Why Losing 10 Pounds in a Month Isn’t the Right Goal

Wanting to lose 10 pounds is a common goal for a lot of people. And a commendable one for anyone carrying some extra weight.

Searching for ways to lose 10 pounds in a month? Also common. But healthy? Probably not.

“It’s unsafe and usually not effective to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time,” says registered dietitian Beth Czerwony, RD, LD. “Can it be done? Sure. Do I recommend it? Absolutely not.”

Instead of considering how to lose 10 pounds in a month, let’s talk about why you’re better off reassessing that goal.

Czerwony discusses the pitfalls of rapid weight loss and how to instead focus on long-term solutions.

Realistic weight loss

For most people, healthy weight loss is in the neighborhood of 1 to 2 pounds per week. That’s 4 to 8 pounds per month.

Weight loss above that rate is possible. But it’s far from recommended.

“When people say they want to lose a lot of weight fast, my first question is always, Why?” Czerwony says. “Why is quick weight loss the goal, rather than making your goal to lose weight and keep it off? Because that’s a healthy and sustainable route.”

When you try to lose 10 pounds in a month, there are two most likely outcomes:

1. It doesn’t work.
2. It works for that month. But you quickly gain it back (and then some).

Czerwony explains why and what happens when you lose weight too quickly.

You lose muscle

When you aim to lose weight, what you really want to lose is fat. And the difference is more than a matter of semantics. Weight from fat is expendable. Muscle weight should be preserved.

Muscle is more precious because muscle keeps your body strong. And muscle is metabolically active. That means that even when you’re sitting at your desk or driving in your car, your muscles are burning calories.

Excess weight from fat, on the other hand, isn’t doing your body any favors.

The problem? Muscle weight tends to shed more readily than weight from fat.

“The body prefers to use our muscle stores for energy before it uses our fat stores. So, when you lose weight quickly, it tends to come from muscle, rather than fat,” Czerwony explains.

So, even if you do manage to lose 10 pounds in a month, your body composition can suffer from it because you’re much more likely to have dropped that weight from muscle instead of fat.

What to do instead: Target fat loss instead of muscle loss with slow and steady weight loss (remember, 1 to 2 pounds a week). Maintain and grow your muscle mass by eating plenty of lean protein and engaging in both cardio and strength-training exercises.

You lose water

In addition to losing muscle, you can lose a lot of water weight when you drop pounds fast.

“Especially if you’re following a diet that encourages you to cut carbs, you can lose a lot of water quickly,” Czerwony warns. “That can dehydrate you, which then ends up overtaxing your kidneys.”

What to do instead: Be sure to drink plenty of water. And rather than cutting out all carbs, choose nutritious, complex carbs over less-than-ideal simple carbs.

You hit a plateau

Anyone who’s tried to lose a substantial amount of weight will tell you that it’s typically not a linear experience. The weight you lose can ebb and flow with time.

Consider this all-too-common scenario: You clean up your diet and cut out the heavy hitters, like fast food, fried food, sugary drinks and such. And you drop some pounds relatively easily. You’re feeling great about your success.

Then, it seemingly stops. The scale refuses to budge. You blame the diet. You blame yourself.

But in truth, there is no blame here.

Weight-loss plateaus are your body’s natural reaction to losing weight.

“Often people expect that they’re going to keep losing weight at that same rate that they experienced early on. But you can’t sustain a quick pace of weight loss,” Czerwony says.

Here’s why.

Your body doesn’t necessarily want you to lose weight. It thinks that weight loss is a sign that you’re starving. So, it tries to protect you by holding your weight steady.

“Your body is essentially going to try to sabotage weight loss,” Czerwony continues. “The part of your brain that’s responsible for survival gets nervous and says, We’ve got to stop. I need to save my stores. You can exercise, eat well and not lose a pound. Because your body is pulling out to all the stops and trying to hold on to that weight.”

What to do instead: Expect that you’ll lose some weight early but that the pace will eventually slow or even stop. Don’t let that stop you from continuing to make healthy choices, like eating well, exercising and getting enough sleep. Stay away from hyper-restrictive diets that encourage you to cut calories to the extreme or to omit certain food groups from your diet. Restrictive diets can further convince your body and brain that you’re at risk for starvation.

You can’t keep it up

When the number on the scale stops moving at the pace you want it to, what do you do? You get discouraged. And understandably so. After all, change is hard. And when you’re not seeing results, it’s easy to assume it’s not worth the effort.

So, you give up. You lose momentum and slide back into old habits.

“Most of the time, when you lose weight very quickly, it’s because you’ve made big changes in your lifestyle, but you can’t always sustain them,” Czerwony acknowledges. “Eventually, you pick up old habits and you regain the weight you lost.”

What’s more, you’re likely to gain more. Remember that when you lose weight fast, you often lose it from muscle mass. Less muscle means a slower metabolism. So, when you go back to your normal eating and exercise routine, you’re starting from a worse place, metabolically speaking.

What to do instead: Create a healthy diet and exercise routine that fits into your life — a lifestyle you can actually manage day to day, month to month and year to year. As Czerwony advises, “Look for long-term solutions over short-term extremes.”

You get stuck in a diet cycle

Sure, your goal right now is to lose 10 pounds in a month. But what about your goal to lose 10 last year? And the year before that?

We live in a diet culture, where trying fad diets and “quick-and-easy” diet advice are the norm.

The trouble is that being in a perpetual state of dieting, or hopping on and off the diet bandwagon, can take a toll on you. Mentally and physically.

“The body has a memory of previous diet attempts. So, you might try a diet in the beginning and do really well with it because it’s new and it’s different,” Czerwony acknowledges. “A couple years later, you go back and do the same thing, and you just don’t respond as well. That’s because the body says, I remember this. How dare you insult me and try to trick me again? And your body goes into self-preservation mode and won’t lose the weight.”

And rather than blame biology or a social media influencer who tempted you to try a doomed diet in the first place, you get down on yourself. You hang your head and wallow in the misery of yet another failed attempt. You blame yourself for being weak. For being ineffective. For not following through.

And the cycle starts all over again.

“It’s not you, it’s the approach,” Czerwony reassures. “Anything extreme is just not a healthy option.”

What to do instead: Czerwony advises to think of “diet” as a noun (a thing) instead of a verb (an action). The difference? “A healthy diet” is a way of life. “Dieting” is an attempt at a short-term fix.

Bottom line

There is no one right way to lose weight. There is no one miracle diet and exercise plan that will work for everyone. And there’s certainly not much of a chance that you can lose 10 pounds in a month in a healthy, sustainable way.

Disappointing? Sure.

But the good news is this: You have the power to treat your body well. To make changes that will serve you for the long term. Not for a month. Not for bikini season. But for a lifetime of good health and well-being.

Rather than seeking out cookie-cutter advice, Czerwony suggests talking with a registered dietitian to help you create a lifestyle that will help you lose weight, feel your best and, perhaps most importantly, keep you healthy and happy.