My boyfriend is coming to visit in July, since he lives away, and I wanted to be at least 200 by then. I'm around 230-ish (I haven't weighed myself recently), but if I really monitor what I eat (I've crashed and burned these past few days because I over ate, but you all know that) and exercise, is this possible? My work out goes like this:
Day 1: 30 mins of cardio (usually the elliptical). I also walk to the gym.
Day 2: 15 mins of cardio (again, the elliptical), 30 of weight training.
And I alternate that when I go.

I try to go about 5 times a week. With this regime and my eating, can I get to 200 by the end of July?
I just want to be healthier, you know? And it wouldn't hurt to be looking good when my boyfriend came to visit ;]

**I'm sorry I post so much, I just have so many question...**

Everyone is different. Many would suggest that you not set a pound / time limit to avoid being disappointed. I feel that weekly and monthly goals of specific amounts can work to keep us on plan. You have all of 5 months until you get to the end of July. At the rate of 6 pounds per month you should be at your goal. That's about 1.5 pounds per week. I think just about anyone who is 100 pounds over their ideal weight (with no other medical problems) can achieve that with determination and good planning. Break it down to weekly goals, meet each one and stay encouraged as the time goes by.

What you eat is way more important in losing the weight than your exercise routine. I believe exercise is very important, but its the food you eat that makes the biggest difference in gaining or losing weight. Eat a healthy balance of 1400 - 1500 calories and keep up the exercise - you'll be amazed at what great results you will have.

Lin

Sometimes setting "deadlines" for yourself in terms of weight can be counterproductive. On the one hand, it's good to set a goal for yourself, because it can keep you motivated. On the other hand, though, if you set a deadline for yourself and you don't meet that deadline, you can end up feeling discouraged all over again.

Having said that -- 30 pounds in about five months isn't that unrealistic, as long as you realize that there will be weeks when you don't lose as much as you might want to, and there will probably even be weeks when you don't lose anything at all.

My advice would be just to work on losing what you can, and by July you're certain to be down at least a little. Putting pressure on yourself can be a bad thing.

Good advice.

Thanks <333 This is all such good advice ^-^
I'm mostly just trying to be a size 16 by then

I think you can totally do it. You're exercising and trying to eat healthy. I would suggest just to stick to plan. If you fall off the wagon, try to make it a one day or one meal thing. Sticking to your plan will make all the difference. When your BF gets home, he won't be able to resist you

Lin's advice is spot on. And always remember, your guy is going to be thrilled to see you after a long time apart even if you haven't lost weight. And any weight you *have* lost is going to wow him even more.

You can definitely do it. You said you monitor what you eat — are you following a plan or just trying to be healthier? It might help to track what you eat and follow some sort of guidelines. Maybe you don't need that, but I can never seem to make it work without paying close attention to what goes in.

By monitor, I meant my caloric intake.

&& oh my goodness. Just dance is a work out. I burned over 700 calories doing it for 45 minutes.

With respect this is extremely unlikely. Go plug your stats into a heart rate calculator and you'll see that to have burned so many calories in 45 minutes you would have had an average heart rate of over 170 which only an elite endurance athlete could do. You probably burned more around the neighborhood of 400-450.

As for your goal it is entirely possible. Just break down the numbers to a daily goal which in your case is aproximately a 1000 daily caloric deficit. Over the long run this would be extremely difficult to maintain but if you're focused and determined you can manage it for the next four months.

Having said that, I would personally suggest you focus less on the scale and more on your size goal (16). Take pictures every couple weeks. The scale will mess with your head big time due to flucuations in water.

Goodluck

It's entirely possible, especially given that you're young. I'm not sure you should shoot for it though, as time-related weight loss goals can have a way of masking your success. For example, you'll definitely lose weight, but you may get upset you haven't lost the entire 30 pounds. This happened to me when I was losing and I was getting frustrated until I removed all time-related weight loss goals. It was very freeing and I was able to focus instead on losing and all that I had already achieved

Your size goal is much better! But you may want to even try fitness goals instead of weight loss goals. I'm doing these now as I'm (hopefully) done losing and I wish I had done them during my weight loss! Much more fun and rewarding!

I'm not sure, all I know is I did the calculation for it. The calculation goes like this: 4.2=1 calorie
I got about 3077 sweat points and divided by 4.2 is about 730ish calories burned

Thanks all <3

I'm not sure what sweat points are. Calories burned during exericse are often vastly over estimated. Short of being hooked up to some expensive lab equipment one of the best ways to measure calories burned is with a good heart rate monitor.

Example calculator

I agree with John. It would be extremely difficult to burn 700 calories in just 45 minutes. Calculations on machines and on the internet are notoriously inaccuate (i.e., they overestimate). I don't put too much stock in them. Although I do enter my exercise into my smartphone app, I always err on the side of caution (enter fewer minutes to equal things out). Even when I'm on the machines at the gym, I input my weight as much lower so that the calories will have a chance of being more accurate.

To your original question, though, it's definitely possible to lose 30 lbs. by July. I started calorie counting in June 2011 (at approx. 185 lbs.) and I was in a size 6 by sometime in Oct.