I want to lose 75 pounds by August 1, 2007....?

Question

is that an ideal amount to lose or should I give myself more time? Also any tips of healthy weight loss would be greatly appreciated.

xricexmanx: no marriage in the future. I'm going to Scotland for a vacation.

Answer 1

I'm glad to see that you have a realistic time-frame for your goal. Here are some aggressive but realistic ideas.


First, for all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions you will receive, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it.


On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. A couple of common question amounts to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete.

Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

I think that is a great way to think about it! instead of being like "I wanna lose 100 pounds in one month" like some people say, and then they get upset because they can't do it and get discouraged....even though it isnt physically possible!!! Yea I just went off on a tangent, but yes I think you have a perfectly realistic goal that means you will have to lose less than 3 pounds a week, so it is perfectly healthy AND if you do it gradually you won't have to worry about looking like a deflated balloon after you have lost weight.
So eat 1200-1500 cal a day. And excersize for atleast 40 minutes 6 days a week. Make sure atleast 3 days of that is cardio, and the other days you can still do cardio...or you could weight lift. Good Luck, I know you can do it!

Answer 3

Intense, but works:

my friend recently joined cross country, started running 3 miles a day. Not very fast, but just completed it, even though he was usually the last one to finish. He originally had a waist size 34, but no has gone down to a 28. He lost 30 pounds in the four months of cross country season. He didnt change his eating habits much.

If you change eating habits on top of running, I'm sure weight loss will be even faster.

Getting married or something?

Answer 4

The Best Exercises To Lose Weight
Exercise that pushes your heart rate closest to your targeted heart rate is the most suitable exercise to get rid of fat. You should exercise with sufficient intensity to raise your pulse rate, which in turn speeds up the fat loss process. The exercises that bring your heart rate close to your targeted heart rate will boost your metabolism, which will lead to fat loss.Besides, making you look better, weight loss offers hosts of other health benefits. When you reduce 10-15% of your weight, your chances of suffering from heart attack, diabetes as well as cholesterol levels go down. Hence if you are thinking of getting started, the best time to get started is now.Commitment is the most crucial factor to get any exercise program started.

Do cardio exercises for 30-60 minutes at least 3-4 times per week. Regularly working out for a month will increase your energy levels, improve your mood and reduce your waist size. Commitment will also help you to choose the best exercise that will aid your fat loss.Vary your exercise routine. This will make your workout exciting, thus increasing your motivation. Choose any exercise to burn fat. The most popular types of exercises are running, walking, hiking, playing basketball etc. But ensure that you do this chosen activity with enough intensity to raise your heart rate. You can also choose a combination of two or more activities.

Answer 5

Thats a lot, try for about 1 pound a week.
Keep active.
Good Luck

Answer 6

The difference between your current weight and the ideal weight is the weight you wish to lose. The safest way to lose weight is reduce weight gradually, by combining a scientific diet with a suitable exercise like walking . The maximum weight that can be lost safely by a person is 1-2 kg a week. More information on a weight loss diet and exercises available at http://tinyurl.com/jax5h

Answer 7

beware of hidden calories

Answer 8

Drink lots of water....thats how I lost 25 pounds. Drink half of your weight in ounces.

Answer 9

This is ideal because it is just less than a year to do it in. Drink plenty of water, eat right, and excersize, and I would say that it is very possible!

Answer 10

wrap up any extra food you ve cooked before you sit down to a meal so you re not tempted to get seconds