How Long Does It Take to Lose Weight?

Whether you want to lose weight for a special occasion or simply improve your health, weight loss is a common goal. To set realistic expectations, you may want to know what a healthy weight loss rate is. This article explains the factors that affect how long it may take you to lose weight.

Weight loss occurs when you consistently consume fewer calories than you burn each day. Conversely, weight gain happens when you consistently eat more calories than you burn. Any food or beverage you consume that has calories counts toward your overall calorie intake.

That said, the number of calories you burn each day, which is known as energy or calorie expenditure, is a bit more complicated. Calorie expenditure is composed of the following three major components:

1. Resting metabolic rate (RMR). This is the number of calories your body needs to maintain normal bodily functions, such as breathing and pumping blood.

2. Thermic effect of food (TEF). This refers to the calories used to digest, absorb, and metabolize food.

3. Thermic effect of activity (TEA). These are the calories you use during exercise. TEA can also include non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which accounts for the calories used for activities like yard work and fidgeting.

If the number of calories you consume equals the number of calories you burn, you maintain your body weight. If you want to lose weight, you must create a negative calorie balance by consuming fewer calories than you burn or burning more calories through increased activity.

Factors affecting weight loss

Several factors affect the rate at which you lose weight. Many of them are out of your control.

Gender

Your fat-to-muscle ratio greatly affects your ability to lose weight.

Because women typically have a greater fat-to-muscle ratio than men, they have a 5–10% lower RMR than men of the same height. This means that women generally burn 5–10% fewer calories than men at rest. Thus, men tend to lose weight quicker than women following a diet equal in calories.

Age

One of the many bodily changes that occur with aging is alterations in body composition — fat mass increases and muscle mass decreases.

This change, along with other factors like the declining calorie needs of your major organs, contributes to a lower RMR. In fact, adults over age 70 can have RMRs that are 20–25% lower than those of younger adults. This decrease in RMR can make weight loss increasingly difficult with age.

Sleep

Sleep tends to be an overlooked yet crucial component of weight loss. Chronic sleep loss can significantly hinder weight loss and the speed at which you shed pounds. Just one night of sleep deprivation has been shown to increase your desire for high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods, such as cookies, cakes, sugary beverages, and chips.

Other factors

Several other factors can affect your weight loss rate, including:

Medications. Many medications, such as antidepressants and other antipsychotics, can promote weight gain or hinder weight loss.

Medical conditions. Illnesses, including depression and hypothyroidism, a condition in which your thyroid gland produces too few metabolism-regulating hormones, can slow weight loss and encourage weight gain.

Family history and genes. There is a well-established genetic component associated with people who have overweight or obesity, and it may affect weight loss (16Trusted Source.

Yo-yo dieting. This pattern of losing and regaining weight can make weight loss increasingly difficult with each attempt, due to a decrease in RMR.

In our upcoming posts, we will discuss some food options that might help us in our weight loss journey.

Let's have an awesome weekend.

SOURCE: HEALTHLINE