help need to lose 40 lbs in 2 months

cjcash
cjcash Posts: 2 Member
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
ok hi everyone i started myfitnesspal yesterday and so far i am down 2 lbs ( water weight of course) i plan on following this to a tee, no matter what please give me any advice as i need to get back down in the 170s( which i haven't seen since 2006) i am an ex athlete , so i i know how to train... 5'9 216 and 29female help....!!:tongue:

Replies

  • HonestOmnivore
    HonestOmnivore Posts: 1,356 Member
    Love your enthusiasm - but losing 20 lbs/month isn't good for your health!:noway:

    What if you LOOK 170? Lose twenty pounds in two month and get FIT as a FIDDLE! :flowerforyou:

    THAT would be fabulous and you'd look even better!:bigsmile:
  • kingking
    kingking Posts: 64 Member
    I gotta jump in here, too.

    40lbs in two months is not a healthy/realistic goal. Not if you want to keep any weight off, anyway.

    I dropped 3lbs a week at my fastest clip...even with that rate, you'd only be down 24lbs in two months.
  • kimmydear
    kimmydear Posts: 298 Member
    Hi! I'm new here too and would LOVE to lose 40 in 2 months in a perfect world, but I already know I can't do it that fast. My goal for now is 30 in 4 months and even then, that might be hard for me to do. Can you set several smaller goals? 10 pounds per 2 months sounds realistic to me. But I'm no fitness guru!
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Great enthusiasm but there are just about no legitimate ways to accomplish such a rapid weight loss. First off, natural weight loss isn't consistent, that is to say, you don't consistently lose 4 lbs each week, or 2 lbs each week, but rather it's something like 4 lbs this week, 2 lbs lost next week, 1.5 lbs gained the week after that, 3 lbs lost the next week, it fluctuates, but aside from seriously hurting yourself with illicit illegal substances that raise your heart rate, temperature, cause palpitations and increase your risk of heart attacks by 300-500% it's just not possible.

    The hollywood stars that do those kinds of things do take such drugs, and even then they usually have 5 or 6 months prep time and a "professional" guiding them through the process to ensure they don't overdose and end up dead... and y'know some of them still do end up dead at 30, mysteriously, and people say, well they had wild lifestyles they must've OD'd on some recreational drug, but my money's on the stuff they're taking to keep their slim & trim physique all hot and sexy.

    Atkins, herbal clenses, juice fad diets, etc all give you an initial confidence boost as they trigger rapid weightloss of 8-10 lbs in your first couple weeks, but that's it, if you're lucky the weightloss stalls after that, if you're like most people the weight actually comes back a bit after that point and they you need to wait a month or so to see even another pound or two loss.

    Make it 40 lbs in 4 months and even then don't get too fixed on the numbers, getting fit can be a really discouraging process if you set unrealistic goals.
  • jennylynn84
    jennylynn84 Posts: 659
    40 pounds is a lot in two months, but I guess it depends on how much you have to lose. I am at 34 pounds lost and I started a little over two months ago (mid-late January). If, like me, you've got a lot to lose (I started out needing to shed 48 just to be in my healthy range), you can get darn close!

    My best advice is variety! Variety in everything! From working out to food. Switch up your workout plans every day or you'll get sick of one. Same with the food. Fill your house with only healthy stuff, but a LOT of DIFFERENT healthy stuff. In invested in a lot of nut/granola snack foods, lots of veggies and hummus, chicken that I cook and put on salads....

    Also, a good low calorie cookbook or Web site (my favorite is eatingwell.com) can get you some good recipes that are low fat so you don't feel like you're dieting, which makes you less likely to cheat.

    Measure everything! Don't just say "This looks like 1/4 of a cup." Grab that measuring cup and make sure. Tiny overages add up!

    Don't be afraid to take a break. I've lost weight overnight (or so it seemed) on days when I didn't work out. Your body and your muscles need to relax every now and then, don't feel bad about giving them that opportunity.

    Plan ahead. Before eating something that you think isn't that bad, look it up and check. I've been completely floored by the calorie counts on some items I thought were okay.

    Track everything and don't cheat.

    Good luck!
  • lucky1ns
    lucky1ns Posts: 358 Member
    You wont do it, will get discouraged and a year from now will weigh the same or more as you do now.

    Or you could shoot for a pound a week and a year from now be 52 pounds lighter.
  • katielouhoo
    katielouhoo Posts: 676 Member
    okay- i have lost .5 lb shy of a full 100 lbs in 7 mos, but i had alot more to lose than where you are. and i was on 1000 calories a day (per doctor's instructions) & not eating back exercise calories. now that i am getting under 200 lbs my daily intake will be back up to 1200. and i expect my weight loss to slow.

    mfp is designed to help us learn healthy patterns for eating & exercise forever. quick weight loss is generally not sustainable. And frankly those of us who have been really, really overweight, never want to face these kinds of numbers again. i am not going to mind the upcoming slower loss that will allow me more time to learn to live eating healthy everyday, every holiday, forever. -katie
  • cds2327
    cds2327 Posts: 439
    don't we all?
    sorry, but in two months I'd say the best you should shoot for is 16 (2 lbs a week).

    dropping that much weight in that short of time will cause you to be unhealthy, and you'll have more of a chance of gaining it all back.

    Do your best, and with exercise and strength training you can look like your goal!!
  • cjcash
    cjcash Posts: 2 Member
    Thank you all so much for the encpuragement , I guess we all want it to come quick , but I know that I didn't gain it all at once so why would I expect for it to come off that quickly:smile:
  • kdouglas11
    kdouglas11 Posts: 185 Member
    good luck!!!
  • michelle4271
    michelle4271 Posts: 194 Member
    ok hi everyone i started myfitnesspal yesterday and so far i am down 2 lbs ( water weight of course) i plan on following this to a tee, no matter what please give me any advice as i need to get back down in the 170s( which i haven't seen since 2006) i am an ex athlete , so i i know how to train... 5'9 216 and 29female help....!!:tongue:

    what advice do you need when you follow up that question with ............ ex athlete, so I know how to train.....I would then think that you would be aware that too rapid weightloss is neither healthy, or typically long term achievable......
  • DeniseGdz
    DeniseGdz Posts: 592 Member
    don't we all?
    sorry, but in two months I'd say the best you should shoot for is 16 (2 lbs a week).


    Exactly what my trainer has me doing!! I would say work on toning and as an ex-athelete you should have no issues (since your muscle form is still there -somewhere) and you can L@@k like you lost 40 lbs....

    Better to do it correct the first time :wink:
  • ilovelucy711
    ilovelucy711 Posts: 381 Member
    Hello, may I ask what diet plan you were following? I need to lose at least 45-50 pounds before July 13th. I weigh 275 pounds.
  • So many naysayers!!! Listen, a LOT of people get brainwashed with this idea that losing more than 1-2 lbs a week is unhealthy, but I say it's a bunch of malarkey! It may be true for thinner people but for anyone who is severely overweight/obese, it's totally possible to lose more than that, be healthy, and have it STAY OFF. Do not ever listen to anyone who tells you otherwise. The same goes for low carb diets, crash diets, extremely low calorie diets, etc. I'm not saying those diets are healthy long-term lifestyles, but for someone who just needs to get a big jump start, they do work to shed initial pounds and get you motivated to continue healthy habits. I have done it myself, so let me give you my tips. For quick weight loss, cut out carbs, and drink a lot of water. Eat a lot of vegetables, but make sure you realize that veggies have a lot of carbs too. If you're eating corn, peas and potatoes and thinking "this is all healthy, why am I not losing weight?" that's why. You should be eating leafy greens, or any green vegetables (not peas), no fruit (I still ate grapefruit) no juices... just water and unsweetened tea and black coffee to drink... lean meats and fish... very little salt, no sweets, etc. It's not easy! You should also work out TWICE a day - morning and afternoon - do a lot of cardio. I run and hike - elliptical is also good. I want to add swimming, but I think people have a tendency to goof around when they swim and not swim as hard as is necessary for a good workout. I also suggest doing workout tapes like Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, as well as yoga (Sara Ivanhoe is my fav). and if you can work it in, climb as many stairs as possible!! If you have a courthouse or apartment building or office building with a lot of stairs nearby, make it a point to go up and down the stairs about 5 times a day. You will feel the burn. Get 8 hours of sleep per night at least. Meditate, pray, find some time during the day to be alone and get in touch with your spiritual side - whatever it is - even if you're not religious, try just communing with nature. You will find that these little moments of peace work wonders to rejuvenate you and keep you going. Take bubble baths, laugh, have fun. Stress causes your body to hold onto fat, so loosen up! And here's a tip that you might think is super corny, but it really really works - we've all heard of visualization but I'm not sure how many people do it right. Imagine yourself having already achieved your goal. Picture yourself thin and smiling and say to yourself "I am thin, I have an extremely fast metabolism, whatever I eat my body burns off with ease, I am in excellent shape" - really convince yourself of this when you say it, feel the feelings you'd feel were this true. Never say "I will be" - always "I am." I do it all the time and fat just melts off me. After I had my baby I had gained 90 lbs (from being bedridden for 9 months and eating like crap) - I had trouble losing weight too, and when I started visualizing (because my body was so out of shape and my back so screwed up from pregnancy that I could hardly walk) not only did my pain go away but the lbs started melting off! and now I have lost 59 lbs with virtually no effort and the weight is still coming off. The eating tips and exercise are things I used the last time I lost a bunch of weight (and no, I don't constantly fluctuate - I only gained back my original weight loss because of pregnancy) - and I will put those into action when I start to plateau. Of course, I'm also in no real hurry like you are or I'd be doing them already! Ok, so good luck! and remember, don't listen to the negative nancys! You can do it, and even if you don't get totally to your goal, at least you got farther than you were!
  • WinnerVictorious
    WinnerVictorious Posts: 4,733 Member
    your sedentary BMR is about 2140. that's the number of calories you burn just by existing and doing everyday things. this doesn't include calorie burn from exercise.

    if you dropped to a food intake of 1200 calories, then you're running a deficit of 940 calories per day. over 60 days, that's 56400 calories or 16 lbs.

    so you'd have to burn an extra 24 lbs by exercise alone to meet your goal. that's 1400 calories burned EVERY day. for you, that's equivalent to doing a 9 mile run EVERY day for 2 months.

    keep in mind, at 1200 calories, you're likely to be hungry every day as well. mentally this may well be a hard food intake to sustain and it's not likely to keep you feeling energetic enough to do the exercise you'd have to do.

    so the short answer is that it's possible, but it would be really hard to do. at your weight and size, losing 40 lbs in 2 months is basically an unrealistic goal. the good news is that you can lose the 40 lbs more comfortably by spreading the weight loss over a longer period of time.

    for example, if you went with a calorie reduction of only 500 per day (i.e., eating1640 calories per day) you won't be depriving yourself and you'll have the energy to do the workouts you'll need to do.

    over 4 months (for example), you'll drop 17 lbs due to your restricted intake and only have to make up 23 lbs with exercise. 700 calories burned by cardiovascular exercise every day would be enough, and is alot easier to accomplish than 1400 per day.

    during this time, you can also add strength training to tone up your muscles so that when the weight is lost, you'll look that much better.

    note - the calculations above are approximate. i didn't factor into them your lost weight as you were losing, but these rough numbers are close enough that you can make a plan based on them. also, just throwing out a number like 1200 here will draw alot of negative responses. some people see 1200 and automatically think... anorexia. it's not. if you had the willpower, you could do a 1200 a day diet for 2 months and not suffer any long term ill effects so long as you made sure you got the right amount of vitamins, minerals, protein, fat, carbs, etc. i wouldn't suggest living on 1200 a day forever because of your size (at your goal weight of 170 lbs, your sedentary BMR for maintenance will be 1900), but it's possible to do it for a period of time if you have the willpower and determination.
  • tenkesh
    tenkesh Posts: 81
    While it is totally possible to lose so much so quickly, I would not recommend anyone to do so.

    Rapid weight loss is very stressful for body, you will not lose it from fat, such a rapid loss means the body will consume muscle for energy as well, which means instead of looking healthy and perky, you will most likely end up looking "skinnyfat".

    Also your skin that has expanded with weight gain, needs time to shrink, too fast weight loss will result in stretchmarks and/or flabby skin.

    Also unless you are under supervision of professionals, training 2-3 times a day (like youreaweenie recommended) can easily lead to injury and that means you won't be able to exercise for extended period of time until recovered.
    Depending on muscle group, muscles need 24-48 hours of rest to repair and recover. Working out as intensively as she describes requires a lot of micromanagement and very smart approach to your exercises. The only exercise she describes in her post is "cardio, run and hike and elliptical" which means mostly leg work with little to no rest.

    I appreciate your enthusiasm, it's your body of course and feel free to do with it whatever you want. But in my honest opinion, your goal is silly. Why rush? Why this short term goal? What will you achieve with 40 lbs less in 2 months that you will not achieve with 40 lbs less in let's say 6 or 8 months? Why chase some stupid number on scale instead of approaching it smart and healthy way?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    While it is totally possible to lose so much so quickly, I would not recommend anyone to do so.

    Rapid weight loss is very stressful for body, you will not lose it from fat, such a rapid loss means the body will consume muscle for energy as well, which means instead of looking healthy and perky, you will most likely end up looking "skinnyfat".

    Also your skin that has expanded with weight gain, needs time to shrink, too fast weight loss will result in stretchmarks and/or flabby skin.

    Also unless you are under supervision of professionals, training 2-3 times a day (like youreaweenie recommended) can easily lead to injury and that means you won't be able to exercise for extended period of time until recovered.
    Depending on muscle group, muscles need 24-48 hours of rest to repair and recover. Working out as intensively as she describes requires a lot of micromanagement and very smart approach to your exercises. The only exercise she describes in her post is "cardio, run and hike and elliptical" which means mostly leg work with little to no rest.

    I appreciate your enthusiasm, it's your body of course and feel free to do with it whatever you want. But in my honest opinion, your goal is silly. Why rush? Why this short term goal? What will you achieve with 40 lbs less in 2 months that you will not achieve with 40 lbs less in let's say 6 or 8 months? Why chase some stupid number on scale instead of approaching it smart and healthy way?

    This can not be any more true!


    OP, what you want is fat loss, not weight loss. Most people don't want to lose muscle, which comes from rapid weight loss or under feeding. Muscle is what makes your body tight and lean. So why don't you feed your body properly, eat a moderate deficit (20% below TDEE) and do a combination of weight training, cardio (preferablly HIIT) and rest. You will cut inches faster than weight loss but at least you will maintain your metabolism, reduce the chances of stretch marks and have a body that supports itself and less prone to injury.
  • SorchaRavenlock
    SorchaRavenlock Posts: 220 Member
    people, this thread is from March. I don't really think the OP needs your advice any more, the two months are long past ;)
  • rfsatar
    rfsatar Posts: 599 Member
    Hi CJ - I am a former athlete too and have been at this for almost 3 months... I had been pretty half hearted since having to quite the sport with injury around 13 years ago... and decided that I would make the most of what time I have before my poor knees have to literally be replaced (they won't do it while there is a chance I would wear them down requiring another op)...

    I used to try and lose 2lb a week any time I ventured back to the gym... and invariably gave up (work, life etc).

    Then I started logging what I ate, changing how I ate, but not WHAT I ate along with focussing on a rehab program set by my physio, and I set my goals at 1lb a week...

    Half a stone lost so far, and pretty much every week has been a small loss or a Stay-the-same...

    It's not for me to tell you what is healthy (although in my old ways compared to your target - I would have been aiming for half that in 2 months..)
    Protein at the start of the day, soups for lunch and then a proper dinner means I have eaten pretty much as well as I have wanted, and gradually been able to do more and more in the gym (although joints hurt like hell... but they're holding out...god bless 'em!)...

    Either way - best of luck on your journey.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    people, this thread is from March. I don't really think the OP needs your advice any more, the two months are long past ;)

    It is actually from March of 2010! So almost 3 yrs have passed! I wonder where she is now? Did she lose the weight??
  • tenkesh
    tenkesh Posts: 81
    people, this thread is from March. I don't really think the OP needs your advice any more, the two months are long past ;)

    It is actually from March of 2010! So almost 3 yrs have passed! I wonder where she is now? Did she lose the weight??

    Well even if it's from 1965 it still does not change the fact that losing 40 lbs in 2 months is unhealthy. And I guess that if she actually went on with 20 lbs per month pace, then she should be vanished into thin air by now. :D
  • cenafan
    cenafan Posts: 398 Member
    Hola everyone, I know you all r saying that it is impossible to loose 40 pounds in 2 months, but it isn't. My name is Skylar (Sky) and I am 14. I used to weigh 160 pounds but in just a month I lost just shy of 40 pounds. I know that isn't good and EXTREMELY bad for my health but I felt so fat and ugly. So for a whole month I barley ate anything and exercised 3 hours a day. My parents always feed my brother and I bad food and I would always tell them to stop and it was unhealthy. But they never did so I solved the problem the only way I knew how by not eating and exercising as much as possible. But that was even worse than eating unhealthy, my doctor thought something was wrong with me (anorexic). But I'm not anorexic just judgmental of my self. So now I'm eating correctly (fruits and vegetables) I'm on a 1,200 calorie "diet" and I exercise an hour a day. But the rest of my family is still overweight and unhealthy (except my Dad). So yes u can loose 40 pounds in 2 months, is it healthy NO. Do this the right way not my way.

    Weight in August 2013: 160 pounds
    Weight in October 2013: 119.8 pounds

    TIPS FOR A HEALTHY LIFE (just incase, although u probably don't care):
    Exercise: try to burn 600-800 calories in a day
    Good exercise include: swimming(600calories/hr), dancing(200-300calories/hr),running(600calories/hr)aerobics(800calories/hr) and lifting(600-800calories/hr), all these will help tighten your core and help "tone" your legs, my favorite workout is swimming (laps).
    FOOD: try for 1000 calories if 200lb or more and 1200-1500 for 199lb and less
    Size: eat small per portions (like REALLY small) and eat 5 times a day
    Protein: stick to chicken (grilled), fish and turkey
    Fruits: bananas, apples, oranges, strawberry are my favorites (farmers markets have the best fruit)
    Vegetables: broccoli, green beans, celery (the best) and more are really good but stay away from things that are packaged and go for fresh. And try not to add salt or butter but if it is the only way you can digest it than go ahead (but don't go overboard)
    Sweets: many people say NO SWEETS!!! but come on that's unrealistic, just eat in minority, like instead of eating the whole chocolate bar just eat a piece or two.
    Drinks: Stay away from juices they do nothing for you. Go for tea, milk (soy milk possibly) and LOTS of water

    Hope I helped some one- and P.S./ don't expect immediate results but you can definitely loose up to 5 maybe even 10 pounds a month if you work hard and stay motivated.

    - love a weird, nerdy, awkward 14 year old girl


    you starved yourself but are giving healthy eating tips? I hope you are really following those tips yourself now.
  • bob_day
    bob_day Posts: 87
    Losing 5 pounds per week is an extremely ambitious goal. It will require your total dedication, six hours or more of fitness exercises daily and about a 1200 calorie per day rigidly controlled diet -- all portions weighed on a scale and calories calculated, not guessed at.
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