You have probably heard the saying that you should not lose more than 1-2 pounds a week. But for most people who want to lose weight quicker, it may seem as slow progress. If you train real hard and count your calories than you should lose more than 2 pounds a week, without damaging your health or losing muscle? Every single day you hear rapid weight loss stories. So where does the 2 pounds a week rule even come from and can you lose more than 2 pounds a week safely?
Well, losing 1-2 ponds a week is no rule, it is more a general recommendation. It is really based on average results and it is a good target to go for. And the bigger you are the more you can lose safely. If you weighed 300 lbs, that would be 3 lbs per week. Losing "weight" is not a very accurate and it can be even meaningless. What matters is your body composition; the fat to muscle ratio, as well as water weight. People can lose a lot of weight in a few weeks by using some extreme induction program or a lemon juice and water fast. But most of these people also but weight back on because a lot of that weight was water and lean tissue.
If you want to lose 4 pounds a week and you are not 400 pounds, then it takes a lot of effort to reach this goal. The more you want to lose, than the bigger calorie deficit you need. For example if your maintenance level is 3000 calories and you want to lose 4 pounds a week, then you need a 2000 calorie deficit. Which would equate to eating 1000 calories per day. Eating so little is not very safe and people often end up binge eating because people can´t last with this little food. So losing 4 pounds a week with cutting calories only is not an option.
The other option is to create a calorie deficit by burning more calories with exercise. But you need to train for hours and hours every single day to lose 4 pounds with exercise. People just do not have the time or the motivation to sweat in the gym for hours and hours because we have a life. Most people have a job and a family and spending that much time and effort to weight loss is not practical. Yes, it is possible to lose 4 pounds a week, but as you can see, it takes extraordinary effort to do it. And losing 2 pounds a week is not bad at all. You can lose at least 50 pounds in 6 months, if you lose 2 pounds a week. That is a lot of weight.