How to Lose 65 Pounds

Losing 65 pounds can be difficult and take a long time. However, if you start slowly and are consistent, you can be successful. You should aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, which means this will take between 8 and 16 months. You'll have to cut 3,500 to 7,000 calories per week, or 500 to 1,000 per day. Do this with a combination of consuming fewer calories and burning more calories through exercise. Be prepared for plateaus, when your weight doesn't change for a while. Use these plateaus as an opportunity to re-evaluate what you're doing, and make changes so your weight loss continues.

Things You'll Need

• Healthy food
• Workout clothes
• Running shoes

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Instructions

• 1

  Cut at least 250 calories from your diet every day. Do this by eliminating junk food such as chips, chocolate and candy from your diet. Soda, sweetened coffee or tea, and alcoholic beverages also have to go, since they can add hundreds of empty, or nutrition-free, calories every day. One can of soda has 150 to 200 calories. Reduce the portion size of everything you eat except non-starchy vegetables. Having a sandwich on one slice of bread instead of two can cut nearly 100 calories.

• 2

  Aim to burn at least an extra 250 calories per day through cardiovascular exercise. This, when combined with consuming fewer calories, will help you meet your goal of losing 1 pound per week. You can do this by power walking/jogging for 30 minutes or doing low-impact aerobics for 45 minutes.

• 3

  Add weight training to your workouts two to three times per week. It doesn't burn as many calories as cardiovascular workouts, but it builds muscle mass. When you have more muscle, your body burns more calories, even when you're resting or sleeping.

• 4

  Write down what you eat and how much you work out, and how you feel each day. According to a study published in the August 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, people who keep a food journal lose twice as much weight as those who don't. Also, losing a large amount of weight is not a linear journey. You will have weeks when the scale won't budge. Your journal will help you get past this because you'll know exactly how much you're eating, if you've starting cheating a little, and if your workouts are easier than they should be.

• 5

  Eat less and exercise more as you lose weight. You'll have to continually adjust your workouts and diet as you lose weight. The smaller you are, the fewer calories you'll need, and the fewer you'll burn when you work out.