Hi. I really need to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks before my college starts, can you please help me? I don’t smoke, I don’t drink alcohol, I really could do with the help of an expert, I tried everything but nothing works, what should I do?  Please help me lose this weight.  Thank You. Sarah. [via Ask Questions]

First, let’s do a little conversion so that our American readers understand what we are talking about here. You need to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks. 1 stone = 6.3 kilograms, which equals 13.8 pounds. In other words, to lose 1 stone, you need to lose 14 pounds.

Okay, with the conversion out of the way, let’s see if your weight-loss goal is realistic. Is it possible to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks? To lose 1 stone in 2 weeks, you need to lose weight at the rate of 1 pound (0.45 kilograms) a day for 14 consecutive days.

To put things into perspective, the recommended – and accepted as realistic, healthy, and sustainable – weight-loss rate is 2 pounds (0.9 kilograms) a week. So as you can see, I am afraid it is not possible to lose 1 stone in 2 weeks.

Of course, just because you cannot lose weight as fast as you want to, does not mean that you should not even try to lose weight at all. Since I do not know why you could not lose weight, I cannot really give you any specifics, but you will find the following very informative: Safe and Healthy Weight Loss and How to Eat to Lose Weight.