Today (*cough* yesterday *cough*) is an important mile marker in my weight loss journey (see, I didn’t write, “attempt”). Why? Because the fastest I ever lost the most weight was in 69 days, last year. And so, for better or worse, it’s a benchmark for me.
Before I get into how I did this time, and where I’m going, it’s important for me to do a look-back at the last 14 years of data I have and at the weight I’ve lost during my various previous attempts. This is sorted by date, and I’ve included each time where I succeeded in losing (almost) 5 lbs or more:
| Date Range | Weight Range | Number of Days | Min–Max Loss (lbs) | Rate (lbs/day) |
| 17-Jan-2005 – 20-Mar-2005 | 174.0 – 182.5 | 62 | 8.5 | 0.137 |
| 06-Jan-2006 – 10-Dec-2006 | 164.0 – 182.5 | 338 | 18.5 | 0.055 |
| 12-Nov-2007 – 11-Jun-2008 | 158.1 – 174.5 | 212 | 16.4 | 0.077 |
| 26-Apr-2010 – 24-Jul-2010 | 167.1 – 179.2 | 89 | 12.1 | 0.136 |
| 01-May-2011 – 19-Nov-2011 | 163.5 – 177.4 | 202 | 13.9 | 0.069 |
| 29-Apr-2013 – 09-Oct-2013 | 178.2 – 188.0 | 163 | 9.8 | 0.060 |
| 14-Apr-2014 – 19-Jul-2014 | 180.3 – 188.4 | 96 | 8.1 | 0.084 |
| various | ~±5 lbs | ~30 | ~5 lbs | slow |
| 11-Jun-2017 – 04-Aug-2017 | 202.8 – 207.7 | 54 | 4.9 | 0.091 |
| 30-Jun-2018 – 08-Oct-2018 | 210.7 – 219.1 | 100 | 8.4 | 0.084 |
| 21-Jan-2019 – 31-Mar-2019 | 206.5 – 220.3 | 69 | 13.8 | 0.200 |
From the above table, I’ve bold-italicized the last three columns of the last row because that was when I last re-got-serious on trying to lose weight before travel screwed it up (that’s my excuse, anyway). In a little over two months, I lost almost 14 lbs, losing an average of 0.200 lbs per day. The fastest time before that was (a) in 2010, when in just under 3 months I lost a little less, slightly more than 12 lbs, to average about 1 pound lost every 8 days; and (b) in 2005, my last semester of college, when I lost 8.5 lbs for an average rate of 0.137 lbs/day. Other than those three times, I have never lost more than 1 lb every 10 days on average, though I guess I got a bit close in 2017.
That fourth-from-last row is that, between mid-2014 and mid-2017, I had a couple attempts, but they never amounted to more than about 5 lbs, never lasted more than about a month, and so I didn’t want to go to the trouble of counting them here.
My slowest was when I was in my first and second years of grad school, in 2006, when I didn’t really know what I was doing. But, I did lose weight, and it’s the most I ever lost during a consecutive attempt (not giving up on tracking, continuing to focus on food and a bit on exercise).
And so, for me, that’s why Day 69 is a bit important, for it is a benchmark against what I was able to do last year. I suppose the next benchmark would be getting to –13.9 lbs, –16.4 lbs, and –18.5 lbs. I have only lost more than 10 lbs five times, and never more than 18.5 lbs, and never more than 13.9 lbs in the last 10 years.
So, drumroll, please … 🥁 … in the last 69 days the max–min was a 13.8 lb loss. Tying with last year.
That in mind, I actually reached that minimum of 213.2 lbs two weeks ago, on the day we left for Ohio, which was 56 days in. So, I actually lost 13.8 lbs in 56 days, for a loss of 0.246 lbs/day.
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