When setting out to lose weight, many people set the wrong kind of goals for themselves. All too often, you’d get someone wanting to achieve their dream figure before the end of the month. There’s usually some subtle reason behind all of it, too – many realize they need to lose weight only when a specific situation arises – for example, an upcoming class reunion or some other major social event.

Sadly, if you’re looking to turn from fat to slim in the blink of an eye, you’re out of luck – more badly than you’re probably imagining. If you want to be realistic about your weight loss, set a goal of about two pounds a week at most – and that’s if you’re persistent and you follow your routines strictly! Otherwise, you’ll make even less progress and that’s completely expected.

To find out how well you’re doing in reality, make a progress chart and update it regularly – keep a track of everything you achieve in your weight loss, note how many pounds you’ve lost every week – some even go as far as to make a daily chart, but in most cases there’s no need for such extreme measures.

A progress chart serves another important role – it helps you shape your goals for weight loss much more realistically. In other words, if you know what you’re capable of, roughly, it’s much easier for you to make a plan with some numbers that are close to reality. Remember, the goals you set don’t have to be followed strictly – if you fail to deliver a pound or two for the month, don’t worry – just make sure you re-arrange your schedule accordingly.

Talk to your friends as well – get them to share their experiences on weight loss. Ask how much they’ve managed to lose over time, and what goals they used for themselves. Often, your friends will “open your eyes” much better than you yourself can, as they can always give you the opinion of someone looking at you from the outside. This is important, as we tend to ignore our own mistakes and downfalls subconsciously, so having someone else to observe and judge us is usually much better.

To keep things realistic though, up the ante every once in a while – if you see you’re having less and less problem keeping to your schedule, increase its difficulty, make it more prolonged or throw in some more complex exercises. You may want to experiment with your diet as well, though don’t go too hard on yourself there as this can lead to some bad results, much more easily than it can help.

As time goes by, the data you collect from your progress charts will become much more valuable – as it becomes more accurate, it will better reflect your abilities to lose weight, and will better help you shape your future plans. It’s a cycle of benefits that just needs to get started once!