To think aiming to lose three stone by the end of June is unhealthy

[Takemebackto]

My friend has just told me her goal for over the next few months will be to lose three stone. She’s three stone overweight currently. Aibu to think trying to do this could damage her health and be basically impossible.

I'm not sure that's achievable unless you do some crazy celeb for a movie role style diet like only eating cabbage and lemons or something.

It seems highly unlikely

So a stone every 4 weeks. That will be very difficult.
Maybe a stone in the first 4 weeks but to repeat that again twice. Hmm.

It's ambitious but it depends how she plans to do it and maintain it. The initial part of the Fast 800 diet can be done relatively safely for 12 weeks.

If she's only 3 stones overweight then that sounds a silly rate to lose it at. If she does it then it will be mostly muscle and water, and when she puts it back on it will have come off the places she doesn't want to lose it from and go on the places she doesn't want it to.

I don't know about damaging to her health, but it will be virtually impossible.

2 is achievable.

Unless she's making a permanent lifestyle change, I'd be trying to talk her out of it. It will go back on otherwise

24lbs by the end of June wouldn't be unreasonable, that's two stone... 2lbs a week.
However, if one is hefty then the loss can be bigger.

How big is she? My friend was 30 stone and lost 6 stone in the first 4 months.

3.5 pounds a week - hard work but doable!

Nothing wrong with having ambitious goals. It’s probably unrealistic.
How is she planning to do this? That would be the deciding factor of how unhealthy it is.

I think that's only achievable if someone has a huge amount of weight to lose as the rate is faster in that case

As pp's have said it's hard but possible.

It’s doable, and certainly doesn’t have to be unhealthy.

Losing weight isn’t actually difficult in itself, it’s just that it takes a lot of discipline and isn’t all that fun (depending on how one defines fun). I could lose 3 stone in 3 months if I needed to (and did, some years ago, and kept it off).

If she’s very overweight it will be easier in that weight tends to drop off you, if she’s not actually very overweight then it might not happen so easily. But it is an achievable goal.

I did it

Quite achievable

3.5lb per week then. Depending on how she does it, and bearing in mind she will probably have bigger losses in the first few weeks before it stabilises at a more moderate rate, it's not impossible by any means. That said, for most people it's just not a good idea to lose weight via drastic measures because it means you don't develop better permanent eating and exercise habits and you risk putting it all back on. If she's one of the very few who can lose weight fast on a crash diet and then immediately switch to a sustainable healthy lifestyle to maintain the loss then good for her. More likely she will pile it back on (and then some) before Christmas.

I've lost 2.5 since mid January, so I wouldn't say impossible or dangerous.

I lost 2.5 stone post pregnancy once, took from mid Jan to end of March. Did Weight Watchers - was hard, especially at the beginning. So doable, with willpower.

That's a touch on the quick side tbh. Works out at 3.5 lbs per week,which is probably sustainable for the first 4 weeks. After that,it would be difficult without drastically cutting your daily calories. I know,I've been there! Just under 2 years ago,I lost a stone in the first 3 weeks,then the next stone took 7 weeks,and the next one another 7 weeks. So overall,it took me 17 weeks,or about 4 months.

I’ve gone the opposite way - I’ve decided to set myself a goal to gain 3 stone over the next 3 months. So far it’s looking quite likely that I’ll achieve it!

Hmm. She'd have to burn 1750 calories more than she eats to lose that fast. It doesn't sound realistic to me if she's only 3 stone overweight.

Possible and not unhealthy if she’s quite overweight and doing something like the Blood Sugar Diet

It is possible and I did do it, several years ago. I would warn that rapid weight loss and can open you up to other medical problems. For me it was gallstones, apparently sudden weight loss can contribute to them emerging-my god it was the single most painful experience of my life.
So I would maybe tell your friend to do some research of how to do it, safely.

A calorie deficit of 12250 per week is that correct?