Just for reference. I am a heavy beer drinker. But can do 5 miles a day if i push myself.

  • isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    12 days ago

    A pound of fat equates to, very roughly, 3500 calories. So you would need a deficit of over 2300 calories per day to lose that much weight in a month. Try to keep your calorie level above 1200/day at a minimum. So if you’re drinking so much beer and eating so much food you’re currently consuming 3500 calories/day or more, then yes, it would be possible. But that’s not exactly a healthy amount of weight loss. Even halving the rate would still be pretty aggressive. I get wanting to see tangible progress, but I would strongly encourage you to do this over two months instead of over a month.

  • scutiger@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    20 lbs of fat is 70,000 Calories. That means that you need to be at a net deficit of about 2300 Calories daily to lose 20lbs in a month. That’s a huge deficit which would require eating little and working very hard to hit anything near that.

    • Mikina@programming.dev
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      12 days ago

      Is this how the math works? It feels weird - I remember recommended intake for me being around 2000 or something (for a regular 30y.o semi-active male), which would make this require getting into negative calorie intake.

      I know literally nothing about this, though. Or are the 70 000 calories factored from how much a body burns? So, it’s basically impossible in 30 days for someone whose daily burn-rate is lower than 2300, based on his age/sex/activity?

      • scutiger@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Basically for every 3500 excess Calories consumed, your body stores about 1 lb of fat, and for every 3500 Calories burned, you lose about 1 lb of fat. If your intake is equal to your output, there’s nothing being stored.

        You would have to get that burn rate 2300 Calories above the intake rate, so yeah if your daily output is 2300 Calories, you’d have to eat literally nothing for 30 days to lose 20 lbs.

  • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Stop drinking beer.

    If you’re serious and your doctor thinks it’s fine (and you have some extra money) you can go on a glp-1 but even then a doctor wouldn’t recommend more than 2 lbs / week. I know people that have lost 10-15 lbs in the first few weeks so I’m sure it’s not out of the question. There are healthier ways to lose weight though.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Yes, and more. I dropped 40 pounds in about a month. Although it was due to extreme stress, so I don’t recommend that. But, it is physically possible, so there are other routes you can try.

    You’ve probably heard it before, but the key to quick fat loss is dropping carbs, including beer. Sorry.

    Track your carbs using a macro tracking app, because you don’t know how many carbs you are eating, you just don’t, and you’ll be surprised. Once you learn which foods are full of carbs, you can stop using the app, it’s just a learning tool, not something you need to keep doing.

    Get it below 100g a day, and watch the fat burn away, and you’ll start feeling so much better, after the first couple of weeks. It can be a hard adjustment for some people, but it’s worth it.

    Exercise is only about 20% of it, diet is 80%, which makes sense. It’s much easier to not consume the food in the first place, than to burn it off after it’s already fat.

    However, to be healthy, not just lose fat, you need to do both diet and exercise. That’s why it’s always presented that way--“diet AND exercise”, not “diet OR exercise”.

    It’s best to make the commitment to a permanent lifestyle change, rather than just aiming for a goal weight and then going back to drinking beer every day. You’ll QUICKLY gain the fat back, faster than you lost it, and that is disheartening.

    If you just give up, you could end up with type 2 diabetes in 15 or 20 years, and that makes being old much worse. So, it’s worth the effort.

  • Mikina@programming.dev
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    12 days ago

    There’s a lot of serious illnesses/medical conditions that will make you loose a lot of weight, very fast. I think i.e some cancers are one of those.

    They usually also kill you pretty quickly, but you didn’t ask for healthy.

    This is more of a reminder - if you inexplicably loose a lot of weight, it’s not something to celebrate, but get checked up ASAP.

  • zeppo@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    Sure, I lost 28 lbs in one month when I was first developing type 1 diabetes.

    Other than that, you might want to do calorie calculations. Exercise is great, but it takes a surprising amount of work to counter a given amount of calories. I’ve been tracking my walking with an app that estimates calories, and 4-5 miles is just getting started. I’ve been walking 6-10 miles a day. The app and online sources say 5 miles burns ~500 calories, which is 2-3 beers depending on the type. So exercise like that might be able to stave off weight gain, but it’s unlikely to result in weight reduction. You’d likely want to analyze your diet and cut out any calories over what is medically necessary. Burning more than what you take in results in weight loss. Just be sure you’re covering the basic macros, especially protein, and getting enough electrolytes and vitamins.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    It’s possible. Just depends how fat you are. If you’re 500lbs, and do a crash diet, sure. Maybe even more.

    If you’re 140lbs…ehhhh…maybe not.

  • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
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    12 days ago

    Generally it’s best not to focus on losing weight but on adjusting calorie intake. Because muscle weighs more than fat, water weighs more than either, and the goal is generally to feel fit, not light.

    When wrestling I used to do the “drop a kilo class” thing by bulking up in a way that could rapidly store water, then running to temporarily shed that water before weigh in, then immediately rehydrate up to the next weight class. That was usually around 10 lbs of weight, but I was dropping it and regaining within a 6 hour period.

    Losing weight for health reasons isn’t going to be the same for everyone. Personally I find the best way for me to lose weight is to increase my metabolism, which I find I can do through endurance running in threshold temperatures. But for other people that just makes them tired and hungry without their metabolism adjusting. And without the metabolic change, you don’t get the added benefit of literally burning off stored energy.

    Also, depleting fat cells isn’t the same as removing fat cells. Those cells are still there, and it’s going to take months for cellular change to happen in your body. So 20 lbs of weight loss in a month will mostly be loss of water, muscle, and energy stored in the fat cells. And as soon as you stop starving yourself, it’ll all come back. And that can happen in a matter of days.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    The first month, yes. In general that is not healthy to aim for. In general extreme programs are not healthy and not sustainable

    At one point i used weight watchers to successfully lose a lot of weight - I lost 109 pounds over a couple years as planning for being better able to care for kids. This is a regular program, very much not extreme. However a key part of their program was weekly weigh-ins.

    Their recommended intake varies by age, size and gender: I think I started at 2100 calories/day and was down to 1800 as I was reaching my goal. Meanwhile my ex’s target was 1200 calories/day

    The programs goal was to lose about 2 pounds/week and focus on sustainable life changes - keeps you healthy with regular weight loss. However everyone had much bigger losses the first couple of weeks. I’m sure I lost more than 20 pounds my first month on the program, but it was water weight, not repeatable. Certainly not a healthy goal

    • whyrat@lemmy.world
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      12 days ago

      ex’s target was 1200 calories/day

      ???

      A 1,200-calorie diet is a restrictive intake level that is generally considered the absolute minimum for adults. Hopefully they were under medical supervision.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Nope. Just small. There is no single threshold that fits everyone: it varies by age, weight, gender

  • JennyLaFae@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    12 days ago

    Don’t listen to me, I believe all sorts of nonsense.

    Weight is not the metric to be measuring by, it fluctuates too much day by day to provide meaningful data and encourages poor behaviors and thought patterns around healthy sizes and shapes.

    Most diets work by the grace of being intentional with your food intake via calories/nutrition/macros. Number one thing to do is cut out processed foods. Once your system readjusts to real food it gets really good at self-regulating intake, processed foods are engineered to lie to us to make us eat more. Cravings are our body asking for a nutrient from whatever source it’s most familiar with, so get familiar with the good for you foods.

    Another aspect of fat cells is they can be full or empty, our body also stores toxins in full fat cells when it can’t process them out fast enough and each fat cell can be used about 5-6 times. So to get rid of fat you need to detox firat and to get rid of it permanently you need to use up the cells. Basic idea is get on the losing a kg per week then do one week a month gaining a kg instead of losing one until you hit your goals.

    Losing weight too fast can also result in excess saggy skin, losing it slower helps with skin elasticity.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    I think it depends on what % of your body mass that 20lb is. I weigh about 150, if my target was 130 I would take a year to get there. Someone 350lb, maybe yeah a month. The first few lb always faster than the last few, so if all you have to lose is a few pounds it can be slower.

  • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    I did something like this a few years ago, dropped from 96 to 76kg in three months (44 lb?). You have to know that this rate of weight loss is unhealthy.

    If you are serious about it, aome tips,

    • more than 3l water per day, cut any other drink

    • only eat what you can cook/prepare

    • limit to salad, chicken and fruit. Some fishes are ok and you can add starch only if it’s cold (pasta, potatoes, rice)

    • cut sugar and alcohol to zero

    • 3 days running, 3 days on the gym (you are going to lose a lot of muscule)

    • get an appointment with a doctor and ask for a diet

    • get an app to count calories

    • “free days” are the demon

    Also, one of my worst battles with this was not the diet but everybody around me that is conatantly pushing you to break the diet. At home, my mither got offended because i prepared my meals, my friends were uncomfortable because i only ordered water at bars, people at my workplace was constantly teasing me because “how can you eat this trash”.

    Get an appointment with a nutritionist.

    You are aiming to something like 2,25 kg per week… that is insane. Over 1.1 is already bordering unhealthy. I did something arround 1.5… i would not recommend to lose that fast.