Losing weight is rarely a straightforward process, with different methods taking different levels of time. Many who embark on a weight loss journey see losing a stone as the goal or a big milestone, but how long is it supposed to take and what means will improve overall health?
Here, accredited health and wellness consultant Christian Thomson shares his advice:
“It’s important to differentiate between fat loss and weight loss. Healthy fat loss will occur at a rate of 2-3 pounds per week, so realistically 7 weeks to lose 1 stone of fat.
“Weight changes, however, have many more variables at play such as water retention, muscle mass, as well as other soft tissues such as organs, bone and connective tissue.”
Christian adds that it’s not all about how heavy we might be: “Weight will fluctuate over the period of loss, so it’s important to look at more metrics than just weight. The bare minimum should be weight and circumference, measured horizontally at the belly button so as to ensure the same measurement point each time with the least chance of variability.
“I would also look at fasting glucose to make sure that you are at least maintaining, if not seeing a downward trend – weight loss will often be accompanied by downward trends in fasting glucose, resting heart rate or blood pressure.”
The health expert also says that “Having at least 3 metrics to look at helps visualise the success of your efforts in a more realistic manner as it will not be on the scales every week. Understanding if you have truly plateaued, or if it is just a bad day to measure, can be the difference in a person’s mental health and ability to stay on point.”