[strawberryeyes]

hi all our wedding anniversary is coming up n i wanna lose like 20 lbs before that so if any of u has some good suggestions plz share

[MCheyenne6]

I hate to burst your bubble but that sounds like an unhealthy amount to lose so quickly. I'm not a dr. though!

[Fat Chick B Gone]

Congratulations to you for wanting to lose some weight but your expectations are a bit too high. Nearly all doctors and weight loss experts would agree that 1-2lbs a week is the max you should lose and still be healthy. Maybe cut your goal in half or even a quarter?
How do you plan on eating? Are you following a specific plan or counting calories? Exercise will greatly help you in burning calories and toning. Even if you lost only 5lbs in a month you'd likely look much better just from being more active.
Best of luck to you but please be healthy first! Remember you probably didn't gain the 20lbs in a month so it's not going to go away in a month either.

[bethbeth]

Ditto. I think 5-10 pounds at most a month is what you should be aiming for. Even if you did drop 20 in a month, your chances of putting it back on would be huge. If you want to do something good for your body, make it a goal to lose maybe 5-8 pounds a month for the next several months. You can do it!

[Erika79]

I agree with the others I just passed a month.. and I lost a bit under 10 pounds. 20 would be pretty hard for the "average" person, and I don't think would be recommended, either.
But, I wish you the best of luck knocking off some pounds!

[jayohwhy]

i know i'm the minority here, but i was able to lose 20 lbs in 30 days. i know it went really fast, but i didnt do anything creepy [like master cleanse or anything], and i eat food, like real food, regularly... so i figured that it's okay.. i'm on lean for life and i can say if you follow it, it really works!

[wendymeows]

I know it's not recommended to lose that amount of weight in a month but I can tell you that I started ww's at home and went by the book and exercised everyday and I lost 21 pounds in my first month. I couldn't help it, it just fell off so I know it can happen by following a program and not starving yourself. Good Luck!!

[ladybugnessa]

if you have A LOT To lose you might be able to do it. I lost 16 pounds the first month I was on my plan.

but if ALL you want to lose is 20 pounds... umm don't think it could happen in a healthy manner...

[LiLi Gettin Thin]

Unless you are following a specific plan, 20 lbs in a month is really hard to do. And while I agree with the others that if not done right it can be unhealthy, if you do it right and in a healthy way, it is obtainable. While most medical experts do recommend a 1-2 lbs loss per week there is also a lot of medical evidence out there that says it is safe to lose between 2-5 lbs a week. I guess it's just something where you have to decide for yourself who you want to believe.

I'm on Medifast and on this plan the average weight loss is between 2-5 lbs a week and is totally safe. I don't have a whole lot to lose, though, so I've averaged about 2 lbs a weeks so far. (You can see my signature, it's slowed from the first week, but the higher number sure does sound better! Gotta keep motivated! That and I also attribute the slow down to TOM.)

Since Medifast is a pretty big commitment, and if you don't want spend the money on it, I would try Atkins or South Beach or another low-carb diet as those tend to be the safest fast ways to lose weight. Or as wendymeows suggested, Weight Watchers at home has a good reputation also and I've heard is cheaper than going to meetings.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[Ija]

Remember also that if you were to lose 20 pounds in a month, it won't all be fat... the first 5-10 pounds (depending on your starting weight) will be water weight if you do something really drastic.

[rockstar87]

If you have a decent amount of weight to lose and are making a significant change to your lifestyle (ie: You go from eating 3000 calories of junk a day to 1500 of healthy, clean foods) you could do it. And yes, a lot would be water and muscle. You would need to workout as well to help maintain as much as possible of your lean muscle mass and keep your metabolism from slowing down.

My suggestion would be to start a healthy, long-term plan (even if you don't have much weight to lose). That way the weight loss will still be "healthy" and if you lose 20lbs in a month, great! No cheating, no slip-ups and being very diligent about the exercise and I think 20lbs is possible - as some people have shown us And if you don't lose the 20lbs, at least you didn't do something unhealthy to get there. You can lose the 20lbs eventually on a healthy plan (maybe not in time for your anniversary) but at least you won't be damaging your body in the process.

[junebug41]

Prayer.

As some have stated, it is possible to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. I did. But it's really about factors that may very well be beyond your control. You certainly can't bank on them and I would venture to say that with a lofty goal like that you will be disappointed. Sometimes, your body is just ready to let go of weight when you start working out and eating right. Most of the time it's a slower and steadier process.

Why not lay out a plan and make sticking to that your goal? To me, that's real success whether it results in a 10 pound loss or a 20 pound loss. Don't you want to keep losing weight beyond your anniversary? Do you plan to go back to what you were doing before after it?

[Shopaholic1204]

I dont have any advice really. Just be careful.

[Shy Moment]

strawberry
20 pounds in 30 days. Umm, while it might be possible to lose that much weight in such a short period of time, I have no idea what you weigh at the moment. I think death is the only healthy way to lose weight that fast and that isn't real good for our ongoing health . 1 to 2 pounds a week is the recommended amount, even my sister who is over 300 pounds was told 1 to 2 pounds a week. We lose weight by making changes to how we look at, think about and eat food. We exercise to tone the body. I know you really want to take off this weight for a special occasion but wouldn't you really rather take it off a bit slower and keep it off. You stay on a nice healthy plan and in a few weeks the weight will be gone, never to come back again and you will be able to live with the plan you used to lose the weight.

[strawberryeyes]

thank u everybody for ur kind suggestions