[FunSize]

I decided I needed to make a goal for my 30th birthday which is coming up at the end of July. So I decided on an even 20lbs in a little less than 3 months.
I really really need to do this! It would put me at the same weight as when I met my husband. I want to be able to wear the same mini skirt I did nearly 10 years ago!
It's do--able... right.... RIGHT??????

[nickilaughs]

That's 7 lbs a month. Hard to do, but possible. But you can't likely afford cheat days at all unless you have a super fast metabolism. At your height, you also have less calorie wiggle room. What's your plan to lose the weight?

[FunSize]

I'm doing 1200 cals a day plus walking a few miles in the morning.

[EmmaD]

Only one way to find out!

You are still young, that works in your favor for quicker weight loss. You are on the short side, which works against you.

I would think if you make a dedicated effort to focus on strength-training you might tighten everything up such that even with less weight loss you could rock the mini skirt.

It's a fun goal and I hope you make it (you will post photos in 3 months, right?).

I wish you luck! (I have the same weight loss goal but over 4 months. Mine is just an arbitrary deadline though.)

[Krazy]

Yes, definitely! I think maybe you should up your calories to 1500 a day EVERYDAY (no cheat days for the next 3 months) plus 1 hour intense cardio 5-6x a week. At your weight, I honestly don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t lose 7-8lbs a month. Although, sometimes are bodies don’t do what we want

And being short really makes no difference, someone that is 5’10 and 150lbs would require about 50 more calories a day than someone that is 5’0 - if you go by the ‘bmr calculators’ (which I don’t personally).

[FairyGaia]

I lost 25 pounds in 45 days as a jump start with my diet (you can read how on my blog- But I needed to lose 150 pounds so it's easier when your very large at first. But I am 64 & 5'1". I also did this experiment with Reiki where I ate and exercised the same for one week with and one week without Reiki treatments (along with using a red light on my Solar plexus and lost twice as much as any other time in the last 8+ months. Also I cut out all sugar, sugar substitutes and gluten . A lot of celebs have lost weight quickly this way. Hope that helps.

[nickilaughs]

I'm with the others about not cutting your calories too much. Especially being young your metabolism is at it's peak and cutting down too severely can actually damage it.
I would recommend around 1400 to 1500 calories a day.
Walking miles a day is probably one of the slowest ways to lose weight. Have you heard of HIT? (High intensity intervals). What it I told you instead of spending hours walking, you could do 2 to 3 strength training sessions a week and two 20 to 30 minute sessions of cardio, and you'd likely burn many more calories and have more definition quicker? It's much more efficient to lose weight. However, when you lose fat this way, the scale number may not change but you can easily drop a couple sizes and actually look much better.
It was hard for me to change this perception because my scale hasn't budged for weeks. But I decided to dive in anyway, and while the scale hasn't moved, everyone at work keeps exclaiming how much weight i've lost in the last month. They can't believe the scale didn't budge. If you're willing to give it a shot, and save a lot of time and gain efficiency here's what I'm doing:

Diet: *MOST IMPORTANT PART
if you eat 1200 calories of crap, it will not help you, as more research is being done, a calorie is no longer a equal calorie. There is a huge difference between 1200 calories of chicken/fish/veggies/hummus/nuts and three lean cuisines in a day. I did this in the past, yeah I lost weight, but I had no tone, and was "skinny fat."

This is what I do/recommend
High protein, moderate carb, moderate fat diet.
Lots: vegetables/tuna fish/eggs/chicken/turkey, mustard, hot sauce/salsa
There is some: nuts/protein bars/bacon, mayo, tomato sauce, alfredo
There is no cookies/bread/pasta; No sodas or diet.

Exercise:
two cardio sessions a week, you can do more if you have time, but try to keep them separate from your weight training. Do something you like. I like spinning, everyone's different.
2 minutes of warm up
Then for 20 minutes: 30 seconds of all out as fast as you can, followed by 30 seconds of slow/moderate pace of whatever cardio exercise you pick
then 2 minute cool down.
HIT has been shown to be much more effective for fat loss than a long walk.
2-3 days of weight training.

3 sets with 8 to 12 reps
Squats
Lunges
Chest Press
Push ups
Pull Ups (modified if needed, I need tons of modification still!)
Bent Over Rows

Starting out, it's more about learning proper technique. Add weight later, you will not bulk up, you will get lean.

[misspixie]

Depends on how you want to do this.
The bottom line is that you'll need a huge calorie deficit, either through severe food restriction or through moderate food restriction and a huge exercise load. Severe food restriction combined with a huge exercise load often doesn't work for many and although nobody really seems to know why, this particular combination will often result in slowwww weight loss. There is no scientific explanation for this, but it is an effect that many trainers report over and over and over again and many people who do this report exactly the same. However, the latter case usually happens when calories are less than 800 per day and exercise is of moderate to high intensity for several hours at a time. There are less reports of this happening if calories stay around 1100 or higher and the exercise is of low intensity, even if it is for hours a day.
The other thing you're facing is that you're at a somewhat smaller size than many who have huge losses on, say, Extreme Makeover Weight Loss Edition. It's easier to create a huge calorie deficit when your body mass is higher and therefore the number of calories you've been consuming to maintain it is higher than those required to maintain a lower body mass. You'll notice on that show that once the participant's weight is roughly where yours is, the weight loss goal is significantly lower than it was when the participants were at their highest weights. Sometimes you'll see a Phase 3 weight loss goal of 20 lbs in 3 months (which is what you want) so that should tell you that it is achievable but not easy to do.
It'll be hard, but it isn't impossible.
Good luck!

[EmmaD]

Originally Posted by Krazy

And being short really makes no difference, someone that is 5’10 and 150lbs would require about 50 more calories a day than someone that is 5’0 - if you go by the ‘bmr calculators’ (which I don’t personally).

Wow, of course, I had never thought about it that way! I was thinking of my shorter friends who struggle so much to lose a couple of pounds but my taller friends who can drop 30 seemingly without even trying. It would have made more sense for me to say that she doesn't have much to lose so that tends to make weight loss slow down.

To the OP: I hope you make your goal! Did you decide on any changes or are you sticking to your original plan? I am taking note of the suggestions here as I have almost the same goal.

[Locke]

Those last few pounds can be really agonizing to lose. I think it's a good goal but you should be kind to yourself if you don't make it.

[IanG]

Easy peasy at your weight.