Several of us in our challenges have said that we’d like to lose 2 pounds per week. So what does it really take to lose that amount of weight? As Andre said, it’s easy - diet and exercise.

With a little math we can figure out exactly what it will take to reach that goal.

The first tool to use is the Daily Calorie Calculator which will help you figure out how many calories you should be consuming per day. When I entered my details it told me that my daily calories to maintain current weight was 2106 and to lose 1 lb/week, you will need to eat 500 calories LESS each day, which brings me to about 1600 calories per day.

To reach an additional 1 pound per week loss exercise is needed. My exercise plan is to workout 6 days per week, burning 580 calories per day. (Which I’m still working up to.)  Combining a healthy diet plan of around 1600 calories per day with exercise should help me to lose 2 pounds per week.
These figures are based upon the fact that 3,500 calories equals one pound.

Current level of activity, muscle mass and metabolism also effect weight loss results. Personal experience may show that it takes you more or less exercise and more or less attention to diet. It is possible to lose 2 pounds per week without the strict guidelines above, it just depends upon the individual. However, knowing these figures helps to give a goal to shoot for.

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