Is losing 70 pounds in one year a realistic goal?

Answer 1

If you really have that much weight to lose and are very motivated it is possible. Here are some suggestions.



First, for all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, 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 questions amount 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 would not go for more than 10 % of your original weight.
See, when I stopped eating meat, I went from 155 lbs to 144. And I've been weighing the same for 4 years now.
The goal is reallistic, becuase there are a number of ways to accomplish that type of change. Personally, I would not put my self in a dangerous situation just to look slim.

Answer 3

It depends on your starting weight and your height.

If you are starting at 300 lbs., 70 in a year would be no problem.

If you are starting at 180 and are 5'5", it might be a bit more difficult.

The real goal you need to set for yourself is to make a permanent
change in your eating and exercise habits. If you do a good job of this, your weight will adjust at a healthy pace. Instead of focusing on the number, you will be much more successful if you make the change and then live your life.

Answer 4

Yes it is. Most experts say that 1 to 2 lbs a week is healthy. 70 lbs is a healthy realistic goal. Just follow a good diet and excercise.

Answer 5

It's safe and achievable but it also depends on how many calories a day you eat. If you plan on following through with this i suggest you eat no more than 2000 calories every single day. Go on a low carb diet with enough protein and you should be good.

Answer 6

it's less than 7 pounds a month, so yes it is a good goal

Answer 7

yes if your motivated to change your whole lifestyle. regular exercises and move to healthy diet. it will definitely happen.
exercises can be walking in the park hiking many things not just the gym..
most healthy thin people are active and think of their health when they choose what to eat..
when you think about how the food will affect your life and health and even your looks everything you put into your body counts
success is not from a " diet."
im hypothyroid, pain disabled, and the correct weight.

Answer 8

I think so. If you break it down to months it averages only a little less than 6 pounds per month.

Answer 9

I think it is, just stick to your routine and stay focused! I find it difficult to stay motivated and a lot of people do too,but just imagine how healthy you'll be and how good you'll look and it'll keep you on track. Good luck!

Answer 10

turn dinner into a healthy lunch the next day by wrapping your lean leftovers in a whole wheat wrap add a little dijon mustard or curry powder for added flavor

Answer 11

Eat a diet filled with all natural healthy whole foods