Lose 20 pounds in a few months in healthy manner?

You have to restrict your calories if you wish to lose weight. But you don't need to go on a crash diet, either. Take out 200-500 calories. And add in some exercise. But it won't be in a few months, with so little left to lose it'll take some time. Aim for no more than 1 pound a week, or you're probably losing muscle and end up being a "skinny fat" (high bf %)

I recommend doing keto. You're significantly reducing your carbs instead of calories (you'll still be reducing calories, but it'll be based on your macros that you can calculate here: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/). I've lost nearly 20 pounds in a month and a half without really any exercise. Any low carb diet will work, though, especially in the short term. The fact is you have to reduce SOMETHING in your diet, be it calories or carbs or both, because it won't matter how much you exercise if you're not on a healthy diet.

Log every single thing without restricting. Look at your macros (protein/carbs/fat...). Are there days where your eating is more in control? Look at those days and see what's different--maybe more protein, or fat, etc. Then make sure you're getting enough water. Sometimes our brains confuse thirst for hunger. Are you feeling anxious or antsy? Try going out and exercising a little instead of eating more. Honestly, since you don't want to restrict your intake the way you're going to get there is exercise, so find something you enjoy doing--or is at least convenient for you--and start doing it. There's no magic formula. Looks like you only want to lose 13 lbs in a few months. Perfectly reasonable goal. However the closer you are to being in the normal weight range for your height (hopefully relatively short given your weight goal) the harder it will be to shed weight. Exercise will be key to achieving your goal. I've lost 20 lbs in 3 months, but that's partially because I was in the obese BMI, partially because I stepped up my exercise, and definitely because I carefully logged and restricted (calorically) my diet. Now that I've lost that weight, I've found I need to be increasingly dedicated to shed the remaining 40-ish lbs I have left to go.

emmadonaldson95 wrote: »

Ive lost 6.4 lb in 2 weeks so far and although i have cut down calories ive done it by learning some new recipes and swapping things i would normally eat for something lower calorie. E.g i still eat cereal at breakfast but i now have a healthier one and use skimmed milk. At lunch i still have a sandwhich or hummus but use lower cal bread or reduced fat hummus with veg sticks not pitta bread. Etc.
By doing that it doesnt feel like a restriction really.

Have you looked at the Skinnytaste website? She does a great job making lighter versions of favorite foods. Recipes are easy, don't require any weird ingredients that might be hard to find, and I can't think of one off hand that I didn't like.

Hey OP, I don't know your height but I'm 5'3" and I went from 139 to 109 pounds. After a few months of a bulk, I'm getting down to my final goal weight of 108. Right now I'm 112. I'm telling you there are three key things you need to get where you want to be: time, patience, and a food scale. Your logging has to be tight and your deficit should be no more than 500 calories per day, although I recommend aiming for a deficit of 125 to 250 calories per day. It's not going to be quick and you shouldn't want it to be, as you risk binging, regaining the weight, and losing muscle which won't be beneficial for your body composition.