How much weight can I sensibly lose in 5 months?

[Hammy02]

I am hoping to lose 3 stone in time for getting married. Is this possible? I have put on about 2 stone over the last couple of years through drinking too much wine and not exercising. I am planning on cutting right back on the drink, not eating after 6pm and exercising about 5 times a week.

doing slimming world and sticking to religiously and excercising i've managed to loose 1st 5lb in 8 weeks

Yes you can do it but will need to be focused and not stray much if at all. Also exercise lots if you can. I lost over 3 stone in this amount of time by counting calories and exercising about 5 times a week for an hour a time.

Choose your diet, get started now and keep your eye on the prize

I also lost weight for my wedding and it is a great motivator!

Sensibly?

20lb.

A sensible, healthy, realistic, sustainable weightloss is 1-2lbs per week.

I just lost 3 stone in 5 months! But you need to be very focussed and do exercise as well. Try myfitnesspal to give rough idea of what you need to do. No need to not eat after 6pm but you will need to be careful what you eat. I have basically done 1200 calories a day of the low fat low carb variety - not even fruit or carrots (basically dukan diet food but protein and vegetable days).

I am doing ww and have lost 16.5lbs in 13 weeks, so I agree with Show of Hands. I suggest you start with smaller targets, to stop you feeling discouragedif your target seems way off... say half a stone in 5 weeks, then 5% of your weight etc.

I average out at a stone every three months - but only if I really knuckle down and focus with minimal slip-ups. one year down - 4 stone down!

Over 5 months I'd say to really maintain any more than 1lb a week off you would have to do all sorts of things like regularly changing exercise regime so that your body continually has to adapt and push itself - you would also probably progressivey have to eat less and less - again because your body starts to adapt to your calorie input.

I mean - you could risk your health and try something mad like the maple syrup diet or something - but it would be better to focus on trimming and toning to change your shape rather than busting a nut trying to look like a twig.

I lost about 3 stones in less than 5 months and I didn't do any exercise. If you like it, by all means do it but if you can't exercise, don't let that put you off dieting. Check out this link:

oops

www.drbriffa.com/2011/03/15/why-aerobic-exericse-should-be-about-being-healthy-and-having-fun-not-losing-weight/

and this

www.drbriffa.com/2010/09/13/study-reveals-that-women-need-to-exercise-for-77-hours-to-lose-a-kg-of-fat-and-why-knowing-this-can-help-maintain-the-motivation-to-exercise/

basically, you need to exercise for 77 hours to lost a kg of fat. The most significant weight loss comes from changing your diet.

Moral of the story: different things work for different people!

And there are lots of reasons why different things work for different people - its not just their metabolisms but their ability and motivation to stick to a diet, the sort of diet they choose (as some better for quick weight loss than others) and the nature of their exercise regime.

Also on that point - some diets good for fast weight loss but might not be great for keeping weight off longer term. I wanted fast weight loss, and then I'll work at maintenance afterwards.

For me the exercise is about toning and not about loosing weight - I agree weight loss is mainly about what you eat.

Undertone - I have really pushed myself on my exercise regime - admitedly only 3x a week but it has changed & advanced as I have got fitter. Same with the diet - started off on tesco diet totals plan, when I reached a plateau moved to lower carbs... (not ketosis diet though, like dairy too much - basically dukan but have vegetables every day) so have not done anything stupid like maple syrup diet.

Meanwhile, 6 months later...
On 6th October I was 12 5 with 40% fat, size 16 and flabby...
On 6th April I am 9 3 with 24% fat, size 10 and toned...

I don't especially want to loose more "weight", but would like to get to 23%.

I'm not against exercise but I think it's clear that exercise for weight loss works for almost no-one.

Well - hang on Jumpty - I eat 1800 calories a day, and work off ca. 400-500 every day through exercise, except for a day or two a week where I just eat 1400 calories. My net calorie intake (i.e. gross intake minus energy expenditure) correlates with, in effect, a 1300-1400-a-day restricted diet. It's coming off beautifully, thanks, and I'm fit and toned. I find that if I don't exercise then focusing on calorie intake becomes too oppressive, and I like to eat, so 1800 cals suits me just fine.

Ya boo sucks to all exercise doubters!

Undertone, if you're enjoying what you're doing that's great for you, I was responding to the advice you gave the OP. To work off 500 cals in exercise, you'd need to run quite fast for an hour or longer, depending on your size etc. Just sitting on your arse burns about 100 cals an hour. For most people, especially those carrying weight, that amount of running or equivalent output is not feasible. Plus, increasing exercise generally leads to increased hunger and is often off-set by people eating more. By all means exercise if you like it, but I think many people would have a better shot at losing weight if they focussed on sorting out their diet first. The reality is that most people fail on diets and fail repeatedly but keep going back to the same old mantra about exercising to lose weight.

Mmm, myfitnesspal has suggested today that I burned 1000 calories through exercise! I doubt it was anywhere near that high, and in any case I still only ate my regular allowance of 1200 calories.... Actually thought this evening if I did shred tonight I'd have negative calories!

Stationary bike, very vigorous effort 25min 304 calories

Running (jogging), 10.9 mph (5.5 min mile) 28mins 492 calories

Elliptical Trainer 6 mins 52 calories

Swimming laps, freestyle, fast, vigorous effort 20mins 198 calories

Maybe the effort on the bike or swimming wasn't as vigorous as envisaged by myfitnesspal - but I did swim front crawl 750m (30 lengths) in 20 mins and I did really push myself on the trixster.

Can't see the point in eating more to offset the exercise, to me that defeats the point!

Foreveronadiet - you ran for 28 minutes at 10.9 mph?! Most exercise machines are set up to show km/h - it would make more sense if you were running at 10.9km/h (i.e. 10-ish minutes a mile). The women's world record for running a mile is 4 minutes 12 - so you must have really been hoofing it to manage 5.5 minute miles for 28 mins!

Good point, of course it was 10.9km an hour will change, didn't notice that!

Did think it seemed a bit high though (number of calories) and in anycase still only ate 1200 despite the exercise (5km running, 750m swim and 7km bike, plus warm up on elliptical trainer ..

Still an amazing amount of exercise!

I'm recovering after 1-hour Body Combat followed by 1-hour Legs, Bums & Tums back-to-back last night. The 80th lunge in LB&T was Not Fun.

Spinning tonight for an hour. I realise that I hardly ever really pushed myself in exercise until I tried a spin class. During the class I hate every second of it, but 30 mins later I get a maHOOsive endorphin rush and an urge to admire my thighs in the mirror.

One thing I find that if I do exercise (and I don't run- UPhill walking at a pace, but nothing hardcore!) my stomach muscles wake up and flatten a lot. So I can go up with a bulge and come down flat!

I agree that eating less is the best way to lose fat but I really think you need to combine both dieting and exercise to get the best results. Exercising helps tighten up skin as you lose, suppresses the appetite, makes you happier and adds muscle which burns more calories just by having it IYSWIM :)

Don't stop dieting just because you fall off the exercise wagon but try to move more if you can. It helps a lot (although actual weight loss wise it will slow things down when you start adding muscle but inch loss and appearance wise it will be much better)

Yes, a lot of exercise, am training for a triathlon!