weight loss advice

OP, set your goal to 1 lb per week and log accurately. That's it in a nutshell. Anything else is personal preference. Some people fill up for less calories with lots of veggies. Other people find a serving of protein will fill them up better than a plateful of veggies. Some people do better avoiding snacking and eating 3 square meals, others do better at grazing on small snacks all day.

Being too restrictive in an effort to lose a specific amount of weight by a deadline can be a recipe for disaster. For a lot of people, going all out and changing a million things can cause you to burn out too fast, or be so starved and deprived by the deadline that as soon as they get there they overeat everything they've been missing and gain the weight right back. So while 20 lbs is possible, it might be a little much to expect, so be patient with yourself. If you only lose 10 or 15 lbs in that three months, you will still have accomplished something great and will be closer to your goal :drinker:

jocgaye85 wrote: »

This is great information cause a lot of my friends tell me to try this diet or this pill but some of that stuff I'm just not sure about

Let's face it, there is enough misinformation out there that if your BS radar even starts registering... no need to double check: it IS BS!

It is great to motivate yourself by an event; but, your long term health is probably more important than a single moment in time

Being at a particular goal weight by a particular date will probably be less important in five years from now as compared to setting yourself firmly on a path to a healthier you!

Set up MFP for a reasonable weight loss target. One that will result in a healthy weight loss.

Assuming you're medically speaking overweight, 1lb a week. If you're within your normal weight range for your height and you are just trying to be "as healthy as possible", dial-in 0.5lbs a week. If you're obese, and you feel you can tolerate the deficit, go up to 1.5 or 2lbs a week.

Estimate your activity level. If you move around less than 35 minutes/3500 steps a day you are sedentary. if you move around more than that you could probably start at lightly active.

Eat to your MFP target.

Based on the above setup, if you exercise, you are supposed to eat back your true net exercise calories in order to maintain the rate of weight loss you specified.

Sometimes determining your exact true net exercise calories is hard to do. The suggestion is to start by eating back half your exercise calories and re-evaluating your eat back percentage based on your subsequent progress.

The link below contains links to interesting forum discussions. They may be helpful to you as you embark on your journey.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177910/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#1

So, you are about 15lbs from the top of your normal weight range.

This makes your appropriate weight loss target closer to 0.5lbs a week. Maybe 1lb a week to start with while you work out any bugs with your logging; but, definitely 2lbs a week is not appropriate...

Also the larger the deficit the less "fuel" you have to engage in vigorous workouts.
Do you plan on working out?

I am sure @rabbitjb and others will be along who can best address "toned" bodies ;-)

lorddannis wrote: »

I would recommend drinking as much water as you can as soon as you wake up. Your largest meal is breakfast and smaller lunch and even smaller dinner. Never eat after 8pm if you can. Get your metabolism going and burn!

I would recommend pretending that that post had never happened.

jocgaye85 wrote: »

hi so I am trying to loose 20 pounds before my husband gets here I have a little over 3 months to achieve this goal what should I do any advice would be great !

Don't put a deadline on it! You will definitely be slimmer when he arrives, but 20 pounds in 12 weeks is probably not doable at your size.

You received a lot of good advice above--just don't add stress to your life with a deadline.