I’ve got 2 months to lose as much weight as possible… give me your best tips!

[lifeistooshort2024]

As the title says, I am going on a beach holiday to a really lovely resort in 2 months.

I am obese, a size 18/20, and should have done something about my weight months ago. But I haven’t and I have 2 months to try as hard as possible to get in shape.

What will help me the most?

TIA!

It can be very easy to slip into disordered eating when trying to restrict yourself on fad diets.

A 'diet' that works for you is one that you can stick to. Work on improving the nutrition of what you eat: wholemeal not white bread, more fibre with fruits, vegetables, seeds & nuts, a high protein breakfast to start the day. Practice realistic portion control and give yourself grace when you inevitably eat something not on your plan (e.g. I used to mindlessly eat biscuits, now I'll take 2/3 out and leave the pack in the cupboard because I've not made sweet food a restricted, bingeable cheat/treat/fall off the wagon).

And as others have said, buy something you like and feel comfortable wearing and enjoy your holiday no matter your dress size! If you want to lose weight, do it in a smart, sustainable way outside of thinking it will make you look 'better' for this trip x

No, make proper lifestyle changes. SW and WW just make your relationship with food worse and cause more problems long term.

Highly recommend WW OP. I've lost 2 stone since the beginning of the year pretty effortlessly - I was shocked as I've tried pretty much every diet going in the past and everything had stopped working. I eat more on WW than I did on slimming world, intermittent fasting or calorie counting but lose more weight. Seems to be some sort of voodoo magic but I love it!

Don’t do it. You will mess up your metabolism and will pile weight on when you get home. It needs to be a lifestyle change which takes time.

You need to work out what calorie deficit you need as everyone is different use something like tde calculator.

tdeecalculator.net

• Eat in calorie deficit (around 500 calories less than your maintenance calories)
• Use MyFitnessPal or similar to track calories
• Walk at least 10k steps a day
• At least 20 min cardio 5 times a week
• Weight training 4-5 times a week ( you can buy some small dumbbells or kettlebell and do this at home rather than the gym if easier)
• Drink 3/4l of water a day, black tea/coffee, herbal tea. No other drinks.

With food try to eat lots of protein and veg

Example

Breakfast 300cal 30g protein
2 eggs, 2 rashers turkey bacon, thin bagel, lots of spinach

Lunch 433 cal 45g protein
Tuna mayo pasta salad

Dinner 600 cal 42g protein
Spicy creamy chicken orzo with veg

Snack 150cal
Greek yoghurt blueberries

1483 calories

I've got a few months to look and feel better for a big holiday. I'm drinking more water, taking vitamins, eating way more fruit & veg and putting more thought into meals. I've lost 7lbs in 2 weeks.

it may not be enough time to lose a noticeable amount of weight but I think exercise is a great thing to get into. Do you currently do any workouts? You could start off doing some walking walkouts which you can get on YouTube, they are a great start in getting active. Holly dolke walking workouts are very good, usually from 15-25 minutes so easy to fit in for most people. I think eating a lot healthier and smaller portions will help too. Maybe have the idea in your head that you’re going to start getting healthier/fitter and have it as a new way of life rather than just for this holiday. In a few months time you’ll be so glad you started!!

Intermittent fasting. Since you want to do it quickly I would fast 3 days a week, keep calories to under 800. Just keep yourself busy on those days, snack on low calorie/ high protein foods to keep you going through the day and have a decent evening meal to keep you full overnight. If you do this religiously for 2 months you absolutely will lose a decent amount.

Slimming no world really does work, but you do need to make sure you fully understand the plan and will need to dedicate some time to meal plan and do a shop based around the plan the next day /same day to make sure you get going as soon as you can after your first session.

if you’ve not done it before the info might be initially overwhelming but read and re-read the plan to make sure it sticks. if in doubt, check in with your slimming world consultant and I would say write down everything you plan to eat for the day ad stick to it. I tend to do this the evening before, for the food I will eat the following day. That works better than writing things down as you go along.

good luck!!

Yes to walking, I usually walk an hour a day but have been really ill and haven’t been able to for six weeks. I have piled weight on.

@Femme2804 how do you deal with hunger if you're only eating OMAD and exercising? I find working out increases my appetite. I did well with fasting but I did find I had less energy some days. Was doing well but soon as my period was coming, I couldn't keep it up! Would love some tips

I lost 8kg in 6 weeks to help fall pregnant, and it worked! I was a size 16 and. 5 feet 8 inches.
I cut out alcohol, snacks, sweet things, stuck to healthy eating and drank water. I didn't have children at that point so managed to go to the gym every day, sometimes twice a day, doing swimming and classes.
Good luck !

Do you not understand what limit means?

Restrict your calories as much as possible. There are loads of ways to do this! Fast 800! Intermittent fasting! Slimming clubs! You could even start replacing meal with shakes!

The less you eat the more weight you'll lose...and quickly!

This has the additional benefit of making you feel tired, grumpy, emotional, and is also totally unsustainable so you'll end up binging on highly palatable junk food cos you'll be so bloody hungry, and you'll probably end up putting on MORE weight than you lost! Oh, and the initial bit of weight loss will probably just be water weight cos you're having less sodium at the start!

Of, you know, you could accept the body your in, and make small sustainable changes in order to achieve a long term goal, that could be setting a fitness goal, reducing the amount of processed food you eat, or cutting down on snacks or booze.

Every body is a good body. Set yourself a realistic goal and enjoy your holiday.

Water fast, look it up, along with autophagy

Unless you're extremely well controlled, I wouldn't got with intermittent fasting - you're more likely to fall off it if you're starving and get tempted. I'd go with something like Slimming World, eating smaller portions and looking for healthier treats if you can't go without them or calorie counting - the latter worked for me, I lost on about 1300-1400 cals, eat healthy, low calorie meals and was really careful with those elements some days if so I could have coffee and cake out. If we eat out, then just a banana for breakfast, crackers, cheese, veggie bites and fruit throughout the day so could enjoy a lower calorie meal option out later.

Walk everywhere as much as possible - work, food shopping if you only need a couple of bags, countryside walk as a day trip. Also, if you can find something else you enjoy - cycling, an exercise class, skipping, swimming, even a bit of dancing or odd high impact thing at home when no one else is watching, it'll all help.

The first 4-5 days will be the worst as you'll be peckish, but after that it'll get easier.

What is riccola? I googled if and cough sweets came up. Sorry if I'm being thick

Whaaaat? Please expand on this?

Eating too many sugar free lozenges ,ie a whole box, can have a laxative effect .

I wonder if sugar free polos would have the same effect?

It will. My mum almost shit herself on a coach trip after crunching her way through a packet before the first services stop.

This.

Sugar free polo's are known to have laxative effect ,if eaten in large quantities.
In fact all these sugar free sweets do .Its the large amounts of some artificial sweetener in them .

I'm size 18/ 20 and started at 16st 2 three weeks ago.
I'm down to 15st 6 this weekend and have lost 2.5 in off my waist.
I'm on 1600 calories a day and am religiously counting calories, never done that before. I can see where I'm going wrong, or where I can add in a treat.
I have an extra hours walk a day and have almost cut out sugar.
It's small but sustainable things.

But, if you do want a good ‘kick start’ I recommend Prolon 5 day. Then at the end of the 5 days, switching to 1200 calorie a day, tracking with myfitness pal or similar. I’ve lost half a stone in a month that way. The holiday is a good motivator but be realistic on what you can do in 2 months and make it a more long term thing.