How To Find Out Percentage Of Weight Loss

empty paper and business things on table

Information technology'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to runway your weight loss pct -- whether it's week to week or your overall weight loss.

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Whether you're trying to lose 5 pounds or fifty, tracking your weight loss helps go along you lot motivated. Information technology helps yous keep rail of your progress toward your ultimate goals, even if you're not seeing huge results in the mirror from day to solar day. While you can measure the pounds you lose, y'all tin can also count the percentage of weight y'all shed -- or your pct of body fat lost. It'south piece of cake to summate your weight loss pct at abode, using pen and newspaper or a reckoner, though you might have to consult a professional to measure your body fat percentage.

Calculating Your Weight Loss Percent

Choose i day a calendar week for your "official" weigh-in. Ideally, you should weigh yourself get-go affair in the morn, afterward going to the bathroom, to get a weight measurement that isn't influenced by your food intake for the solar day. You'll need to complete at least two weigh-ins to calculate your weight lost.

Calculate your weight loss percentage for the week using the following equation:

Weekly Weight Loss Percent = [ (Last calendar week'southward weight - This week'due south weight) / Last week's weight ] x 100.

You tin can use a like equation to effigy out how much weight you lost over a longer menstruation past comparing your current weight to your starting weight:

Total Weight Loss Percent = [ (Starting weight - Current weight) / Starting weight ] x 100.

This equation will help yous figure out what percentage of your body weight you've lost, total -- not but in the last calendar week.

A Real-World Example

Don't worry if those equations expect complicated -- once you get started using real numbers, the math looks a lot simpler.

Take, for example, a 150-pound woman looking to lose weight. If she loses ii pounds in her kickoff week -- lowering her weight to 148 pounds -- she could calculate her pct of weight loss like this:

Weekly Weight Loss Percent = [ (150 - 148) / 150 ] ten 100 Weekly Weight Loss Per centum = [ 2 / 150 ] x 100 Weekly Weight Loss Percent = 1.33

If, the next week, she loses another two pounds -- going from 148 to 146 pounds -- she would summate her weekly weight loss like this: Weekly Weight Loss Pct = [ (148 - 146) / 148 ] x 100 Weekly Weight Loss Pct = [ 2 / 148 ] x 100 Weekly Weight Loss Percent = i.35

Once she reaches her goal weight -- let's say information technology'due south 125 pounds -- she could calculate her total percentage of weight loss using this equation: Total Weight Loss Percent = [ (150 - 125) / 150 ] ten 100 Total Weight Loss Percent = [ 25 / 150 ] ten 100 Total Weight Loss Percent = 16.67

Over the course of her entire weight loss journey, she's lost 25 pounds, which is 16.67 percentage of her original weight.

Weight Loss Percent Vs. Fat Loss Pct

While it's like shooting fish in a barrel to effigy out your pct of weight loss, not all of that weight necessarily comes from fat. While you'll lose fat as you shed weight, you might also lose water weight and muscle tissue. That means that your pct of fat loss might be unlike from your overall weight loss -- especially if y'all lose weight via fad dieting, which ways yous'll generally lose more muscle than when you lose fat in a tiresome-and-steady manner.

Unfortunately, information technology'southward more complicated to figure out your body fat loss at abode -- you'll need to consult a professional. A doc or sports clinic professional can use skinfold calipers or body scans to gauge your fatty levels, and repeated readings tin can help you run across how much of your weight loss comes from fat. If you're worried about your torso fat levels, professional testing might be worth the investment, since a high body fat percentage tin crusade health issues even if you lot're at a salubrious weight.

What Percentage to Look

While you lot should aim for wearisome weight loss -- by and large, at a charge per unit of 1 to 2 pounds a week -- at that place's no standard weekly weight loss percentage recommendation. That's because, when you lot lose i to two pounds a calendar week, your weight loss percentage will vary depending on your starting weight. For instance, a 160-pound person who loses 2 pounds volition accept lost 1.25 percent of his body weight, while a 180-pound person who loses two pounds will have shed 1.eleven percent of the body weight. And so while calculating your weight loss percentage can exist helpful, you should still aim for a weight loss of 4 to eight pounds each month.

There is a recommended rate of fat loss, however -- y'all should lose a maximum of one percent of your body fatty each calendar month, according to the American Quango on Do.