NEED to lose 20 pounds in a month

z_elle
z_elle Posts: 1 Member
edited November 17 in Health and Weight Loss
I need to lose 20 pounds and I keep falling off the wagon and lose energy n motivation to continue :(

Replies

  • booksandchocolate12
    booksandchocolate12 Posts: 1,741 Member
    20 pounds in month is a lot. Maybe you keep falling off the wagon because you're trying to lose a significant amount of weight in a short period of time and are being too restrictive.

    Focus on eating at a calorie deficit and let the weight come off in its own time.
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  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    20 pounds in a month is not healthy at all. shoot for 5-8 and you'll be more successful in the long run.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
    Sorry honey. It's not going to happen.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,224 Member
    Sorry, you should have stared a couple months ago. Your goal is unrealistic and the reason you keep falling off is that you're trying extreme things to reach an unobtainable goal.
  • Sophiareed218
    Sophiareed218 Posts: 145 Member
    I agree with others, unless you are morbidly obese, there's no way that's gonna happen. How much total are you looking to lose?
  • misskarne
    misskarne Posts: 1,765 Member
    Why do you NEED to?

    It's not going to happen.
  • kamakazeekim
    kamakazeekim Posts: 1,183 Member
    A healthy weight loss goal is 1 to 2 pounds per week...losing more than that is really just water weight. When people lose a lot of weight quickly it usually is not sustainable and they typically end up gaining it all back plus some.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    z_elle wrote: »
    I need to lose 20 pounds and I keep falling off the wagon and lose energy n motivation to continue :(

    You waited to long. You would basically have eat nothing - literally, nothing - and depending on your body size you *still* might not get there.

    Sorry. I know it sucks, but that's the biology of it.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    edited May 2015
    With 60 lb to lose, you _might_ be able to manage 10 in the next month if you're really strict with eating & exercise a lot...
    but why make yourself miserable?

    Here's a calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine which will tell you how many calories to aim for,
    and how many servings of the food groups you should eat, to maintain a particular weight. Put in your healthy
    goal weight (or play with the weight number to get the BMI under 24.9) and use that as your calorie goal. Ignore
    exercise calories, set the calculator to 'inactive'.

    Alternatively, put in your current weight and subtract 500 cal/day in order to lose 1 lb per week.
    Adjust as you hit plateaus, subtracting 50-100 cal at a time to restart weight loss.
    When you get close to your healthy goal weight, the loss will slow, so change to maybe 250 cal/day deficit.

    Here's a newbie help post I compiled which has links to useful information.
    Go read sexypants now.
    Then the one about setting realistic goals.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    edited May 2015
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    z_elle wrote: »
    I need to lose 20 pounds and I keep falling off the wagon and lose energy n motivation to continue :(

    You waited to long. You would basically have eat nothing - literally, nothing - and depending on your body size you *still* might not get there.

    Sorry. I know it sucks, but that's the biology of it.

    Good point. Assuming her maintenance was at 2000 calories a day. If she ate absolutely nothing for a month, she would only lose about 17 pounds...

    Considering you can only survive for about 3 weeks if you don't eat, then she would only lose 12 pounds before she died...
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    MKEgal wrote: »
    With 60 lb to lose, you _might_ be able to manage 10 in the next month if you're really strict with eating & exercise a lot...
    but why make yourself miserable?

    Here's a calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine which will tell you how many calories to aim for,
    and how many servings of the food groups you should eat, to maintain a particular weight. Put in your healthy
    goal weight (or play with the weight number to get the BMI under 24.9) and use that as your calorie goal. Ignore
    exercise calories, set the calculator to 'inactive'.


    Alternatively, put in your current weight and subtract 500 cal/day in order to lose 1 lb per week.
    Adjust as you hit plateaus, subtracting 50-100 cal at a time to restart weight loss.
    When you get close to your healthy goal weight, the loss will slow, so change to maybe 250 cal/day deficit.

    Here's a newbie help post I compiled which has links to useful information.
    Go read sexypants now.
    Then the one about setting realistic goals.

    This calculator is for children ages 2-20, it doesn't apply for most people on this forum.
  • Ohhim
    Ohhim Posts: 1,142 Member
    A healthy weight loss goal is 1 to 2 pounds per week...losing more than that is really just water weight. When people lose a lot of weight quickly it usually is not sustainable and they typically end up gaining it all back plus some.

    Case in point, I started today at 176lb, ended it at 168lb, but ran a marathon. Weight should settle around 170 the next few days as I carbo/hydra-loaded 5lb going into the race, and likely only legitimately burned 1lb of calories from racing the 26.2 miles. Unfortunately, running 550 miles at race pace, or about 700 miles at a jogging/walking pace (necessary to burn 70,000 calories) in a month isn't too feasible for most folks.

    If it was a life/death sort of situation, I guess you could run a half-marathon daily, eat 1300 calories, and do a heavy dehydration job on the last 2 (assuming you water-loaded before your weigh in at the start) to see 20lb disappear from the scale, but about 10lb would come back on after you hit your number once you resume normal water intake.
  • Dofflin
    Dofflin Posts: 127 Member
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    z_elle wrote: »
    I need to lose 20 pounds and I keep falling off the wagon and lose energy n motivation to continue :(

    You waited to long. You would basically have eat nothing - literally, nothing - and depending on your body size you *still* might not get there.

    Sorry. I know it sucks, but that's the biology of it.

    Good point. Assuming her maintenance was at 2000 calories a day. If she ate absolutely nothing for a month, she would only lose about 17 pounds...

    Considering you can only survive for about 3 weeks if you don't eat, then she would only lose 12 pounds before she died...

    The length of time someone can survive without food is not an arbitrary number like 3 weeks, but varies from person to person.
    The bottom line is to set SMART goals - 10lbs/month is unrealistic.
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    20 pounds? One month? Now that's funny!

    LOL
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
    edited May 2015
    Dofflin wrote: »
    Mr_Knight wrote: »
    z_elle wrote: »
    I need to lose 20 pounds and I keep falling off the wagon and lose energy n motivation to continue :(

    You waited to long. You would basically have eat nothing - literally, nothing - and depending on your body size you *still* might not get there.

    Sorry. I know it sucks, but that's the biology of it.

    Good point. Assuming her maintenance was at 2000 calories a day. If she ate absolutely nothing for a month, she would only lose about 17 pounds...

    Considering you can only survive for about 3 weeks if you don't eat, then she would only lose 12 pounds before she died...

    The length of time someone can survive without food is not an arbitrary number like 3 weeks, but varies from person to person.
    The bottom line is to set SMART goals - 10lbs/month is unrealistic.

    That's why I said about 3 weeks. It was a hypothetical situation and meant to be an eye opener for OP. 20 pounds of fat (which I assume is what OP wanted to lose) is not possible.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    5-8 pounds is more healthy and achievable goal for 1 month. You can do this by telling MFP you'd like to lose 1-2 pounds per week and eating up to the calorie goal you are given instead of doing weird extreme things that aren't sustainable.
  • snowflakesav
    snowflakesav Posts: 649 Member
    I think you will be very disappointed with your results.
This discussion has been closed.