How to Lose 20 Pounds of Body Fat in 2 Months

When it comes to losing weight, there really is no magical science. The underlying fact is you need to create a daily caloric deficit. This means that the calories you burn has to exceed the calories that you take in. If you were to break down 20 pounds of weight loss in two months, it would come out to about 2 1/2 pounds a week. With that being said, it takes 3500 calories burned to lose one pound of weight. So to make this a reality, you need to follow some specific steps that will amount to you losing over two pounds a week. In order to do this, be ready to take it to the extreme.

Things You'll Need

• Food Log
• Heart Rate Monitor

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Instructions

• 1

  Keep a food log. A single subject notebook would work just fine. Write down everything you eat every day of the week for one full week. Include everything that has calories, such as beverages, sauces, dips and dressings. This will give you a baseline of where to start.

• 2

  Add it all up. Now figure out your overall calorie intake per meal and per day. Protein and carbohydrates each have 4 calories per gram, and fat has 9 calories per gram. There is actually a website that gives you calories of foods if you happen to be confused on portion sizes and calorie content. See resources link for Calorie King.

• 3

  Make your adjustments. Now that you know how many calories your are eating, it is time for the reduction ceremony to begin. Losing 2 1/2 pounds a week is a lofty goal, but it is not impossible. This will take a daily caloric deficit of 1250 calories. This can be achieved by calorie restriction and exercise. Write down in your journal the amount of calories you want to reduce from food and write down how many calories you want to burn with exercise. For example, you can reduce your daily calories by 500 and you could aim for burning 750 with exercise.

• 4

  Eat frequent meals. This will do a few things. It will give you more sustained energy, it will increase your metabolism and it will also keep you from overeating in any one sitting. Eat every two to three hours all day, starting from the time you get up until the time you go to bed. Eat foods that are low in fat, high in fiber and have a lot of nutrients. Examples would be lean meats, low-fat dairy, fish, beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.

• 5

  Figure out your exercises. Take the amount of calories you want to burn with exercise and figure out what you want to do to burn them. There is another website that gives you the caloric expenditure of activities if you are unsure. See resources link for Activity Calculator.

• 6

  Get a heart rate monitor. Make sure to get one that also shows caloric expenditure. This way you will be able to know how many calories you are burning with your workouts.

• 7

  Do weight training. Muscle is metabolically active. Building it will help to increase your metabolism and overall caloric expenditure. Focus on exercises that target all the major muscle groups of the body. Some examples would be bench presses, military press, back rows, tricep extensions, bicep curls and squats.

• 8

  Do aerobic exercise. Aerobic training will help burn fat while building your cardiovascular endurance. Do exercises such as running, biking, swimming, rowing, elliptical or stair-stepping. You can also do spin classes for a high-intensity workout.

• 9

  Get plenty of sleep. This is a pretty high-intensity regimen to follow. In order to always be able to pull it off, you are going to need adequate sleep. During sleep is when your body has a chance to recover and regenerate.

• 10

  Get plenty of fluids. The body is going to need plenty of fluids before, during and after workouts to avoid dehydration. The Institute of Medicine recommends that women should get 2.7 liters of total fluids a day and men should get 3.7 liters of total fluids a day.