Pounds Lost Per Dress Size

If you’ve watched advertisements on television you may be curious as to how many pounds need to be lost in order to drop a dress size. For some women, it seems to be 10 pounds, for others it could be as little as 5 pounds. Decreasing a dress size is different for everyone and how you lose the weight most effectively may differ as well.

In order to lose a pound, you must burn or cut out 3,500 calories. This can be done simply by eating 500 calories less per day and/or by incorporating exercise. Both cardio and strength training exercises are important to include in your workout routine. According to the American Heart Association, healthy adults ages 18 to 64 should get at least 2-1/2 hours of aerobic activity a week and two or more days per week of strength training. This will help you lose weight, reduce abdominal fat and preserve muscle during weight loss.

When trying to drop pounds it’s important not to lose too much weight to quickly. The accepted guideline for weight loss, according to the American Council on Exercise, is 1 to 2 pounds per week. Any more weight loss than that could be detrimental to your overall health.

While the decreasing number on the scale is a huge motivator, it’s not the only thing to get excited about when losing weight. Losing inches can mean more to your decreased dress size than actual pounds lost. Body fat percentage loss is not well studied and there are no official guidelines that have been published, according to the American Council on Exercise. However, experts agree that 1 percent fat loss per month is safe and achievable. When you lose fat and replace it with lean muscle, you are in fact losing inches. Since muscle weighs more than fat you might not see the number on the scale go down as much as you’d like, but you’ll definitely see your dress size drop. In order to build up your lean muscle mass and burn fat you must add resistance or weight training alongside cardiovascular exercise.

As you are dropping pounds you may start to wonder where the fat is actually going. According to MayoClinic.com, fat is basically stored energy. As your body uses up your fat stores for usable energy in complex metabolic processes, your fat cells shrink, thus you lose weight and inches. Metabolic activities such as eating less and exercising also encourages your body to heat up. This helps maintain body temperature and waste products. The waste products are then excreted through sweat or through your urine.