POUNDS DON'T MATTER... percentages do!
So after a year on here I've read thousands of times that "I've only lost ____ pounds in ____ months." At least 8043 times I've tried to explain that it's not about actual pounds, it's about the percentage of excess weight lost. Let me explain. First of all, excess weight is the weight you need to lose to be in a normal BMI. That's what the books go by. According to that, I need to weigh 155 and therefore my excess weight is 225 because I started at 381 (381start-155goal=225excess. My PERSONAL goal is 180 though (2 different things.) So let's say I lost 150 pounds (soon!), I divide that by my excess weight of 225. 150/225= 0.6666 which means I would have lost 66.66 percent of my excess weight at that point. That has nothing to do with my PERSONAL wieght loss goal of 180 pounds though.
Ok so here is where I say pounds don't matter and percentage does.
Let's 2 scenarios. Person 1 starting at 250 pounds and needs to be at 115 to be considered a normal BMI. 250-115 leaves an excess weight of 135 pounds. That's the magic number... the excess weight.
Person 2 starts at 390 pounds and needs to be at 150 pounds to be considered normal BMI. 390-150 leaes an excess weight of 240 pounds. That's the magic number.... the excess weight.
So let's get started on pounds. It's 2 months out and person one (135 excess weight) has ONLY lost 47 pounds. -35
Person 2 (240 excess weight) has lost a whopping 75 pounds in the same 2 months. 28 more pounds than person 1. How devastating for person 1. They must be doing something wrong and they must be a slow loser.
WRONG!!
Person one lost 47 pounds, divided by their excess weight of 135 which means they hve lost THIRTY FIVE percent of their excess weight in TWO months and it only took 47 pounds.
Person two lost 30 more actual pounds than person 1 (75 pounds in TWO MONTHS), divided by her excess wieght of 240 means that she's ONLY lost THIRTY ONE percent of her excess weight. Her pounds lost may be much higher but in the grand scheme of things, person 1 has accomplished a lot more towards their goal because of their higher percentage lost.
You can't look at your weightloss in terms of pounds. It just doesn't make sense. We all have such different starting and end weights that my 137 pounds which only equals 61% of excess weighloss for me might be 100% of yours or even more!
Here is a chart of expected loss based on the ewl percentages.
I hope this made sense... and for those of us that started with extremely high numbers, it's pretty hard to hold to those expected numbers....
Ok so here is where I say pounds don't matter and percentage does.
Let's 2 scenarios. Person 1 starting at 250 pounds and needs to be at 115 to be considered a normal BMI. 250-115 leaves an excess weight of 135 pounds. That's the magic number... the excess weight.
Person 2 starts at 390 pounds and needs to be at 150 pounds to be considered normal BMI. 390-150 leaes an excess weight of 240 pounds. That's the magic number.... the excess weight.
So let's get started on pounds. It's 2 months out and person one (135 excess weight) has ONLY lost 47 pounds. -35
Person 2 (240 excess weight) has lost a whopping 75 pounds in the same 2 months. 28 more pounds than person 1. How devastating for person 1. They must be doing something wrong and they must be a slow loser.
WRONG!!
Person one lost 47 pounds, divided by their excess weight of 135 which means they hve lost THIRTY FIVE percent of their excess weight in TWO months and it only took 47 pounds.
Person two lost 30 more actual pounds than person 1 (75 pounds in TWO MONTHS), divided by her excess wieght of 240 means that she's ONLY lost THIRTY ONE percent of her excess weight. Her pounds lost may be much higher but in the grand scheme of things, person 1 has accomplished a lot more towards their goal because of their higher percentage lost.
You can't look at your weightloss in terms of pounds. It just doesn't make sense. We all have such different starting and end weights that my 137 pounds which only equals 61% of excess weighloss for me might be 100% of yours or even more!
Here is a chart of expected loss based on the ewl percentages.
Expected excess body weight loss:
6 weeks - 25%
3 months - 35%
6 months - 55%
9 months - 70%
1 year - 80%
I hope this made sense... and for those of us that started with extremely high numbers, it's pretty hard to hold to those expected numbers....
HW 380.8+ SW- 371.4 CW- 234.4 GW- 200 
I'm 9 months and a week and I'm only 61% down! People trip because of the number "140 pounds" (I round up!) and think I'm all amazing for losing that much but uhh... I have 100 to go to get to a normal BMI so to me it's not that much. It's about 60 to my personal goal. Either way, it's still not much compared to SEVENTY percent at 6 months even if that 70% is only 50 pounds...
HW 380.8+ SW- 371.4 CW- 234.4 GW- 200
HAHA. How'd I know I would see that coming 
... 
On a serious note though I do agree with Mike, that this should be reposted over and over so people stop comparing their monthly weight losses to others. People are all different shapes and sizes. Have all different amounts to lose. A "lightweight" cant expect to lose pounds as quickly as a "heavyweight".
... On a serious note though I do agree with Mike, that this should be reposted over and over so people stop comparing their monthly weight losses to others. People are all different shapes and sizes. Have all different amounts to lose. A "lightweight" cant expect to lose pounds as quickly as a "heavyweight".
Heaviest Weight: 330 Goal Weight: 175 Current Weight: 150
"Hit Goal in 3 1/2 Months!!!"
"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I'M POSSIBLE!!!"
"No one said it was going to be easy, but it will definitely be worth it"
Any post you make you will get a little bit of hater-ness (yes I made that up) from me and you know it. The whole skinny thing in 2 weeks, hot wife, cute kids... it all makes me want to vomit my broken gall bladder juice all over your eye! (Nice huh?)
And yeah, I do try to say this everytime I DARE open a post about that kind of stuff but I get tired and usually the person never responds to what I say because I think it's not what they want to hear at the time.
And yeah, I do try to say this everytime I DARE open a post about that kind of stuff but I get tired and usually the person never responds to what I say because I think it's not what they want to hear at the time.
HW 380.8+ SW- 371.4 CW- 234.4 GW- 200
with a little of the first one thrown in.
I think you need to post this about every week or so. We all need those reminders from time to time. 
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