You can lose 20 lbs. in four months quickly and safely. You will have to lose 1 1/4 lbs. each week or 5 lbs. per month. You may need a combination of dieting and exercise to reach your goal, but it is quite achievable. Losing weight at a rate of 1 to 2 lbs. a week is considered safe by experts, according to Harvard Medical School, and you have a better chance of keeping the weight off in the long run.
Step 1
Determine your caloric needs. The Maryland Heart Center suggests you multiply your weight by 12 or 15, respectively, if you are a moderately active woman or man, or by 10 or 13 if you are a relatively inactive woman or man. This will give you the number of calories needed to maintain your current weight.
Step 2
Create a deficit of calories. To lose 20 lbs. in four months, your calorie intake must be well below maintenance level. You will need to create a deficit of 3,500 calories for each pound you want to lose, according to Harvard Medical School. This means you will have to decrease your calorie intake below maintenance by 625 calories daily to meet your goal.
Step 3
Exercise to meet or increase your calorie deficit. Exercise will help you meet your daily deficit goal of 625 calories, if you cannot do it by diet alone. You can burn off a few hundred calories each day, depending on the type of exercise and how long you spend doing it. For example, Harvard Medical School reports a person weighing 185 lbs. can burn 244 calories with 30 minutes of low impact aerobics, or 444 calories with 30 minutes of high impact step aerobics.
Step 4
Track your progress with a food and activity diary and weight chart. Use nutrition labels, books and other references to count your calories and to monitor how many calories you burn with exercise. Being a little over or under each day's goal won't matter as long as you average a 625 calorie deficit per day over the course of a week.
Things You'll Need
- Dietary reference materials
- Food and activity journal
- Calculator
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