Before knowing if you can lose a pound a day or not, you need to understand how weight loss works.
To lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit – that is – burning more calories than you eat in a day. One pound is equal to 3500 calories, which means you need to burn 3500 calories per day to lose that amount of weight.
Now, a healthy person requires to eat 2000 calories per day for normal body functioning. That means to lose one pound a day you need to starve yourself the whole day and exercise intensely to burn the remaining 1500 calories.
So, to come back to the question if you can lose 1 pound a day or not, the answer is no. It’s not practically possible.
But here what is actually possible –
Losing water weight
I assume that when you say you want to lose 1 pound of weight a day, you mean body fat which is not possible but losing one pound of water weight is.
The term ‘water weight’ refers’ to the water that your body stores in tissues. High salt intake, carbohydrate intake, changes in hormone levels, and certain medical conditions can cause you to hold water weight.
Cutting back on carb intake and increasing physical activity can help lose that water weight. It is possible to lose 1-2 pounds of weight per day by depleting your stored water, which is more realistic than losing body fat.
What can possibly go wrong if you’d decide to lose a pound a day?
I assume that many of you may try once to lose weight that quickly. Here what can go wrong with that.
- Nutritional deficiency: Eating too little or not eating at all make you prone to malnutrition. Your body won’t be able to get the minerals & vitamins it needs for the proper functioning of the body.
- Weight loss plateau: You may lose weight fast by doing this for the first few days, but sooner or later your body will stop to respond and you will probably be stuck on the same weight, or even gain more weight than before.
- Feeling unhappy, sad, or depressed: Restricting so much food more likely to make you feel sad, unhappy, or even depressed after few days. Because you can’t live forever without eating something you love to eat.
How to lose weight the right way & keep it off
Most people who try to lose weight fast gain it all back once they come to their normal eating habits.
Therefore, sticking to day-to-day healthy habits and continuously follow them while enjoying your favorite foods is a way to keep that weight off for the long term.
Always aim for .5 – 1 pound of fat loss per weak. If you have more fat to lose, you can aim for 2 pounds a week by creating a larger deficit, but never let your calories go below 1200 calories to ensure that your body gets all the nutrients to work properly.
If you don’t know where to begin, start with the beginner’s weight loss guide.
The bottom line:
It may be theoretically possible, to lose a pound a day requires you to significantly increase your activity & decrease your food intake which is hard or rather impossible.
However, losing one pound of weight per week is much more realistic and sustainable in the long term.
