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Four Healthy Tips For Sustainable Weight Loss
Four Healthy Tips For Sustainable Weight Loss
Dr. Zoë Lees (PhD)
Dr. Sophie Dix (BSc, PhD)
30 August 2019 | Updated: 25 July 2026
25 July 2026
Are you looking to lose weight? Let’s look at how to set a realistic goal over the next month, and explore some strategies that can help.
How much weight can I lose in a month?
Before we share our advice, it’s important to know that although it’s possible to lose up to 10kg (about 1.5 stone) in a month, it’s not always the best approach. That’s because there’s a high chance you’ll put the weight back on quickly, rapid weight loss is not sustainable or healthy, and it’s likely you’ll return to your normal diet and lifestyle afterwards. If you want to make a long-term change, it’s usually better to set a lower but more achievable target each month.
Here’s our expert guide on how to lose weight sustainably
1. Stay in a calorie deficit
If you consume fewer calories than you burn each day, you will naturally start to lose weight. To maintain your usual weight, most people need to eat around 2000 calories per day, but this can vary from person to person. For this reason, it can be useful to download an app to calculate your personal plan.
Calorie counting apps can help you track your intake and work out how much you’ve burned throughout the day. Although there will be some variation between what you eat and the numbers recorded, it’s an easy way to record your daily activity and stick to your target.
2. Follow a manageable exercise routine
We all know that exercise is essential for losing weight, but it can be hard to find the time to keep active. Here are some ways to fit more exercise into your routine.
- If you can, aim to walk instead of using a car or public transport. Using a step counter on a phone, watch or fitness tracker can also help motivate you to move more.
- Following free online exercise videos. There are countless free workout videos online which you can follow at home, they’re often as short as 5 to 10 minutes.
- Socialise while you exercise. Plenty of fitness activities can be done with friends, so you don’t have to miss out on social time during your weight loss journey. Team sports, group classes and dancing are all great options.
3. Following a healthy diet
By cutting out food that is high in fat, sugar and salt, you may quickly notice a significant difference. A healthy, balanced diet involves a mix of all of the main food groups. The NHS recommends a diet that includes:
- Five varied portions of fruit and vegetables every day
- Meals based on higher fibre starchy foods like potatoes, bread, rice or pasta
- Some dairy or dairy alternatives
- Protein such as beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat
- Small amounts of unsaturated oils and spreads
- 6-8 glasses of water per day
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Authors
Written by: Dr. Zoë Lees (PhD)
Dr. Zoë Lees is a medical writer at MedExpress specialising in obesity and health communication. She completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow, where she investigated adipose tissue (fat tissue) function in pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes. Her work focuses on translating complex clinical evidence into clear, engaging and evidence-based health information for patients and the public. At MedExpress, Zoë contributes to clinical content, educational resources and media communications across areas including weight management, GLP-1 therapies and metabolic disease. Zoë is particularly interested in improving public understanding of obesity as a chronic condition and ensuring patients have access to accurate, accessible health information grounded in current scientific evidence.
Medically reviewed by: Dr. Sophie Dix (BSc, PhD)
Dr. Sophie Dix is Head of Medical Affairs at MedExpress. A behavioural neuroscientist by training, Sophie has spent 30 years working at the intersection of medical research, pharmacology, technology and patient communication across the pharmaceutical industry, health technology and charity sectors. At MedExpress, Sophie's role is to ensure that everything the organisation does is grounded in the most current science. That means translating complex clinical evidence into accessible health information across the website, clinical pathways and media communications. It also means working with external press and broadcast media as a named expert commentator, making the science behind weight management and GLP-1 treatments understandable to a general audience. A core part of Sophie's work is building MedExpress's Real-World Evidence (RWE) programme: learning systematically from patient outcomes to understand what works in practice, not just in clinical trials. This patient-level insight feeds directly into improving patient experience and health outcomes. Sophie believes that patients make better decisions when they have access to accurate, evidence-based information. As an advocate for meaningful change in how obesity is understood, Sophie works to reduce stigma and raise awareness of the condition as an illness. This includes reframing the conversation around GLP-1s from aesthetics to public health, while highlighting the health benefits of weight loss and weight management.
Note from the experts
Remember: This blog shouldn’t be regarded as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We make sure everything we publish is fact checked by clinical experts and regularly reviewed, but it may not always reflect the most recent health guidelines. Always speak to your doctor about any health concerns you have.