How to Lose 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks and Keep It off

How to Lose Twenty Pounds in Twenty Weeks and Keep it Off

If you are like me, you probably put on some weight over the holidays. There were larger meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas and plenty of treats around the house to snack on. In fact it may have started even earlier, when the weather got colder and you spent less time outside and more time inside watching television. It is the day after New Years and all of your clothes are tight and your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight, but how?

Remember last year, when you had a similar problem, and you decided to go on a crash diet? You quickly lost a few pounds (probably mostly water) and then you got tired of starving yourself and gradually quit dieting. You may even have gained back the few pounds that you lost. You don’t want to make the same mistake this year. Instead of changing your eating pattern drastically, you need to gradually modify your eating habits so that after you have lost the desired amount of weight, you will keep it off.

More than thirty years ago I learned this lesson by trial and error when I had to lose 125 pounds for health reasons. The story of how this occurred was told in my hub entitled Introduction to the Elimination Weight Loss Diet. To make a long story short, I learned that if you simply eliminate 500 calories per day from what you normally eat, you will gradually lose one pound a week. The best part is that you get to pick which foods to eliminate. While you are losing this weight you will also be modifying your eating habits too, so that you will be able to keep from gaining back the weight simply by continuing to do what you are already doing. The details of why this works is given in my hub Chapter 3 Why Does It work?

I am in the process of publishing a series of twenty chapters on how the Elimination Weight Loss Diet works. The series begins with Chapter 1 How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off Successfully. You can begin with this chapter if you want to learn more details on how it works. The balance of this article is a concise description of how to start losing twenty pounds in twenty weeks. To make this happen you will need three things: motivation, determination and patience.

1. Obtain a scale that weighs to a tenth of a pound.
2. Pick a day of the week and weigh yourself once a week wearing the same clothing the first thing in the morning after using the bathroom.
3. Record your weight on a chart to the nearest tenth of a pound.
4. Get rid of any leftover treats from the holidays.
5. Review what you normally eat every day and select 500 calories worth of food to eliminate. If you have trouble selecting items, try simply reducing portions to equal 500 calories per day
6. Try to remain active. Take walks, take up bowling, clean the house – don’t just sit there.
7. Be patient. Because of water retention, weight loss will vary from week to week. The important thing is the long-term trend.
8. If it looks like you aren’t losing quite a pound a week, subtract 200 more calories every day. You might have miscalculated the calories the first time or you might not have started from a stable state.

At this point I recommend that you read my hub, Chapter 20 Top Ten Things to Remember. Always remember that you will need motivation, determination and patience if you want to lose weight and keep it off.

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