Generally to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories more than you consume each day, through a lower calorie diet and regular physical activity. Depending on your weight, 5% of your current weight may be a realistic goal, at least for an initial goal.
"To lose two pounds a week, you are looking at about a 7,000 calorie weekly deficit, or 1,000 per day.
Exercise goal: Lose 2 pounds per week
If you are coming from a point of little or no activity, work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week, the CDC said.
How can you lose two pounds a week without eating in a calorie deficit? It depends on your metabolism, but 10,000 steps a day plus an intense workout may get you there. The trick is to find workouts that burn a lot of calories.
To lose 2 pounds a week walking, you're going to have to also reduce the calories in your diet — possibly by a lot. You could burn 500 calories walking and cut 500 calories from your diet, but you're still going to be doing a lot of walking — one hour and 20 minutes to one hour and 40 minutes.
You can achieve part of this deficit by walking 1 hour per day or by gradually decreasing the number of calories you consume. Depending on your calorie intake, a deficit of 500 calories per day may lead to 0.5–2 pounds (0.2–0.9 kg) of weight loss per week ( 10 ).
"Generally, 1 mile (or roughly 2,000 steps) walked equates to [burning] 80 to 100 calories." There are 3,500 calories in 1 pound. "This means to lose 1 pound, you'll need to walk roughly 35 miles or 70,000 steps. Over the course of a week, this means targeting 10,000 steps a day," says Davis.
Running is the winner for most calories burned per hour. Stationary bicycling, jogging, and swimming are excellent options as well. HIIT exercises are also great for burning calories. After a HIIT workout, your body will continue to burn calories for up to 24 hours.
As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight, maintain weight loss or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Reducing sitting time is important, too. The more hours you sit each day, the higher your risk of metabolic problems.
You should step on the scale first thing in the morning. That's when you'll get your most accurate weight because your body has had the overnight hours to digest and process whatever you ate and drank the day before. And you should try to turn that step into a regular part of your routine.
But the average weight loss that most people see on the 1200 calorie diet is about one to two pounds per week.”
A 1,200-calorie diet is much too low for most people and can result in negative side effects like dizziness, extreme hunger, nausea, micronutrient deficiencies, fatigue, headaches, and gallstones ( 23 ). Furthermore, a 1,200-calorie diet can set you up for failure if long-term weight loss is your goal.
So a 200-pound person who wants to lose two pounds a week will calculate that they need to cut out 1,000 calories a day. Keep this up and you could lose 50 pounds in 25 weeks! Always eat at least 1,200 calories a day. If you need to cut out more calories to meet your goal, do so by burning them through exercise.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT workouts, which involve repeated bouts of very vigorous exercise and recovery periods, are far and away the best way to burn fat. Research indicates that HIIT workouts burn as many calories as a moderate-intensity, steady-state workout in one-third to one-half the time.
Walking might not be the most strenuous form of exercise, but it is an effective way to get in shape and burn fat. While you can't spot-reduce fat, walking can help reduce overall fat (including belly fat), which, despite being one of the most dangerous types of fat, is also one of the easiest to lose.
An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile and 10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles.
Walking is a form of low impact, moderate intensity exercise that has a range of health benefits and few risks. As a result, the CDC recommend that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day . For most people, this is the equivalent of about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles.