A computer implemented method, computer usable program code, and a system for parallelizing a loop. A parameter that will be used to limit parallelization of the loop is identified to limit parallelization of the loop. The parameter specifies a minimum number of loop iterations that a thread should execute. The parameter can be adjusted based on a parallel performance factor. A parallel performance factor is a factor that influences the performance of parallel code. A number of threads from a plurality of threads is selected for processing iterations of the loop based on the parameter. The number of threads is selected prior to execution of the first iteration of the loop.