Losing weight represents hard work and if you're an average man who's overweight or obese, it can take you many months to reach your goal weight on a standard low-calorie diet. Some programs enable you to lose weight more quickly. For example, if you follow a medically supervised liquid diet program, you may be able to drop 40 to 50 pounds in five months.
Basics
You put on weight when you eat more calories than you burn in exercise and normal daily activities. To lose weight, you need to reverse that process -- in other words, you need to burn more calories and take in fewer. Although common wisdom states that you need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound, it's not that simple. As you cut back on calories, your body actually slows itself down, making it harder to lose weight. To counteract this effect, you need to stay as active as possible, keeping your metabolism high.
Options
If you only have five months to lose weight and you have 30 pounds or more to lose, consider enrolling in a medically supervised diet program run by a clinic, a hospital or a university-based health system. These programs usually provide liquid diet shakes for most of your meals, possibly combined with a prepackaged meal for dinner; you'll avoid all other food while following the plan. It's possible to lose between 2 and 5 pounds per week on this type of program, according to the University of Kentucky. Weight loss will be more rapid at first, but you potentially could lose an average of 2.5 pounds a week over five months, for a total of 50 pounds.
More Options
If you don't want to go to the extreme of enrolling in a medically supervised diet program, or if you need to lose less than 30 pounds, you might want to simply cut back on your calories and increase your exercise level. If you eliminate about 400 to 500 calories per day from your diet and burn another 200 calories through physical activity, you potentially could lose 1 to 1.5 pounds per week, or 20 to 30 pounds in five months.
Considerations
Regardless of which diet option you choose, talk to your doctor before starting your weight-loss efforts. Discuss any health concerns that need to be addressed while you're dieting. For example, if you're diabetic, you'll need to adjust what you eat to make sure your blood sugar levels stay constant. If you're prone to gallstones, you can't lose weight too fast or you risk a gallbladder attack. Your doctor will be able to give you diet advice that takes into account your complete health picture.
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