Body fat loss per month has a ceiling, and for most people a pound every 10 days is a pace you can actually hold. That’s roughly 3 pounds a month. You can go faster if you’re carrying more body fat, because your body caps how much it burns per day, and that cap rises with how much you’ve got.
What sets the ceiling on body fat loss per month?
There’s a limit on how fast your body pulls energy out of fat cells. Work from a physicist at the University of New Mexico put it around 22 calories per pound of body fat per day. The fat gets released, moved, and burned, and that pipeline only runs so wide.
So the most you can burn is tied to how much you carry.
Why is it harder to lose fat the leaner you get?
Your ceiling drops with you.
Someone with 100 pounds of body fat has a much higher daily cap than someone with 25. Same deficit, the heavier person loses more.
That’s why the last stretch can be so damn frustrating. The same rule that helped you at the start is working against you now.
Sonuvabitch, right?
Why can they lose 100 pounds on TV and you can’t?
Because they started with a huge fat ceiling you might not have.
There was a Biggest Loser behind-the-scenes thing on Netflix that got into this. Those folks drop weight at a rate you literally can’t match. Copy their plan, get nowhere near their results.
Sidebar: Don’t match those made for TV training plans. The fact that more people didn’t get seriously injured is a testament to resiliency of humanity…
But I digress…
Say it with me: what works for one person might not work for you.
Your friend’s diet, the guy on TV, your coworker. Different bodies, different results.
So what’s the move?
- Eat mostly whole, minimally processed food most of the time.
- Sprinkle in what you enjoy for sanity’s sake.
- Think in months. A pound every 10 days is a pace you can hold.
- Stop comparing your rate to anyone else’s.
Then rinse and repeat until BOOM, you’re feeling badass.
If you want a plan built around your body instead of somebody else’s TV results, that’s the whole point of how we coach at River City Strength.
FAQ
How much body fat can you lose in a month?
Around 3 pounds for most people, or a pound every 10 days. You can lose faster if you’re carrying more fat to start, because your daily burn ceiling is higher. Push past what your body allows and you’re just setting up the yo-yo.
Why do heavier people lose weight faster than lean people?
Your body can only release so much fat energy a day, around 22 calories per pound of body fat. More fat means a higher ceiling, so the same deficit burns more. As you lean out, that ceiling drops, which is why the end feels slowest.
Is it worth comparing my results to someone else’s diet?
No. Two people on the identical plan get different results based on where they started. Track your own trend, not somebody else’s before-and-after.
Jesse
P.S. We’re for adults over 40 in San Antonio and Castle Hills who don’t want to burn months on a plan built for someone else’s body. If you’ve done everything right and watched the scale barely move while someone else melted, this is why. You were comparing your ceiling to theirs.
The scale was never the point anyway. It’s about feeling strong enough to do what you want with your life. The fat loss shows up on its own. Just on its own schedule.
Click HERE for more info!
