How much weight should I be losing? Part 2. Or the gospel according to PN

PN, or Precision Nutrition to the uninitiated, is a scientific, restricted carb, weight-management and lifestyle programme. The guy who developed it has a PhD in the field and really knows his stuff. Plus he’s put together a top-notch team of nutrition and exercise experts and coaches everyone from national sports teams to joe blogs. I have tried PN, and to be honest, it didn’t really agree with me or my lifestyle, but I have nothing but respect for the guy and I know people who have had amazing results using the programme.

In fact, over the last 3 years, nearly 6000 men and women have successfully completed the PN online fat-loss programme. Each season they have a big body transformation contest, where the people with the most inspiring transformations can win big prizes. They also keep detailed data about how people are getting on, if they’re following the diet and exercise plans and so on. Based on data from people who did at least 80% of what they were supposed to, AND ended up as finalists in the $50,000 contests, they have calculated what kind of weight loss can be expected from people who are doing everything right. Remember, these are not the world-class athletes. These are everyday schmos who need to lose weight and get in shape. Some of them have had incredible success, but surprisingly, when the numbers were crunched, the week to week weight loss that led to these fantastic body transformations were a lot more modest than you’d expect. And here it is – what you could expect from the men and women who do what they were supposed to and had phenomenal results:

* Men should be losing 0.678% of their body weight each week.
* Women should be losing 0.678% of their body weight each week.

Now these are average weight losses over the 24 week programme. Some weeks were more, some weeks were even less, or nothing at all. Even the odd gain here and there. But over six months, to do something amazing for your body, the average weekly weight loss is just over half a percent of your body weight. Now remember, this is for people who were getting personal weekly coaching and following a cutting edge exercise and nutrition plan. But even so, there are some big variations:

For example, on average, Lean Eating male finalists typically lose between 0.3% and 1.2% of body weight per week to end up with jaw-dropping transformations. And Lean Eating female finalists typically lose between 0.2% and 1.5% of body weight per week to end up with jaw-dropping transformations.

Anyhow, they have done some statistical number crunching and come up with a formula that should give ordinary people a pretty good idea of what to aim for. And those nice people at PN have kindly put a calculator on their site so that you can work out what kind of weight loss you can expect if you are on a sustainable healthy eating and fitness plan. Using their calculator you can find out what your average weekly weight loss should be, and also, how long it will take you to reach your goal if you are following a sensible plan. And without further ado, here it is:

The PN Weight Loss Calculator

If you scroll up the page on their website you can also read more about how they came up with the numbers and see some of the before and after pictures of their contest finalists. You’ll also find links for the PN programme in case you want to find out more about it. I haven’t added a link here because I only recommend programmes that I like myself. But if you’re interested….

For the record, I asked it how long it would take me to go from 15 stone to 10 stone, and the figure it came up with was a surprising 63 weeks! And when I asked it how much I could expect to lose in 4 weeks (you can put in any time you like), the answer was 5 pounds. Remember, this is based on real numbers from people who have done amazing things.

So the take home message is: Don’t give up if you don’t lose half a stone every two weeks. Focus on the big picture. Make it sustainable. Make it long-term. And you will get there. Best of luck.