How long does it take to lose weight?

Losing weight can sometimes be a long process. The more weight you want to lose, the longer it'll take to reach your goal. The problem is no one wants to go through the whole process so they find shortcuts to try and make the ordeal of dieting and exercising as quick as possible.

Healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. If you want to lose 20 pounds, you should expect it to take anywhere from 10-20 weeks (~2-4 months). Those that are extremely overweight will notice that at the beginning of a diet, the weight can come off a lot quicker. This quick weight loss is only temporary and will eventually slow and fall within the healthy weight range.

A good way to think about how long it'll take to lose weight is to try and remember how long it took you to gain it. If you gained 40 pounds over an entire year, don't expect to lose it within a few weeks. You can usually lose the weight faster than you gained it so you also shouldn't give up because you think your diet will take too long.

There are a few things you can do to speed up the rate at which you lose weight. Don't ignore exercise. Yes you can lose weight by cutting calories alone, but exercise will allow you to eat a greater amount of food and still lose weight. Exercise also has many health benefits that dieting alone can't provide.

You should also avoid doing the exact opposite and only exercising to lose weight. There are plenty of health benefits that proper dieting gives you that can't be realized with exercising alone. Ditch junk food that's high in sugar. Sugar is a food that is digested and absorbed very quickly. It'll fill you up for a small amount of time which means you'll get hungry a lot sooner. Eat foods that are high in fiber which will slow down the digestion process and keep you full for longer periods of time. Vegetables, fruit, whole wheat bread, brown rice and oats are all foods that are high in fiber and nutrients.

When you're trying to lose weight, make slow but steady changes so that your body has time to adjust. If you're sedentary, don't start exercising 5 times per week your first week. If you eat a lot of junk, cut it out of your diet slowly. Making small changes will help you out big time in losing weight quickly and keeping it off.