An effective weight loss program is one that incorporates both healthy eating and drinking habits and participation in an aggressive exercise program. You can make both elements more effective by maximizing the number of calories you burn during your workouts and by understanding the impact that your caloric intake makes on your goals. By combining both exercise and healthy eating, you can lose about two lbs of body fat per week, expecting to reach your weight loss goal of 20 lbs in about 10 weeks.
Overall Goal
Losing weight requires that you consume fewer calories than you burn over time. Every time you create a 3,500 caloric deficit, you will lose a pound of body fat. Therefore, to lose 20 lbs, you must create a total caloric deficit of 70,000. You do this over time, increasing the number of calories you burn every day by exercising and decreasing the calories you consume by adjusting your nutritional regimen.
Exercise Effectiveness
To make your workouts the most effective, you should follow an aggressive training schedule and incorporate activities that burn the most calories per unit of time. The American Council on Exercise recommends getting 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise most days of the week in order to burn enough calories to lose body fat. Some cardiovascular activities burn significantly more calories than other activities. According to the Mayo Clinic, running, rollerblading and jumping rope are among the most effective exercise activities. A 160 lb person will burn 730 to 986 calories per hour participating in these activities.
Nutritional Impact
Your nutritional regimen makes the biggest impact on how effective your weight loss efforts are. It's very easy to cancel out the number of calories you burned during your cardiovascular workouts by eating a single high calorie meal. Calculate the number of calories you should consume per day by first using an online calculator to estimate how many calories would allow you to maintain your current body weight, and then subtract 500 from that value. Cutting 500 calories from the number of calories you burn per day will equate to one pound of body fat loss per week alone.
Considerations
If you're unable to complete an entire 60 minute workout session because of physical limitations or time constraints, it's okay to split the time into multiple, shorter workout segments. For example, you could complete a 30 minute jog in the morning and then complete another 30 minute rollerblading workout in the evening. If this is still too much, incorporate short brisk walks throughout your day. Ten-minute walks will increase the calories you burn and increase your metabolic rate throughout the day.
Tips
Losing 20 lbs will require discipline and patience. To maintain motivation, weigh yourself once on the same day every week. This will allow you to see your progress and will help to keep you more accountable throughout the week. Don't be concerned if you don't lose two pounds every week. Your personal weight loss rate may be faster at the beginning of your weight loss plan and then taper off to a slower rate.
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