In general, you should expect to drop about 0.5 to 2 pounds per week, according to Blair Persyn, MS, RDN, LDN, CNSC, registered dietitian and owner of Bites with Blair. At that rate, it would take about 5 to 20 weeks to lose 10 pounds. “Keep in mind that it’s normal to have plateaus and weight loss is not linear. If weight loss happens too quickly, you run the risk of losing lean muscle mass, which will make your metabolism slower and future weight loss harder. On top of that, there is a lot of evidence to show that restrictive diets can lead to binging, making people gain even more weight than when they started,” Blair says. You can also measure progress in other ways, like how your clothes fit and how you feel mentally, so don’t get too caught up on the scale.