Is it better for a teen to lose one or two pounds a week?

I have found that for me, the less I lose per week, the easier it has been to keep it off. The crash diets where I lost a bunch of weight just came back with about 10 extra pounds to boot. My chiropractor says losing slow & steady is the healthiest way to go. Two pounds a week isn’t a lot to lose but I think you might find it difficult to maintain 2 pounds every week since you don’t have a lot of excess weight to shed. Since you’re at a healthy weight now why not work at maintaining your current weight so you don’t start gaining??? Developing good eating habits at your age will probably do more for controlling your weight than constantly dieting!!!

At your age, you should not be dieting at all. Please read through this article.

Notable excerpt: “Eliminating entire food groups or taking in too few calories when you are still developing can have serious negative effects on your health.”

Even if you were an adult, and a doctor had advised you to change your eating pattern, the common idea of “going on a diet” does not work. The feeling of hunger causes bodies to “cling” to calories and increase cravings. Those are very old survival methods we can’t win against. There’s an interesting video about it here.

PS: Welcome to Fluther! :]

I have found slow and steady to be the best way to keep off the weight I don’t want (that and get away from that damned computer and phone every once in a while and actually move.
That being said, I have on occasion had to lose several pounds quickly and done so but when I do I do not count on it staying off very long.

One or two a week is fine; it’s when you try to lose more than that that it becomes a problem and hard to keep off.

Either one. You’ll hit your target rate either way. I agree with slow and steady, though.