Twenty lbs. is a significant amount of weight to lose, but you can do it safely within three months. Aim for a loss of 1 to 2 lbs. a week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises. Break down your three months into 13 weeks and you see that you will need an average loss of around 1.5 lbs. a week to reach your 20 lb. goal. Make changes in your diet and lifestyle, and your weight loss goal will come well within reach.
Step 1
Write down everything that you eat and drink for an entire week. Look up the calories for everything that you consumed and add up the calories for the week. Divide this total by seven to find your average daily calorie consumption.
Step 2
Subtract 500 from your average daily calorie consumption to find your new daily diet calorie amount. You need to consume 3,500 fewer calories to lose a pound, so subtracting 500 calories from each day's total will give you this amount.
Step 3
Weigh yourself once at the beginning of the week, then put your scale away until your next weekly weigh-in. Weight fluctuates from day to day and seeing it go up and down too many times may be discouraging. Concentrate on looking at weekly trends in your weight.
Step 4
Write down five different physical activities that you enjoy. Include fun items like playing basketball or throwing a Frisbee with your kids. Look up each activity on a calorie burn chart, such as the one maintained online by Harvard Health Publications, to find out how many calories each one burns per 30 minutes. Figure out how long you need to do each activity to burn off at least 250 calories.
Step 5
Eat a diet concentrating on fruits and vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. Stay within 50 calories of your daily diet calorie goal.
Step 6
Do one of your physical activities each day for three days in a row, then take a day off to let your body recover. Exercise three more days, then take another day off. Continue on in this manner. Add another 50 calories worth of exercise daily each week until you are burning 500 calories a day.
Posted in: Lose Pounds