[JackieB]

I've been "trying" to start the whole diet thing for a few weeks now. I hate to use it as an excuse, but the holidays really did me in. I've been planning my upcoming vacation for 6 months and each week I planned on "starting Monday." Well now I'm down to a mere 3 weeks and I'm bigger than I've been my whole life. I had a rough year with my health. Nothing weight related but it limits me to what I can do for exercise. I want to lose as much as possible before the cruise without starving myself (I'm just watching what I eat and loosly following WW) I go on long walks but I'm starting to panic!! Will I see a significant weight loss in 3 weeks without much exercise??

[martiniforme]

It's all about your body. It's unique from mine or anyone else's.
What is drastic to you?
Most of us doing calorie counting (aka: loose WW) combined with a fair bit of exercise, only lose 5-10lbs a month. The more you weigh, the more weight that comes off.

I would suggest light exercise. You don't have to be running marathons or bench pressing your weight to exercise. Most of us do walking programs (like Walk Away The Pounds) and do toning repetitions with 2lb-10lb weights.

Do what you can. Remember, just because you aren't setting out to exercise doesn't mean an opportunity won't present itself. Walk to the store instead of driving, spring clean early, get up and change the channel, etc. And really, if you can do an activity that will get your heart pumping for 20-30 minutes will do your cardiovascular system good, and will help you burn calories

[AquaWarlock]

as noted above - some light exercise is recommended, to minimize/prevent losing muscle along with fat when doing your weight loss - and to help rev up metabolism just a little bit.

And one pound is roughly 3,500 calories - so if you burn 500 more calories than you consume over 7 days then you could do a pound a week. To figure out how much calories your body burn per day, times your weight by 10 THEN times that by 1.1 - 1.2 for a rought estimate (a 160 pound person would burn, for example, 1760 to 1920 calories a day by that calculation) ~ adjust diet/exercise as needed to create the deficit as needed for weight loss.

And as always, *safe* weight loss is about 2 pounds a week, anything more is either loss of water or non-fatty tissues, both of which are pretty bad.

[britomart]

I doubt anything called "drastic" can be achieved in 3 weeks without liposuction or something... But don't use that as a reason to give up on yourself! Even though you might not lose enough for other people to notice, YOU'LL know that you've started taking care of yourself -- and when you get back from your vacation, you'll be however many pounds lighter than if you had just given up and waited until after the vaca to start!

[Jasmine419]

The truth is that for the sake of your health, you really shouldn't lose a drastic amount of weight in 3 weeks. Dropping more than 3-8 pounds or so in that amount of time will just set you up to gain it all back and then some, especially if you're going on a cruise where temptation lurks everywhere. I actually started at your starting weight, and in the first few weeks I lost about 5 pounds by counting calories and walking every day. I was in poor cardiovascular shape so I couldn't excersize much in the beginning.

I know this is kind of a cliche, but try to think of it as a lifestyle change with your ultimate goal being a healthier life, not just looking good on vacation. You'll be much more likely to stick with it that way.

[Cheercoach]

3 weeks isn't a whole lot of time. And I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is something you would like to continue right? So, essentially you have to change your lifestyle. And like it was said before in previous posts, everyone is different. You may experience quick weightloss or you may not. But if this is a goal you would like to achieve I would suggest sticking it out, even if you don't see any drastic changes in 3 weeks. It's a very trying experience, and I'm sure you've read the posts where ladies on here get very frustrated by the scale not moving. But the victory of weight loss is oh, so sweet. Good Luck!

[JackieB]

I'd be happy with a 5 pound weight loss. That'd be enough to boost the self esteem a little and make my clothes fir a little better Thanks!