Is it even possible?????

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to lose 20lbs by Christmas. Not only would my clothes fit better but I think it would motivate me not to overdo it when all the Christmas goodies are put out by the family. Is it even possible to lose that much weight in that short period of time. I am very overweight - I have about 75lbs to lose so I know that the first 20 should come off relatively easy but I do not want to set myself up for failure. You all that have been doing these challenges probably know better than I do if it can be done. Advice, tips, etc are welcome. Thanks!

Possible yes. But to safely do it you'd have to be in the mid 200's. Losing 1% of you body weight is sensible and maintainable. You're speaking of losing 10lbs a month which is more than 2lbs a week. Fast weight loss isn't very good on the body.

Certainly possible and can be done safely. My personal experience is that I was able to lose 31 lbs at an average rate of almost 3 pounds a week. My first 20 came off in just under 2 months. I started at 196 and currently weigh out at 165 just to give you some context.

The key is it takes discipline. You've got to stick to a solid exercise program for sure. My Net calorie goal while I was losing weight was 1230 cal/day. However with exercise and everything else I was taking in a lot closer to 2000 total calories. While I really have no science to point to in order to back this up, my belief is that targeting net calories and exercising a lot to make my total calories higher lead to keeping my metabolism operating at a higher level. Had I done no exercise and only ate 1200 calories a day it would have slowed. The way I've understood it, the fear of losing more than 2 lbs a week is more an issue with the small number of total calories that most people would need to reduce to in order to make those losses would not even meet their body's minimum needs. Additionally, as I understand it, the heavier you are the more you can lose per week and be safe.