Losing weight safely typically involves losing 1-2 pounds per week ( 1 ). This would allow you to lose 20 pounds within about 5 months at 1 pound per week or 2 1/2 months at about 2 pounds per week.
While losing 20 pounds in a month is possible, losing weight too quickly often comes with a metabolism that slows down, increased cravings, and risks that include muscle loss, gallstones, increased (or decreased) hormones, and nutritional deficiencies. It's much healthier to lose weight at a sustainable, slow rate.
So, how long does it take to lose 20 pounds? Well, you probably won't achieve the target in less than a month.. The best tactic is to target 1 to 2 pounds every week. This means that you will need 10 to 20 weeks to lose 20 pounds.
You Can Lose Up to 24 Pounds
Although everyone's body is different, in general, people can expect to lose one to two pounds a week if they are doing so in a healthy manner, Jim said. So for three months, or about 12 weeks, a healthy goal is 12 to 24 pounds.
Simply put, you can lose 20 pounds in several months by eating fewer calories than you do now and exercising vigorously for three to five hours per week using resistance training, interval training, and cardio training. Simple enough, right?
“Women and men of average height need to gain or lose about three and a half and four kilograms, or about eight and nine pounds, respectively, for anyone to see it in their face,” said Nicholas Rule, associate professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science and Canada Research Chair in Social Perception and Cognition.
A safe, healthy, and realistic goal is to lose 0.5-to-1% of your body weight per week, which is around 1-to-2 pounds of weight loss per week for most people. In other words, you can expect to lose 12-to-24 pounds in a 3-month period.
In terms of how your body looks, “it usually takes 4 weeks for your friends to notice weight loss, and 6–8 weeks for you to notice,” says Ramsey Bergeron, a certified personal trainer. “Your friends who don't see you every day are much more likely to see a change than someone you're around all the time,” he adds.
To lose stomach overhang you have to burn fat cells in both the fat you can see directly under the skin and also the more dangerous fat that you can't see that surrounds your organs. Cardio such as swimming, aerobics, running or dancing will burn this excess fat store.
Drinking at least 64 ounces (eight cups) of water every day may help with weight loss. Downing liquid is not the only way to meet this goal. About 20 percent of your hydration needs can be met through your diet, says Caroline Susie, RDN, a national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Carrying a lot of extra weight puts your health at risk. According to experts, being overweight (possibly even 20 pounds overweight) increases the risk of diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes type 2, cardiovascular disease, and osteoarthritis (18).
According to many experts, losing 1–2 pounds (0.45–0.9 kg) per week is a healthy and safe rate (1, 2, 3 ). Losing more than that is considered too fast and could put you at risk of many health problems, including muscle loss, gallstones, nutritional deficiencies and a drop in metabolism ( 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 ).
It is possible to lose 20 lbs. of bodyfat in 30 days by optimizing any of three factors: exercise, diet, or drug/supplement regimen. I've seen the elite implementation of all three in working with professional athletes. In this post, we'll explore what I refer to as the “slow-carb diet”.
The National Institute of Health recommends setting realistic weight goals and that is to say that losing 50pounds in 3 months is neither a realistic nor an achievable weight goal. The National Institute of Health recommends trying to lose about 5% to 10% of your total body weight in a period of six months (6).
For example, to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week — a rate that experts consider safe — your food consumption should provide 500 to 1,000 calories less than your total weight-maintenance calories. If you need 2,325 calories a day to maintain your current weight, reduce your daily calories to between 1,325 and 1,825.
Drinking Water Can Make You Burn More Calories
Drinking water increases the amount of calories you burn, which is known as resting energy expenditure ( 4 ). In adults, resting energy expenditure has been shown to increase by 24–30% within 10 minutes of drinking water.
Eat Fewer Carbs
To help lose 20 pounds in two months, you should try to limit refined carbohydrates such as white rice and pasta and focus on fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates such as beans and whole grains. Dietary fiber can also reduce hunger, decrease caloric intake and help prevent weight gain.
Although everyone's body is different, in general people can expect to lose one to two pounds a week if they are doing so in a sustainable manner. "Over the course of two months or eight weeks, a healthy weight-loss goal is eight to 16 pounds," White said.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
The first place men typically lose weight is the belly, while women tend to lose weight all over, but hold onto weight in their thighs and hips, Dr. Block explains.