Is this enough to lose 2 pounds a week?

[Anonymous]

I'm currently 169 pounds and want to get down to 120. I workout a half hour everyday and alternate each day with walking on the treadmill and using an elliptical trainer. I try to eat about 1200 calories a day. I want to lose about 2 pounds a week. is all this enough for that ?

[Ingrid422]

Those guys are right. From experience, I learned that if you want to lose weight, you can't undereat. If you do that, you're most likely to gain weight because your body is going to go in starvation mode, so it's basically going to store every calorie you eat in your body so to feed it whenever it needs it. I know it's counterintuitive but you shouldn't bother with how much you eat but with WHAT you eat. Eat whenever you feel hungry but make sure it's all good food (healthy, of course). I'd suggest eathing a good breakfast (cereals with nuts and fruit, orange juice is what I like best), a healthy lunch (I like quinoa salad with a sh*tload of veggies, some dried fruit, cashews and feta), a little dinner (not too heavy on carbs = don't eat a ton of pasta) and some fruit and healthy snacks (granola bar, yogourt) during the day.

As far as what you should do, I'd suggest some heavier cardio than elliptical. Elliptical and treadmill are not going to cut it - trust me. If it's all you can manage to do for now, it's better than nothing - do so! If not, I'd suggest swimming or running. I went from 140 to 125 in a month or so by swimming for 30-60 minutes 5-6 days a week. As you can see, it's way more intense than what you're doing right now you it should give you an idea of the effort you'll have to make in order to shed some weight. Right now, I don't have time to workout anymore but my weight is still at a healthy and stable 130. To get those results, you CAN'T diet or else you'll gain all the weight back shortly after you stop working out.

[Lilyaris]

First of all, make sure that what you're counting as those 1200 calories are vitamins and minerals you need! So.. one slice of pizza does not make a healthy meal. Eat veggies, fruits, lots of dark green leafy stuff. If you're not already taking one, start taking a vitamin pill for women your age. Here's a helpful link:

link

As for fitness... This is what you should be doing (and what I do... roughly):

link

Feel free to go with the minimum. Don't disregard the warm-ups, stretching, and cool downs, those keep you from injuring yourself and will prevent excessive soreness. Ask a staff member at the gym to teach you how to use some of weight machines. I wouldn't suggest trying out any of the free weights for a while.

If you want any advice, or have any questions about anything exercise/health related, just send me a message or add me as friend (send me a message to let me know who you are, or I probably won't add you...). What Dre and Musical said is right and 30min just walking isn't going to cut it even. Lol, also, I know it's gross, but you should be sweating at least a little in these sessions. During the Cardio workouts, you should be able to talk, but not sing. Otherwise, you're not exercising intensively enough.

[dan123z4]

actually it's a healthy rate. If you lose more than a few pounds a week it can lead to rebound. Also don't cut to many calories. Go online and calculate your caloric intake per day based on the amount you exercise than eat only a few hundred less than that amount. If you cut drasticly you'll initially lose, but soon it'll slow dwn bec eating to little tells your body it's should start storing bec it's not going to get what it needs. So losing 2 to 3 lbs a week is not only ideal but the proper way to go about it.

[Musical546]

math wise- a pound of weight is equal to 3500 calories. so in order to lose 2 pounds a week, you would have to exercise out 7000 more calories then you put in. maybe possible, but don't do it. rapid weight loss like that isn't healthy unless you've trained your body to do that. eat more normally, and put more emphasis on the work out. also, lift weights. the better you build up your muscle, the more calories you burn and frankly, the better you look.

[Asker]

thankyou so much:)

[Xx_DRE_xX]

Walking 30 minutes on a treadmill/eliptical isn't going to cut it not even. Try at least an hour. Walking is generally 6cal/min. The eliptical you generally get 10-13cal/min. unless you change the resistance. I say stick with a eliptical for an hour. From medicore to max resistance you can manage 700-1000cal/hr.

[martyfellow]

I thik youd are eating too little: you won't be able to keep exercising without a few more calories. But it's not extreme and your goal is reasonable, but go for more like 1500 a day if youw ant to keep this up long term.

[WoIIie]

No, it's not enough. Ellipticals are weak cardio.

Try eating at least 1500 calories and using that 30 minutes to do high intensity cardio routines. Check YouTube to see what I'm talking about.