The 10% rule

I once was told by a doctor that it is important not to lose more than 10% of your weight per year. Does anyone know why this is?

I know it is important not to lose your weight fast because you have a risk of gaining fast. But why is it ok within that 10% field and not okay when you do 25% for instance?

Any doctors in the room here????

Jolanda

I'd say that that was rubbish,  Depends on how much you weigh to start with I guess.

At 300lbs is he saying you shouldn't lose more than 30lbs in a year? I wouldn't have thought so,

Same at 200lbs, 20lbs can be lost safely in 3-4 months sometimes, thats fairly well known to be ok too.

If you weighed 100lbs then he is probably right.

Everything I've read has indicated that a 1-2 pound per week weight loss for otherwise healthy adults eating well-balanced nutrition is acceptable.  And, as always, keep in mind the minimum daily calories for women (1200), men (1500) and teens (1200+300 or 1500+300) ... as well as the rule to not go over a 1000-calorie-per-day deficit without doctor approval and monitoring.

I have not heard the 10% per year limit, but have heard that for most overweight people -- losing 5% or 10% (presumably over a reasonable period of time and done in a healthy manner) should have a significant positive impact on health.

I do think you must factor in the person's starting weight and BMI in looking at many "general rules" about dieting.  For example, people with BMI's over 45 often can safely lose an average of more than 2 pounds per week -- although there is often medical supervision involved. This may well be true for people with BMI's over 40 ... depending on the individual situations.

If in doubt, it's probably best to clarify with your own doctor (and/or dietician) for specific goals applicable to you and your situation.

=^..^= MOLLY

This is an interesting question but I unfortunately don't think the doc was right.

I lost 20% of myself this year and have never felt better (this was equivalent of about 0.5 per week average)! Also, I know this time the weight loss will be maintained as I have used Calorie Count to teach myself how to eat and maintain healthfully. But it's also of note that to the best of my knowledge Weight Watchers only wants you to lose 10% at a time, but certainly you can do WW more than once a year to lose more than 10% total.

Dropping a lot of weight super fast isn't good because often the methods used to drop tons in a short time are normally unhealthy and the weight will be difficult to maintain in the long-run.

p.s. I am not a doc!

@nygirl,

I think I've got the numbers and percentages mixed up then. Your explanation sounds familiar. I now also remember that 10% has a significant influence on your health.

I do not lose weight fast. Far from it. I would like to lose faster but I have "misused" my body in the past so that it now gets into famine metabolism easily. So I need to play it safe and not go too low in my calories.

Thanks for your answers, docs or not :-)

Jolanda

For some reason I thought it was 1% a week.

Most docs do really know that much about nutrition, I have had docs that told me that eating 500-700 calories a day was fine!!! And I was only 180lb or so at the time!

Just do what you know, be healthy, and the weight will come off at the rate that is right for your own body. Now if only I could take my own advice... ARGH 

Like smwhipple mentioned, I find 1% to be an average weight weekly weight loss for me, which equates to 10% in 10 weeks not 52 weeks. 

With that math, a 240 lb person would only lose 24 lbs a year which is 2 lbs a month.  This is fine if you chose to go slow but to say at 240, losing more then 2 lbs monthly is NOT unhealthy.