Losing 30 lbs by Christmas? Possible?

Question

Serious answers only.

I am about 40 lbs overweight and would like to lose 30 lbs by Christmas. (Ok, I would be happy with 25). That gives me 2 months. What are some good, reasonable diets/exercise routines that I can do? I have a treadmill in our den.

I have done WW before with some success, but it's really tough for me to keep track of points and stuff.

I have heard about eating 6 tiny meals spaced throughout the day?

So, do you think it's possible, and if so how can I get the best results? Thanks

Answer 1

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

Try this it was invented by a dietitian for obese people who need an operation in two weeks time.
There is enough for one week so freeze half freshly made to last the week.
I cheated and did it for a whole month every other month went from a 40in waist to a 32in without to much effort.

Operation Soup

Ingredients.

3 large onions
1 large or two small green peppers
1 bunch of celery
½ head of green cabbage
1 leek
2 tin chopped tomatoes
1 packet of French onion soup (any brand)
3 vegetable stock cubes (I use oxo)

Cut all vegetables into bite size pieces if your not going to liquidize.
Place all in a large pot add enough water to cover.
Simmer until vegetables are cooked add more water if necessary.

NOTE
To be eaten as a two meal replacement (largest and the smallest).
You can still have a light lunch or light evening meal.
Should not exceed 5 days at a time and 10 days a month.
You will pass more water so make sure you keep up your water intake.

Answer 3

It would be possible to lose the 30 lbs, but to put a time limit on it is not the best idea. You did not gain the 30 lbs in 2 months, it is not reasonable to expect to loose it in 2 months. WW also has the core program for people that don't want to track points.

Answer 4

I would say no not really... but i'd like to help you try. First of all the less you eat the more you body thinks

"holy crap she's starving! Hold on to all fat reserves"

I think the only chance of success you have is to supercharge your metabolism...

1. Chew your food damn slowly (20 chews per mouth full)
2. If you're hungry... eat! at no point should you feel hungry
3. Drink water, lots of it, if you can 3-4 ltrs a day.
4. Exercise... screw the gym, walk, just walk. if you can... for 2 hours a day.
5. Eat little and often small meals paced through the day are better than skipping breakfast and lunch and having a giant dinner.

Well i hope that helps. :) good luck.

Answer 5

It will be tough, but possible, I believe, if you really dedicate yourself to it. You might think about trying this book called "The Movie Star Diet" by Steve Simmons. It helped me lose thirty pounds in 2 1/2 months when I didn't think anything would work. My goal to begin with was only 20 lbs! It has a really easy plan to follow and an excellent workout as well.

Answer 6

You can easily lose 30 lbs by Christmas with the Kimkins diet or other low cal low carb program.

I agree about Weight Watchers being complicated. It takes so much time figuring out what something is, what a portion is or if something is a combination of points.

That's why I liked Kimkins. Easy as 1-2-3.

Answer 7

Yes indeed possible. Have you heard of the master cleanse? I've tried it in the past for 14 days and lost 20 lbs. I am ready to start it again tomorrow Make sure you read everything about this cleanse before starting and make sure you are prepared mentally. This is great for a healthier lifestyle and not just a quick fix www.mastercleanser.com Good luck :)

Answer 8

Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks??

There are some websites on the Internet, which promise you that you are going to lose 10 pounds in every 2 weeks. If you are good in math you will find that keeping these stats in mind, 260 pounds in a year. Losing 260 pounds is the figure, which is unbelievable and unexpected.

This kind of claims are planned just to cause clients to make impulsive decisions. When you gain weight, did you gained around 50 minds in two months? Certainly not. We gain weight in weight in small parts, which add up to our weight. This keeps on increasing with time.

I think you get what I mean to say. We normally gain weight in grams like 65 gram per week. With this stat you are going to gain around 7 pounds at the end of year.

This weight is so slow that you cannot measure it weekly. But in fur years you are going to gain around 28 pounds.

So how can you expect this weight to go in few days? You are going to lose the way you have gained it. So it will take time to lose weight. So you have to start losing weight systematically. You can lose weight by developing the good eating habits in you and nutritious foods.

Answer 9

i am a distributor for first fitness / suddenly slim all natural product,,,there is 2 phases to the system the first phase is a detox system and i lost 14 lbs on phase 1 , 2 supplements and a shake,,,,, phase 2 is the same thing just lasts longer and adds a fat and cellulite burner ...which is yummy ,,,, i lost 30 lbs and 10 inches in 3 1/2 weeks , all natural...money back guarantee.....no exercise,,so what do you have to lose but weight ...i did it ...

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Answer 10

It could be difficult. Eat breakfast, lunch and evening meal and mid morning and mid afternoon and pre bedtime snacks. Cut your intake to around 1400 cals a day (forget the points it makes life difficult). Walk briskly for about an hour a day and keep active at other times. You may do it.

Answer 11

How much do you hate to starve??????????

No, it's not realistic and probably not life-threatening necessary. 8 pounds by Christmas is reasonable.

No fast food, no fried food, no booze, no cheese, no bread.

Tough that list out and you will get there even without exercize. You didn't put on 40 pounds in six weeks, it won't disappear in six weeks. Hell, I've been fighting 15 pounds from age 40 to 55 and it's mouthful by mouthful.

We women were made to outlast starvation....enjoy it!!!