Last night I spent about an hour speaking with a delightful lady who was struggling with the speed of her inch loss.  Her big issue was that on a Very Low Calorie Diet she had lost an unbelievable 8lbs in her first week and had lost nearly 2 stones in the first month.  With golower she had only lost 2lbs in the first 5 days.  If nothing else changed she would be expected to lose about 12lbs in the first month and if she continued at that rate it would mean she would get to her goal by the end of August as opposed to the end of July.

Losing weight fast is important but what expectations should we realistically have?  The government suggests half a stone per month and we would expect double this. The lady in question had lost nearly a two stone in a month on a very low calorie diet and therefore could not imagine anything less.

Naturally I asked why she needed to diet again if the Very Low Calorie Diet had been so good and of course the standard response came…I gained it back afterwards because I couldn’t manage the transmission back to food. 

So what we all want is fast weight loss which lasts!  The question is how fast should fast be and at what point do we gain speed at the expense of sustainability.  To spend a month longer getting to your goal but then knowing that it will last is perhaps a fair bargain.