HOw long does it take?
 

I am slightly overweight. How long will it take me to lose one pound of body fat?

To lose one pound of fat, you have to burn 3500 calories. If you cut 500 calories a day from your diet, you will lose one pound each week.

Not as long as it will take to build one pound of muscle.

Water weight usually goes pretty quickly, but after that it just depends on the person and their cut. Most people generally recommend a slower cut to maintain more muscle.

Without personal particulars and history, no one can accurately answer this question.

It simply depends on the individual and circumstances.

Here is an example:

Lets say person A has a couple of pounds to lose, but is very lean , with low body fat (say 10% bf). Person A is a male, and has dieted with extremely low carbohydrates (under 50 grams), high protein and fat, and calorie restriction of -1000 from maintenance for a long length of time. Glucose storage is depleted. Lets say the length of period is about 4 weeks without a re-feed diet session. This person is average healthy. There are certainly many different approaches one can take here, but it is most likely given the same dietary trend, that the (numeric deficit values versus the calorie value per one pound of fat loss) is NOT what the person is going to see in real life--due to metabolic adaptions and hormonal changes--over the short term in comparison to what this person may have experienced in the past. It will more than likely come slower as compared to his past history.

Just an example.