Changing habits requires repeating the new behaviors over the long term. This includes setting realistic expectations.

A safe, sustainable amount of weight to lose is about 1/2 pound to 2 pounds per week. In reality, however, that might look more like 2 to 3 pounds per week in the beginning, then perhaps 1/2 pound down the next week, then up a pound the next week, then maintaining for a week or two before dropping a pound again.

Your weight-loss graph will look more like a staircase or a squiggly line than a perfectly straight line. If it's jumping all over the place, but trending down overall, you're doing alright.

Weight should not be the only metric you track. And, you need to understand what the scale actually measures.

The scale does not measure fat—and you do not lose or gain fat overnight.

The number on the scale is a measurement of everything in your body, mostly fluid, but also bones, organs, fat and muscle. The scale will show your weight within about a 3- to 4-pound range, and goes up and down for various reasons. If you poop, it goes down. If you eat salty takeout food, it goes up (because salt encourages water retention). A strength-training workout can bump it up, due to a temporary increase in inflammation.

Several of our clients might not see the scale move in a couple weeks sometimes, but they lose inches and feel amazing. They start to realize that the scale shouldn't tell them how to feel. In addition to weekly weigh-ins, consider taking waist circumference measurements and progress photos as well.

Five pounds of fat and five pounds of muscle weigh the same, but muscle takes up less space (and it means you're getting stronger). These metrics help you see body composition changes and will motivate you to keep going. Most people quit when they don't see the scale going down as quickly as they “think it should”. 

In addition to how you look, take note of how you feel. Can you walk further, run faster or do a pushup? If you know what they were when you started, have your cholesterol levels or blood sugar numbers improved? Include some goals around what your body can DO.