You have to lose weight every single week—and many pounds each time—to be successful. In the real world, healthy weight loss is more modest and much slower. Losing one to two pounds a week is actually a phenomenal result, even though that kind of weight loss might get you booted off TV. In real life, there are some weeks in which you may not lose weight at all, either because you plateau (you stick with your program but the scale does not budge) or you mess up (you go off your program). Either way, stick with it. If you plateau, the weight will eventually start to come off. And if you mess up, just get right back with the program. You do not have to lose big week over week to succeed.