Weight Loss

How long did it take for you to lose the 20LBS?

what was your daily calorie intake and activity level like?

Hope you can share it with me, to give me some motivation. I'm an impatient person and sometimes, it seems to take so long to reach my goal..

Well I have recently lost 20 lbs since September! I ate alot, between 1700-1900 with some cheat days. The important thing for me was exercise, lots of cardio and three days of strength training.

The important thing is to make sure your eating enough because eating too little will slow your metabolism. Google a bmr calculator and eat the number of cals that it suggests. This is number of cals your body needs to function and keep your metabolism high!

I have lost 20 lbs. in about six weeks before but this time it is taking be a bit longer.  I am 13 weeks into this and have lost 18.2 pounds.  But...........I feel that I am on a much better track not to find that same 20 lbs. back on me again.  I always eat 1200 calories a day which is my recommended amount to lose.  On "good " days I exercise for 15 mins 3 times a day.  For me that is the clue.  I just finished having my family here for Thanksgiving, 3 days.  I ate withint the range to certainly not gain weight but when they left I found I had gained l.6 lbs., the next day was up again .2 lb.  The thing missing was exercise so this Monday morning I begin afresh with the exercise!  One without the other doesnt seem to work for me.

It took me 14 weeks to lose 20 lbs. I ate about 1400-1500 daily and on every weigh in day, which for me was Sunday, I ate whatever I wanted but got right back on it on Monday morning.  I cut sweets completely out for the 1st month b/c I didn't know how to handle sweets but gradually put them back into my diet.  I worked in an office so with sitting down, I went to the gym 5 days a week after work and workout for 1hr and 15 mins - 1 hr and 45 mins at the most 2 hrs.   ALL cardio, running, speed walking, walking with hand weights, walking/jogging with ankle weights, and walking with bar bells too. And, I burned anywhere from 350-600 calories per workout.  No lifting because my weigh was too big, I would've bulked up manly-like.

I'm 5'4.5

Highest weight: 186

SW: 176

CW:150.8

GW:139

I told myself when I get down to 140, I want to start heavy lifting to tone EVERYTHING.

By the way, I was in a size 12, now I am in a size 8 and it's lose, not tight and sloppy looking! I am so excited because I have been in a size 10 for the longest! I am soo happy with my weight lose.

Good luck to you, you can do it if I can!

i'm slow.  it took me about 20 months to lose 20 pounds, and 30 to lose 30 (i'm currently down about 27 from my lifetime high, and my bmi is down from just over 25 to 21).  but because it's been slow, it's truly sustainable, and i know i'll never be heavy again.

my activity level has varied a lot.  initially i did a begin-to-run program 3x per week and walked ~ 30 minutes at least 2x per week.  then for four months i worked in quite a physical job.  after that i entered grad school, and my activity really dropped off for about a year and a half (though i continued to lose).  now i walk, hike, and/or run 60 - 90 minutes about 5 days a week; on slow days i walk at least 30 minutes (i have a dog, so...).

as far as calories, i don't count on a daily basis anymore, but i know that if i keep it in the 1400-1600 range, i can lose (slowly but steadily) and feel good.  that's something i can maintain for the rest of my life; it makes no sense to me to go to 1200/day, knowing that it's a temporary fix.

It took me 4 months to lose 23 pounds.  I started on July 29th at 178.6 and dropped below 155 for the first time on Oct. 29th.  I was eating between 1500 and 1700 calories most days and doing some exercise (walking, biking, gardening, weight lifting, etc.) about 5 days a week.

I've just maintained my weight this month but that's because I've been eating more (1900-2200 cals/day) to keep up with a new exercise regime.

It took me about 4 months to lose 20 pounds.  I took short walks every day, but mostly focused on my food intake, which was 1200 calories.  I was very disciplined and never went over this amount.  I stopped eating in restaurants except for maybe once every two weeks (and saved lots of money!) and even then, I planned my entire eating around that meal so I wouldn't go much over 1600 calories, even though I was eating out.

For the record, I am 5'3, in my 30's and currently weigh 134 (after Thanksgiving). 

Uh it took me well over a year... I would run 2-5km whenever I could, made sure I walked everywhere... But I made my diet so strict that I relapsed over and over again, so therefore, results were slow... I'm very impatient too, but the key in losing weight is patience unfortunately! Just take it one day at a time, make good choice, keep active, but don't deprive yourself of things that you like because then everything becomes a chore so you don't enjoy your life, lose motivation and resort to old ways.

And don't beat yourself when you've gone slightly over, zero deficit, or not as big of a deficit than you would've liked because chances are you won't gain weight going 100, 200, 300 calories over, etc, and any deficit is a good one!

I lost about 22 pounds in the beginning of last summer and it took me about 3 months.

I tried to stay around 1300 calories daily and I ran 3 miles on the treadmill a few times a week.

So now I'm just maintaining and focusing on weight lifting to get that sexy curvy sculpted look.

It took me 3 1/2 months to lose 20 lbs. I'm 5'2 and weighed 160, now I weigh 140 (give or take a pound for water weight). I feel like it's taken me FOREVER to lose just 20 lbs while everyone else loses 40 lbs. in the same amount of time... I've been eating 1300-1800 calories (except for thanksgiving...) and exercise 6 days a week, cardio all 6 times and once a week I do strength training....

Hello, I'm 5'3.5 and have lost 26 pounds since July 1st.   I have tried to stay between 1200-1300 calories per day.   I keep my calories at that level because (I hate to admit) I'm not very active with exercising.  On the days that I do get myself to walk I bump up my calorie intake to 1300-1400 cals.  Rule of thumb is to eat 500 calories less per day than you burn to lose 1 pound per week. 

I know it seems like a slow process, and unfortunately it is.  But its best to do it slow so you have a better chance at keeping it off. 

Good luck!

hi, I haven't lost 20 lbs, but I have finally lost 16lbs.  I still have another 8lbs to go.  I've been "dieting" since the end of June and the weight is coming off very very slowly because I am not necesarily not eating, what I am trying to do is just eat less and keep a good exercise routine.  In the beginning I was a bit desperate and tried to stick to 1200-1400 calories a day but no weight came off. So I changed it to average 1800-2000 a day and the weight just started coming off.  In the past 2 months I have also not been able to keep the calories down and have averaged 2100 but I still lost another 5 lbs in 2 months. 

I guess my 2 bits of advice to anyone starting is:

1. Just need to find the right number (calories) for you, we are all so different what works for one person doesn't work for others.

2. Make sure to be true to your log.  I can't tell you how important it is. It makes you think about what you are doing and keeps you in check.

Good luck.  

I am totally with all these people who kept their intake fairly high--mine was around 1700-2200 throughout my weight loss, depending on whether it was a heavy exercise day, and the pounds just melted off (20 in about 2.5 months). I really think exercise is the key and would highly recommend classes. Spinning did the trick for me--I enjoy it and the music and social aspect keep me going for the entire hour.

Of course you have to find the right number for you, but I would encourage you not to dip too low on the cals. It makes the whole process harder and, at least for me, puts one a bit on edge (to say the least). Good luck!

I lost 20lbs from May to September last year by eating no less than 1500 cals a day average. So that was 4.5 months. I am 5'1" and now maintaining 105 lbs for 1 year.

You cannot be impatient if you want to lose weight and keep it off. Otherwise it just leads to yo-yo dieting.

What are your stats and weight loss goals?

Have you used the TOOLS here on Calorie Count to figure out the optimal amount of calories you should be eating.

The first time I had to diet it took me three months to lose 20 lbs. I was drinking two slim fasts a day and working a manual labor job in addition to regular workouts at the time.  I kept it off for two years before I got pregnant, even after I got a more sedentary job.  I couldn't tell you what my calorie count was, because I didn't start tracking that until last year.  The only thing I did was get more physically active and quit all soda cold turkey. 

My personal recommendation is that diet should always be combined with exercise, so that it's actually fat that you're losing.  Plus you can eat more calories, which makes life easier

so far i've lost 16lbs and its taken me since Sept to lose it....my sw was 209 and now my cw is 193 i have alot more to go....but i will get there slowly but surely!

I've lost 35 lbs since September. I zig-zagged my cals between 1500 - 2200 per day, and did 5-6 days of cardio for 40-60 minutes. I also took 3 weeks "off" but still lost. I've managed to cut coffee down to once a week, and drink lots of water and rarely eat sweets, but I still drink alcohol. What I learned here was to weigh every portion, because what my brain thinks is small is NOT reality!