Trying to lose weight? Do you feel like trying something extreme to make it happen fast? You are not alone.
I often hear clients wishing to lose 10 lbs per month or more. That is around 2.5 lbs per week.
This pace generally does not last more than 1-3 months because you have to take pretty extreme measures to lose weight this quickly. As we talked about previously, positive behaviours practiced consistently over a long period of time, will always be more impactful than big, sweeping changes that don’t last.
When we lose weight rapidly, we have a pretty high chance of regaining the lost weight.
Gaining and losing weight like this is referred to as “weight cycling”. This will actually harm our metabolism and make it harder to manage weight long term.
On the other hand, the slower you lose weight, the longer it tends to stay off.
I suggest targeting 0.5-1 lbs per week for weight loss, whether through lifestyle/behaviour change, anti-obesity medication, bariatric surgery, or any combination of these. It may not sound sexy, but that translates to a 26-52 lbs weight loss in one year!
With consistency, we can finally shift our mindset from losing weight to keeping it off.