How much weight should you be aiming to lose?

It depends on your starting point and if you only want to get to a target weight, or be at a healthy weight and stay there!

Someone who has a lot of excess body fat will need to lose more than someone with less excess body fat.  Where you store the extra fat can also play a significant role in how much you need to lose as well.

For example, carrying too much fat around your waist means you’re more likely to get conditions like heart disease, some cancers and type 2 diabetes. The NHS recommends that you should try to lose weight if your waist is 102cm (40in) or more for men, and 88cm (34.5in) or more for women.

You should also ask yourself why you want to lose weight?

It could be for one or more reasons, but some of the most common ones are to look and feel better about yourself, be more attractive, have better health or for a significant event like a wedding or holiday.

It’s natural for anyone trying to lose weight to want to lose it quickly, especially with claims made by some ‘diets’ that you can lose up to 5 – 7 lbs in a week.  Yes, you could potentially lose this much weight, but most of it will come from water loss (not fat), which you’ll just put back on.

Evidence shows that losing weight gradually and steadily (around 1 to 2 pounds per week) will make you more successful at keeping the weight off, and that the majority of this will be fat loss. If you are overweight, a weight loss of 5 to 10 percent of your total body weight is also likely to produce health benefits.