How to Lose 20 Pounds Before I Get Pregnant

During pregnancy, a woman of average weight before getting pregnant can expect to gain 25 to 35 pounds. For a women already above her ideal weight, those extra pounds gained during pregnancy can become an additional burden on her body. "Think how uncomfortable you'll feel while you're pregnant if you're carrying around even more weight," said Dr. Sheah Rarback in a 2002 issue of "Shape" magazine. A mother's health and nutrition is critical to a baby's health, so losing weight is a good idea for those planning a pregnancy.

Things You'll Need

• Notebook
• Scale

Show More

Instructions

• 1

  Weigh yourself to determine your starting point.

• 2

  Decrease your caloric intake, increase your activity level or do a combination of both. To lose 20 pounds before you get pregnant, you'll need to burn more calories than you ingest. Experts recommend consuming about 500 calories less per day while trying to lose weight, according to WebMD.

• 3

  Write down a tally of all that you eat in a notebook, counting the calories of the items and adding them together as you go throughout the day. Keep the amount you ingest in line with the goals that you established for your weight loss.

• 4

  Eat low-calorie foods such as vegetables to help fight hunger and tell your body you are full. Drink plenty of water.

• 5

  Weigh yourself daily. This will help keep you motivated, says WebMD, which will keep you on pace to lose the weight before you get pregnant.

• 6

  Maintain the caloric deficit until you have lost all 20 pounds. The speed of such losses will be determined by the amount of calories you eliminated from your diet and the amount of additional exercise you undertake. WebMD suggests that an average weight loss expectation is about three pounds per week, meaning it will take about seven weeks until you've lost 20 pounds.