Many overweight people tend to get obsessed with any way of losing weight they come across, from comparing themselves to others and knowing exactly how your friend or relative achieved his or her weight loss goal.
Unfortunately, some of us end up gaining the weight they lost after some time, the reasons being they used faster, unsafe, and unhealthy ways to bring a certain amount of weight down.
Well, any amount of weight goal can be achieved, but it depends on the victim. Are you ready to change your lifestyle? Are you focused on achieving that goal? If your answer is yes, then losing 20 lbs is a bit manageable. I am glad to take you through a comprehensive guide on how long you may take to finally bring down 20 pounds of excess weight.
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How Long Does It Take To Lose 20 Pounds?
The healthy way someone can lose 20 pounds is by losing two or one pounds every week. And this means you will need about 10 to 20 weeks or less to achieve this goal.
Below are tips that can fasten your goal to lose 20 pounds healthy and safely
- Set realistic goals
Not only in losing weight, but when it comes to achieving any life goal, realistic goals are the key. In this case, you should keep in mind that when aiming to lose 2 or 1 pound of excess body weight every week, you should aim to burn 1000 & 500 calories each day.
5 percent of your body weight is among the top realistic goals someone should set. For example, if you are currently at 200 pounds, then aim at losing 10 or 20 pounds first because when you aim at 40, this seems to be an unrealistic goal.[ Also read: How To Lose 20 Pounds In A Month]
- Be ready
Know that weight loss is a journey which means it will take your time as well as your effort for a duration of time. Therefore, the long-time commitment would help in this case.
Ensure you set yourself ready to make healthy and permanent lifestyle changes. Below are tips that will help to get prepared for a journey of losing 30 pounds of weight in a short period:
- Not being under any pressure
- Motivated to shed excess weight from your body
- Willing to change your day to day activities
- Utilize healthy food as the best means to cope with anxiety and stress
- Have supportive professionals or friends besides your journey
- Willing to change your daily eating habits
- Have enough time for exercise
Once you are entirely ready, everything will be manageable to adhere to and also help your stay committed to your specific goals.
- Drink more water
Your water consumption should be at a high rate during this time of losing weight. Water is claimed to bump someone’s metabolism up and increase the number of body calories someone burns. Overall, this enhances weight loss.[Also read: The Best Way To Lose 30 Pounds Fast]
So, drinking water before you take your meals is helpful as its keeps the victim full by reducing the appetite feeling. For best results, drink water after & before your meals about 2 liters, especially when aiming to lose 30 pounds of weight in the shortest time possible.
- Count your calories
Counting is ranked among the effective ways that tend to help people lose weight at a faster rate. To lose any amount of excess body weight, you should utilize more calories in your day-to-day activities compared to how you consume them.
And someone can only do this via reducing your calories intake or preferably by increasing the physical activity to burn more calories. There are apps on your smartphones that can help your count your dairy intake calories.
- Cut on carbs consumption
Refined carbohydrates are rich in fiber content that is stripped off when processing, resulting in low nutrients. Further, refined carbs are rich in glycemic index, meaning they literally get digested to being absorbed into someone’s blood more easily. Also read: How Can I Eat And Still Lose Weight?
Rapid digestion leads to blood sugar spikes, followed by more hunger. Overall, consuming an excess of this type of food is linked with increased fat and weight gain content in your body. Consume foods like whole-grain bread, brown rice, barley, whole-wheat pasta, etc.
- Take proteins
Proteins are considered essential when it comes to losing a big amount of weight like above. This is because proteins are linked with decreased belly fat, preserved muscle mass, and effective metabolism. In addition, the macronutrient in protein is claimed to decrease the daily calorie intake and curb someone’s appetite. Lean meat, fish, poultry, legumes, seeds, eggs are foods rich in healthy proteins.
how to lose 20 pounds in 2 months with exercise?
Working out gives someone rich results in losing any amount of weight. However, to achieve this, someone should ensure the workouts you are performing need more calories compared to what your take dairy. And to hasten the process, consider including intermittent fasting in your weight loss goal. Exercise helps raise your metabolism, lose fat and lose build muscle mass.
- Add cardio
Cardio is a form of the best activity that we should include in our weight loss goals, and this is based on the weight-loss experts. Cardio increases fat and calorie burning leading to more weight loss.
There is this research that complained that performing such exercises can burn 600 to 400 calories in 60 and 40 minutes. You can include cardio in your lifestyle by running, jumping the rope, boxing or rowing.
- Lift weights
This workout is as well-known as resistance training. And it includes using the muscles to work over specific forces to eventually build strength and endurance. This exercise increases someone’s fat-burning capacity and also the rate of your metabolism. When doing resistance training, begin by warming up for around five minutes by performing below light aerobics:
- Basic push-ups: this workout tends to support your body with the hands and feet. So place your hand wider than your shoulder width while the palms are flat on the ground. Straighten the arms without locking your elbows and lower the torso allowing the chest to be above the ground. Further, push back to your starting position.
- Dumbbell squats & press: hold two dumbbells and drop to squat and pause for some seconds. Further, press the back up to the beginning position and raise the weight right above the head.
Conclusion
Probably someone can achieve to lose 20 pounds in a month or less with the right ways and strategies like above. The best tip is aiming to target 2 or 1 pounds in a specific week, which means you require 20 to 10 weeks to successfully achieve your goal. I can encourage someone that weight loss is possible because I was once a victim of being overweight. Keep pushing no matter what.