Choosing a percentage of body weight to lose can help some people who need to lose weight stay motivated. Losing only ten percent of body weight can bring significant health benefits. It can lower blood pressure as well as cholesterol, both of which raise a person's risk for coronary heart disease. Losing weight also enhances the body's ability to utilize insulin, which can help prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, according to Weight Watchers. Trimming that ten percent of body weight will make a person more motivated to continue his weight loss journey, give him more energy and give him a good, realistic sense of what it will take to shed additional pounds.
Step 1
Weigh yourself. You will need this baseline number to keep track of the percentage of weight you have lost. Record this number in a weight loss journal on another easily accessible place so that you can refer to it.
Step 2
Weigh yourself again when you are ready to find out the percentage of weight you have lost. Take this number and subtract it from your original recorded weight. For example, if you were 150 pounds and lost five pounds, you would subtract the weight of 145 pounds to get five pounds lost.
Step 3
Take the amount of weight lost and divide that number by your original weight. In our example, that's five pounds divided by 150, which gives a result of 0.0333. Multiply the answer by 100 to get your percentage. This means 0.033 translates to a weight loss of 3.3 percent of your total body weight.
Step 4
Use the original weight and the current weight each time you utilize the formula. For example, if you lose an additional five pounds to reach 140 pounds, your calculation would look like this: 150 minus 140 equals 10. Ten divided by 150 equals 0.066. That multiplied by 100 equals 6.6 percent of body weight.
Step 5
Utilize an online weight loss calculator or an electronic handheld calorie counter that has a weight loss calculating feature if you do not want to do your own math. Online tools are often found on dieting websites or may be standalone sites (see Resources).
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