When somebody tells me they want to lose weight, one of the first things I want to know is how quickly they expect it to happen. We live in a world of six-week transformations, dramatic before-and-after photographs and diets promising enormous weight loss in a very short time, so losing half a kilo a week can sound rather boring. Half a kilo is roughly one pound. But over time, those small amounts really add up, and for many people a gradual approach is far more realistic than trying to completely transform their body in a few weeks.
If you lost around 0.5 kg a week, that’s approximately 2 kg a month. Over three months that’s around 6 kg, and over six months it could theoretically be around 12 kg. In old-fashioned measurements, 12 kg is about 26 pounds, or nearly two stone. Real weight loss won’t usually happen in a perfectly straight line like that, but it shows just how significant a relatively small weekly change can become.
This is something I really want people to understand because we’re so impatient with our bodies. Somebody changes the way they’re eating on Monday, gets on the scales on Friday and feels disappointed because they haven’t lost three pounds. But your body isn’t a machine where you put exactly the right foods in one end and get a predictable number out of the other. Weight fluctuates naturally. Water, salt, carbohydrate intake, digestion, hormones, exercise and even whether you’ve been to the toilet can affect what you see on the scales.
That’s why I don’t want somebody judging their progress by one morning’s number. I’m much more interested in the trend over several weeks. Is your weight gradually moving in the direction you want? Are your clothes becoming more comfortable? Is your waist measurement changing? Are you stronger? Are you fitter? Are you sleeping better? Do you have more energy? Are you developing habits you could actually imagine maintaining?
For many people, a gradual loss somewhere around 0.5 kg a week can be a sensible goal, although there isn’t one perfect rate for everybody. NHS guidance commonly talks about approximately 0.5–1 kg per week as a safe and sustainable rate for many adults trying to lose weight. Someone with a larger body may initially lose more quickly, while somebody who is already relatively close to the weight that’s healthy for them may lose much more slowly. Age, body size, activity, medications, health conditions and many other factors can influence the process.
There’s also something psychologically important about aiming for a manageable amount. If you decide you must lose a huge amount of weight very quickly, you generally need to make quite dramatic changes. Suddenly you’re banning bread, refusing dinner invitations, living on salads, exercising every day and feeling guilty because you ate a biscuit. You might be able to maintain that for two weeks. But what happens after that?
I’d much rather ask: What could you change that you could still be doing six months from now?
Perhaps you increase the protein in your meals so they’re more satisfying. Perhaps you add more vegetables and fibre. Perhaps you become more aware of portion sizes. Maybe alcohol is contributing more than you realised. Perhaps you’ve got into the habit of eating something sweet every evening even when you’re not hungry. Maybe you need to start preparing lunch rather than grabbing whatever is available. Or perhaps food isn’t actually the main problem and you need to move more.
This is where exercise becomes really important to me, although I don’t like thinking about exercise simply as a way of “burning off” food. I want somebody who’s losing weight to be building a stronger body at the same time. Strength training becomes particularly important as we get older because when we lose body weight, we don’t want that loss to come unnecessarily from muscle. Adequate protein, resistance training and sensible weight loss can help us preserve more lean tissue while reducing body fat.
Then add cardiovascular exercise and ordinary daily movement. Walk. Cycle. Swim. Dance. Take the stairs. Go to the gym. Do whatever you’re actually going to continue doing. You don’t have to destroy yourself with exercise because you ate lunch. That’s not the relationship with fitness I’m interested in creating.
There’s another reason I like slower weight loss: it gives your mind time to catch up with your body. If you’ve been overeating when you’re stressed for twenty years, losing weight doesn’t automatically remove that pattern. You need time to notice what triggers you, practise a different response and learn what genuine hunger and satisfaction feel like. You may need to learn how to go to a restaurant without thinking you’ve ruined your diet, how to enjoy Christmas without abandoning everything until January, and how to have a difficult day without automatically reaching for food.
That’s real weight-loss work.
I also think it’s important to understand that half a kilo won’t necessarily disappear every week. You might lose 0.7 kg one week, nothing the next, 0.2 kg the week after and then suddenly see another drop. This is particularly why daily weighing can become frustrating for some people. If you enjoy data and can look at it objectively, weighing regularly and looking at an average or trend can be useful. If the number completely determines your mood for the day, I’d rather use other measures as well.
And sometimes the scales don’t tell the most interesting story. Imagine a woman who starts strength training. Her weight isn’t changing as quickly as she expected, but her waist is smaller, her clothes fit differently, she can squat and lift more, she’s walking further without getting breathless and she suddenly notices muscles appearing in her arms. Is that failure because the scales haven’t moved quickly enough? Of course not.
We also need to move away from the idea that if weight loss slows down, somebody has somehow become lazy. As body weight changes, energy requirements can change too, and our bodies and behaviours adapt. Weight loss is rarely a perfectly straight mathematical journey. That’s why a plan sometimes needs adjusting as you go along.
And this is where I think patience becomes almost a fitness skill in itself.
Imagine that instead of saying, “I need to lose two stone as quickly as possible,” you said:
“For the next six months I’m going to learn how to look after my body.”
I’m going to eat nourishing food most of the time. I’m going to understand portions. I’m going to eat enough protein and fibre. I’m going to look after my gut. I’m going to drink less alcohol if that’s getting in my way. I’m going to strength train. I’m going to walk. I’m going to sleep. I’m going to learn what happens when I’m stressed. I’m going to stop giving up because I had one difficult weekend.
Now we’re not just chasing weight loss.
We’re building a completely different way of living.
And if you’re losing around half a kilo — roughly one pound — a week, don’t dismiss it because somebody on social media says they lost five pounds in seven days. Some of that rapid early change may simply be water, particularly when somebody drastically changes their carbohydrate or food intake.
Your slower progress may actually be teaching you something much more valuable: how to live at your new weight when you get there.
Because losing weight is only half of the challenge.
The really interesting question is:
Can you live in a way that allows you to keep it off without spending the rest of your life feeling as though you’re on a diet?
That’s the plan I’m interested in.
Not the fastest plan.
Not the most dramatic plan.
The one you can actually live with.
Half a kilo at a time. One week at a time. Building a stronger, healthier body as you go.
Selena
Personal Trainer, Yoga Teacher & Wellbeing Coach
In Flow Wellbeing Studio, Cheltenham
