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How to Quickly Lose 60 Pounds of Fat

Jun 14, 2011 | By Emma Roberts
How to Quickly Lose 60 Pounds of Fat
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If you are significantly overweight, it can seem like a slow and daunting task to lose large amounts of fat, particularly using a calorie-restricted diet as your primary weight-loss method. While it is important to limit the calories you ingest in order to lose fat, the creation of a caloric deficit does not need to come entirely from food. A combination of cardiovascular exercise, resistance training, portion control and diet modification works in concert to help you lose 60 pounds of fat quickly. Talk to your doctor before starting any new diet or exercise program.

Step 1

Perform a session of cardiovascular exercise five times per week, 45 minutes to an hour each session. Effective cardiovascular exercise needs to have two qualities: It must raise your heart rate, and it must be something you enjoy doing for an extended period of time. Swimming, biking, walking on a treadmill with an incline, stair climbing and rowing are all excellent choices. Aside from its fat-burning action, cardiovascular exercise offers the added benefit of conditioning your heart muscle.

Step 2

Create a daily caloric deficit using a combination of diet and exercise. If you have to lose 60 pounds of fat, aim for an overall reduction of around 1,000 calories per day -- 500 calories from your diet and 500 calories from exercise. As an example, if you weigh 200 pounds and want to lose 60 pounds of fat, swim for 30 minutes a day and burn 450 calories. Replace three sodas with mineral water, and you lose another 510 calories. Over the course of seven days you will be able to burn 7,000 calories, the equivalent of two pounds of fat.

Step 3

Perform resistance exercise using free weights or machine weights a minimum of three times per week. Weight training not only burns calories, it also builds muscle. Muscle mass amps up your metabolism and helps you burn even more calories while at rest.

Step 4

Boost your activity in your everyday life, not simply when you are at the gym. Seemingly insignificant changes in your daily routine can accrue to considerable caloric reduction over the course of a week. For example, leave your car at home and walk to work for a half-hour each morning and night. In that one action, a 200-pound person has the potential to burn over 800 additional calories per day.

Tips and Warnings

  • Exercise portion control when you have a considerable amount of fat to lose. Small frequent meals tend to work best, and rather than fussing with weight scales and measurements, the easiest way to gauge appropriate portion sizes is by sight. For example, one-half of a baseball is the equivalent of one-half cup of cooked rice or pasta, while four stacked dice represent 1 1/2 ounces of low-fat or non-fat cheese.
  • If you need to lose 60 pounds of fat, you may be tempted to starve yourself in order to kick-start your weight loss. However, the body tends to rebel under starvation conditions; it actually decreases its metabolism in order to hold onto every precious reserve of fat, a syndrome known as the starvation effect. When you return to your normal diet, you may actually gain more fat, since the body will conserve its fat stores in anticipation of its next bout of starvation.

Things You'll Need

  • Cardiovascular exercise

References

Article reviewed by Mary Bland Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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