Four months is a short period in your life as a whole. But it's long enough that you can make a significant change in your body that may change your life permanently and for the better. But if you're looking to lose weight in four months, be sure to do it at a safe rate to avoid regaining weight later on. Tools such as a weight-loss calculator will soon have friends doing a double-take, comparing your four-month weight-loss before-and-after photos!
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Results will vary from person to person, but, using a calorie-deficit plan, the average range for weight loss over the course of four months is about 17 to 35 pounds.
Use a Weight-Loss Calculator
To lose pounds using a weight-loss calculator system, you need to create a calorie deficit. That means burning off more calories than you consume. You can create a calorie deficit by increasing your exercise, by decreasing your calorie intake or through a combination of both. In order to do so, you'll need to calculate calories of individual foods.
For instance, you might burn an extra 300 calories jogging and cut 200 calories from your diet to create a deficit of 500 calories. According to the Mayo Clinic, a safe calorie deficit is in the range of 500 to 1,000 calories per day. A phone app, online calculator or your own spreadsheet system can help you keep track of your caloric intake.
Keep in mind that cutting too many calories will make it difficult for your body to get enough of the vital nutrients needed for optimum health. For the average person, the minimum daily calorie intake is about 1,200 calories.
Aim for Safe Weight Loss
Doing simple math equations based on a months-calculator system can help you determine your daily, weekly and monthly weight-loss goals. Four months works out to about 122 days, assuming you have two 30-day months and two 31-day months.
With a daily calorie deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories, your weight-loss calculator can help you estimate that you will create a total deficit of 61,000 to 122,000 calories in four months. A single pound of fat is equal 3,500 calories, so you can expect to safely lose 17.4 to 34.8 pounds in a four-month period.
Practice Healthy Eating
Technically speaking, it doesn't matter what you eat when factoring foods into your weight-loss calculator. As long as you maintain a calorie deficit, you can expect to lose weight using your months calculator system. That being said, developing healthy eating habits makes it easier to maintain a calorie deficit while getting all the nutrients your body needs. After all, your four-month weight-loss before-and-after photos will be much more impressive if you're glowing with health to complement that trimmer figure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends eating a diet that emphasizes fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products. You should include lean sources of protein like chicken, fish and beans in your diet while avoiding saturated fats and trans fats. Use your weight-loss calculator to count up units of these dietary necessities. Including enough of these nutrients is just as vital as cutting calories.
Follow Exercise Guidelines
To maintain your weight, the CDC recommends getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, like walking briskly or doing light yardwork, per week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise, like jogging or swimming laps. Make sure to break down your months calculator into weekly segments, in order to chart how much activity you've planned for that week.
But to lose weight, you will likely need to exceed these recommendations. The more active you are, the more calories you will burn and the easier it will be to create your calorie deficit. Soon, those four-month weight-loss before-and-after notations you've been jotting down will tell the story of you achieving your goal.