In case you haven’t been paying attention, the smart wearables business is only getting bigger. More and more companies are coming out with new smart bands and watches designed to assist with fitness tracking and health monitoring, with a slew of new products having been unveiled at CES 2016 this week.
These wearables can help you track workouts and many health parameters, but they won’t tell you how many pounds you should lose each week to keep it off.
Some people exercise and diet with the sole purpose of losing a lot of weight over a short period of time, following precise instructions from certain guides. But such an approach isn’t that healthy, Business Insider explains. At the same time, losing weight too slowly might be discouraging, so the news site talked to a professor of exercise and science about the healthy way to lose weight.
University of Texas professor Philip Stanforth, who’s also the executive director of the Fitness Institute of Texas, said that most people should not lose more than one to three pounds each week.
“During the losing phase, you need a calorie deficit,” Stanforth said. “At the maximum you want a 1,000 calorie-per-day deficit, meaning you burn 1,000 calories more than you take in each day. That typically means you’re losing a few pounds a week. And that tends to be a lot more sustainable than losing a whole bunch at once.”
That would mean you’d have to burn 7,000 more calories than you take in each week (at the maximum) to lose up to three pounds. Stanforth’s advice is in accordance with guidelines from the Mayo Clinic and the British National Health Service, which suggests losing up to two pounds per week.
Other clinical studies have shown that losing weight at a slow initial rate can be beneficial for a person looking to lose weight, as it can help ensure further weight loss over time at a constant pace and reduce the risk of gaining it back.
However, other research suggests there’s little difference between slow or rapid weight loss. A 2014 study showed that regardless of your weight loss approach (12-week vs. 36-week program), people might still put weight back on at the same rate. A 2010 study showed that subjects who lost weight fast also lost more weight overall and for longer periods of time than those who lost it slowly.
Of course, losing weight is only part of the story. Keeping it off is the real challenge. And that’s where advanced wearable devices, other accessories and smart apps will help, as you’ll need to balance calorie intake and consumption once you reach your desired weight.
