Five months is enough time to safely lose a significant amount of weight. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends aiming for a weight loss rate of between one and two pounds per week. This rate helps you target fat, rather than just water or valuable lean muscle, but is still fast enough that in five months you could lose as much as 40 lbs. While dieting and increasing physical activity is never easy, specific strategies may help you better adhere to your plan and not feel extremely deprived.
Eat Less
While eating less may seem like an obvious weight loss strategy, it is the crux of any plan. Instead of obsessing over the calorie of every morsel that enters your mouth, simply reduce portion sizes and make healthy substitutions. Invest in a kitchen scale and measuring cups to be sure you are getting just three to four ounces of proteins at your meals and a half cup or so of grains and starches. Substitute skinless chicken for ground beef, buy low- or non-fat dairy instead of full-fat versions, choose fresh fruit for snacks over chips and go for whole grains instead of refined versions. These small techniques help you become aware of your food intake and can induce a fast loss of pounds.
Cut Out Discretionary Calories
You may not realize that you consume hundreds of extra, non-nutritive and unsatisfying calories every day. The American Heart Association reports that Americans eat about 355 extra calories in the form of added sugar daily---much of it in the form of liquid calories. Take a few days to keep a food log and note where your extra calories creep in---maybe through flavored creamers in your coffee, a soda at lunchtime, a donut in the breakroom, the crust of your kid's sandwich or samples at the warehouse store. Once you've identified these pitfalls, cut them out. After a few weeks, think about other places that you can trim calories without making a significant nutritional impact. Take the cheese off your sandwich, eat hard-boiled eggs instead of fried and take your morning toast dry.
Exercise
If you do not exercise, take these five months to undergo a focused exercise program that includes both cardiovascular and strength training a minimum of three to five days per week. If you put in your time at the gym, but have been doing the same routine for weeks or months, change it up a bit. Instead of jogging on the treadmill, go to a kickboxing class. Increase the weight you lift and reduce the number of sets. Try interval training in which you perform a bout of high intensity exercise followed by a lower intensity bout. A 2008 edition of the "International Journal of Obesity" reported a study finding that participants who followed interval training routines three times per week lost significant body fat in 15 weeks. Hire a trainer for a few weeks to give you other ideas as to how to tweak your program.
Plan Ahead
Over the course of five months you are likely to face social functions, travel or other situations that could derail your diet and exercise plan. If you take a weight loss hiatus every time you face a hurdle like restaurant dining or traveling, you will slow your overall weight loss rate. Instead of giving up in these situations, plan ahead by researching restaurant menus online and coming up with orders that fit your calorie budget. If you have to stay in hotels, find out if they offer a gym; or pack running shoes and resistance tubing in your suitcase for a quick interval workout you can do in your room.
References
- National Institutes of Health: Tips for Losing Weight
- Harvard School of Public Health: What Should You Eat?
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Losing Weight
- "International Journal of Obesity"; The Effects of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise Training on Fat Loss
- American Heart Association: Association Recommends Reduced Intake of Added Sugars
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