organ tissue. In our example, you would be operating at minus 700 calories. I would call that a hyper-starvation mode. We know the average person can only last 30 to 40 days with no food. How long do you think a person could last with less than no food?

Exercise, does not change the picture at all. The body must have +700 calories every day just to stay alive. So, to answer the question, "Can you lose one pound a day?", the answer is a clear NO! That is, unless you cut it off with a knife.
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http://www.masterdiet.com/hdeit+1.htm

I am glad to hear it is DR supervised, but is he/she YOUR regular DR? Does you DR know you are doing htis?. I do not know the history, but all liquids sounds....interesting. I hope it is not a diet that allows you to be sedentary, then it would seem impossible and even more dangerous.

1/2 a pound per day is much more reasonable and allows for REAL FOOD!!:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2004nl/041200pulose.htm

Have fun! (I need a hamburger now)

Answer 2

That would equal about 180 pounds. I think you will find that indeed you can lose 180 pounds in 6 months and for such a drastic weight lose, you should be under a Dr.'s care. You said you would be on a Dr.'s liquid diet, so I am assuming that you are actually under this Dr.'s care.
You will NOT lose a pound a day, you will probably start out about 2 pounds a day and at the end of 6 months be losing less than a pound a day.
A lot depends upon your age. In any case, what you are doing is a good move. Extra weight is NOT good for you, but obviously you know that. Extra strain is placed on your heart and your skeleton, not to mention other organs. Good luck!

Answer 3

a pound a day is a lot. Initially, weight loss is mainly from burning off retained water weight from your adipose tissue, so during that time it's quite possible to lose a pound a day... but once you're down to burning off actual tissue, a pound a day would be very unhealthy... at that point, 2 pounds a week might be all you could reasonably hope for without really over-doing it.

The best way to really lose weight is to eat small quantities of healthy food and exercise to a degree that's sustainable. If you make your goal about lifestyle change instead of weight loss, the results will be far more satisfying. Instead of looking forward to being thin, look forward to being someone who actually goes to the gym regularly and actually eats reasonable portions, and does active things and enjoys life more. That's an image worth looking up to, and it's more within your direct control. You can wake up tomorrow and decide to make yourself that person. You can't wake up tomorrow and be thin. If you do it to lose weight, you will be disappointed because it won't happen fast enough and it will feel like work... it will feel like a drag. If you can reach the point where you want to LIVE healthy, then it will happen.

Focus on living healthy, and looking and being healthy will follow in due time.

Answer 4

Think about this for a minute. A liquid diet for six months? Can you keep that up? Maybe for a few weeks, but just drinking nutrition is going to get old after a while. Kinda like the cabbage soup diet - sound in fundamentals, terrible in practice. Mix up the liquid with a solid diet, preferably with salads and lean meats. Trust me, if you get tired of the liquid diet (or any rigid diet), you WILL crash and give up. The key to dieting is to mix it up and keep it within the range of what you like - not what will absolutely work.

As to your base metabolism, consider this. 2434 is your base. If you ate nothing for 6 months, you would lose 0.7 pounds per day. But you can't eat nothing. You have to eat something. So suppose that you are on an 1100 calorie diet, which is pretty much the absolute minimum in terms of nutrition absorption. That puts you at right around -1300 calories on the day. So, to lose a pound a day, you would have to burn an additional 2200 calories exercising. That's about 3.5 hours of racquetball (vigorous), who knows how many miles running, etc.

Don't set too high of a goal. You can do it, but don't sprint from the gate - because setting too high of a goal can be discouraging and counterproductive in the end. Just stick to your guns and do the best you can. Good luck, and I mean that sincerely.

Answer 5

its not safe to lose more than 2 pounds a week. IT CAN be done, but at what cost? Your liver? Your kidneys? Whats it worth to you, and do you wanna just GAIN it back 2 months later? DO THE MATH genius, a pound a day for 6 months equates to a minimum of 180pounds. Thats just not gonna happen. Do you think you gained 180lbs in 6 months? No. you didnt. And you sure as hell wont lose that much in 6 months. Be prepared to have this be a struggle and take you a few years to SAFELY lose it, OTHERWISE youre gonna HAVE to have SURGERY JUST to remove the EXCESS SAGGING SKIN that will remain and be VERY depressingly obvious to you. If you think being overweight is depressing, wait till you find sheets of flesh hanging off of you like wings. ANd all of these idiots that are telling you YES you can do it, have never know ANYONE who lost 180lbs in 6 months and DIDNT have to have surgery to correct what was revealed as a result. Theyre just filling your head with BS.

Answer 6

I don't believe in diets. You may lose weight on a diet, but what's to keep you from gaining the weight back once you stop?

The real answer to losing weight and keeping it off is lifestyle change. Eat healthy foods in sensible portions and engage in some kind of activity.

Consider these suggestions: Give up soda. Drink water (or ice tea or juice if you need flavor). Give up fast food. What's so great about it anyway? High in calories, high in cost, low in nutrition. Don't drive to places that you can walk. Walk as much as possible. If you have somewhere to swim, swim as much as possible. Eat fresh vegetables and lean meats. Cut down on sugar. Skip the bread. Instead of eating three meals a day, graze lightly whenever you're hungry. Eat more earlier in the day and less later.

It's more important to keep the weight off than it is to lose it quickly.

Best of luck, sweetheart!

Answer 7

It's possible, but don't be disenchanted if you can't maintain that rate, it's quite high. I was always taught to shoot for attainable goals.... less disappointment that way. If you can maintain half of that, which is more realistic, then you'll be doing fine. I lost 30 in two months, but I was only 45 lbs over ideal. Perhaps it is realistic, at your weight, to lose it more quickly. You'll find all kinds of useful info here: http://www.drmcdougall.com

Answer 8

Not safely. A pound a week is a good rate, and can be done with a net calorie deficiency of 500 calories per day. A pound a day would mean a deficiency of 3500 calories per day, which is more than what most people eat. And you can't eat negative food!

Answer 9

You can also lose one pound a week



The majority of fitness professionals advise slow weight loss as the safest and most helpful approach. A sensible weight-loss program allows you to lose weight slowly -- about one-half to one pound per week. Slow weight loss promotes long-term loss of body fat, not just water weight that can be rapidly regained.

Most people need around 15 calories per pound to maintain their weight. A person of 150 pound would not eat food that contains calories more than 2250 per day in order to maintain his/her weight.

In order to burn one pound, a person need to burn 3500 calories more than they are used. For example, dropping calories by 300 per day and increasing daily movement to burn off an extra 200 calories should result in a weight loss of one pound a week.

Answer 10

If you're able to steer clear of 500 calories from fat per day you can shed some sort of pound every week.