Yes, most everybody does, but, I often see people get a little too ambitious with short term goals, especially when first starting out. What often happens is that it's either not possible to attain those short term goals, so they get depressed and give up, or it is in fact possible, but it's so uncomfortable that they mentally can't go through with it very long, or in other words, "burnout". Short term goals are fine, just don't get overly ambitious. Long term goals of losing 1-2 pounds per week is much more important, but if it takes "baby steps" to keep you on track, then that's fine. With that being said, "5 pounds by next Saturday" is probably not a rate that you will be able to sustain long-term. If you're first starting out, you could probably lose that much water weight, but based on when you posted that, you're talking about 5 pounds in 9 days. That's probably double what the maximum recommended sustainable rate of loss is. As long as you understand that, you'll be fine. Just don't burn yourself out.
