How to Figure Percentages of Weight Loss

It's hard to stay motivated when losing weight, but tracking your progress helps.

Losing weight is hard. It is even harder to keep yourself motivated during your weight loss journey. However, documenting your weight loss progress will help you see how far you have come. Figuring out the percentage of body weight you have lost is a great motivational tool.

Things You'll Need

• Starting weight
• Current weight
• Weight loss percentage change formula

Instructions

1. Find your starting weight. In order to find out how much your weight has changed, you will need to know where you started.

2. Find your current weight. You will need to know your current weight in order to calculate the percentage of body weight lost.

3. Calculate the percentage lost. Use the following formula:

   (starting weight-current weight)/starting weight x 100. The result is the percentage of body weight lost.

   For example, if your starting weight was 200 lbs. and your current weight was 150 lbs. the equation would look like this:

   (200-150)/200 x 100 = 25

   Meaning, you lost 25 percent of your total body weight.

Tips & Warnings

• If you prefer to use a calculator instead of the formula, there are many user-friendly ones available online.

References

• Econport: Calculating Percent Change