Many people have unrealistic expectations of what will happen when they start on a diet. Most will want to lose weight, and want to lose weight quickly – but how quickly is the question. It is often said that if you lose weight too quickly, you put it back on (and more besides) just as quickly.

This is normally put down to one of two things – your body image and being unable to change habits instantly. Both relate to the way of life you are used to – if you are used to your body being large, your brain is used to your body being large, and by losing size quickly your brain is unable to keep up. Therefore, your brain still instructs you to eat as if you were large enough to need extra food. In the same way, if your habits of eating have lead you to being larger than you should be, drastically changing those habits will confuse your mind and body, and may result in you reverting to the habits you had hoped to change.

So with that in mind, if you want to lose weight in a month there are two things to consider – exactly what you mean by weight loss, and what relevance the month has.

If you are going purely on the scales, it should not be a great problem for anyone who is overweight to drop a pound or two within 30 days – and success, you’ve lost weight in a month. Whether it’s muscles mass, fat loss, or shaving your eyebrows that caused it is irrelevant – you lost weight in a month.

Common medical advice says that it is unhealthy to lose a large amount of weight in a hurry, with 2lbs per week being the absolute maximum – so the most you would want to lose in a month would be around 8lbs. With certain dietary changes more is safely achievable, but not everyone is a superhero!

Low carb diets can often cause this amount of weight loss, whereas calorific control is less likely to hit the mark – however, everyone’s body responds differently, and whatever you choose to do can help you to move in the right direction.

But what happens after a month? You might lose those 8lbs, but if you revert back to what you were doing before you started your 30 day challenge, the chances are very high that you will put the weight back on. So why not make it a month by month challenge? Lose a few pounds every month, and modify your diet as you go along. You’ll find that you do better some months than others – and not just in the weight department. Some months you will religiously eat exactly what you planned, other months you won’t. Some months you’ll drop 10lb, some months you’ll drop 3lbs. The key is to make a lifestyle change that matters – consciously heading towards a goal, making the changes, making a difference, taking control of your life.

Anyone can eat chocolate and pizza every night. Only you can make the decision to do better than that.