Weight loss is a delicate issue that should be handled with care. Every year, people all over the globe make resolutions to lose weight. At the end of the year, most people don’t achieve that goal since weight loss is not a magic spell, and it actually requires a lot of hard work and discipline. In this read, we shall highlight how to lose 50 pounds in 6 months safely.
Before we dive into the different ways you can deploy to help lose 50 pounds in 24 weeks, it is first important to see if it is even possible to lose such an amount of weight in the period specified. There are numerous articles online that promise rapid weight loss, and these articles should be avoided at all costs. Such articles will have you adopting unhealthy fad diets that promise quick weight loss. The problem with fad diets is the fact that they are unhealthy and likely to cause serious health conditions. An example of a fad diet would be any diet that requires you to eat less than 1000 calories in a day or a diet that requires you to eat only a certain food for some time.
Apart from being totally unhealthy, fad diets are also unsustainable. Losing weight requires a total lifestyle change. This means that the approaches you choose to lose weight should be able to fit into your lifestyle easily and should be able to be maintained for a long time. Do you think you can survive for years only eating apples every day? The fact that fad diets are unsustainable also means that the weight loss they achieve is unsustainable. This means that you might lose weight quickly, but since you cannot sustain such diets, once you go back to your normal eating habits, you will regain all the weight you lost. In some cases, you might even gain more weight than you lost.
Keeping fad diets to the side, another mistake people who are desperate to lose weight quickly may fall into is overexercising. Working out is good and is one of the ways to promote healthy weight loss but overworking, where you are required to spend several a day in the gym doing intense workouts, is not advisable. This is also not sustainable.
To answer the question if it is possible to lose 50 pounds in 6 months, let’s continue to read below.
Read More: Lose 50 Pounds In 5 Months: Is 10 Pounds A Month A Healthy Weight Loss Pace?
To lose weight, you need to take in fewer calories than you consume or burn off calories by being active and working out. Rapid weight loss is not recommended because it is associated with many different complications like the development of kidney stones, severe dehydration, mental fatigue, malnutrition, nausea, muscle weakness, and so on (3).
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, the recommended weight loss rate is 1 to 2 pounds in a week (4). To lose 1 pound of fat, you need to burn about 3500 calories. Breaking it down into daily quantities means you have to burn 500 calories every day. You can get to 500 calories daily by reducing your calorie intake by 500 calories or burning off 500 calories by working out.
To lose 2 pounds in a week, you need to get rid of 7000 calories. Breaking this down into daily quantities means you need to burn off an extra 1000 calories each day. It is possible to get rid of 500 calories from your diet just by reducing the amount of food you eat. Getting rid of 1000 calories will require you to reduce your calorie intake to get rid of some of the calories and work out to burn off the rest of the calories. It is advisable to combine the two approaches as it helps you not eat less than 1200 calories in a day. Eating less than the said number in a day can lead to malnutrition and is not recommended by health experts.
If you can lose 2 pounds in a week, translate to 8 pounds in a month and 48 pounds in 6 months which is pretty much the 50 pounds you are aiming to lose. Although it is possible to lose 50 pounds in 6 months, the National Institute of Health recommends setting achievable and realistic weight goals. The National Institute of Health recommends losing 5% to 10% of your current body weight for 6 months (1). This is to say that if, for example, you are currently 180 pounds, you should aim to lose 9 to 18 pounds in 6 months.
Here are some healthy ways you can use to lose 50 pounds in 6 months:
As already highlighted earlier, reducing your calorie intake will help you lose weight (2). Before you do this, you need to know the number of calories you consume daily. From that number, reducing 500 calories daily should result in a loss of about 1 pound weekly.
Exercising is good for your health and it helps you lose weight. When it comes to exercising for weight loss, it is advisable to go for cardiovascular exercises. Cardio exercises burn off the most calories compared to the types of exercises and will help you lose weight even faster. Examples of cardio exercises that burn the most calories include jump rope, cycling, running, and swimming.
Building muscles also helps with weight loss. Muscles are metabolically active tissues. What this means is that they burn calories even while resting. The same cannot be said for fat mass. There are different exercises you can use to gain muscles. You can choose to use different bodyweight exercises, lift weights, or do both. It all depends on what you prefer.
The majority of the people eat three meals every day and one snack. The quantities of food may be the same for the 3 meals: breakfast, lunch, and supper. Some people prefer to eat many small meals around 5 to 6 and this is also okay (2). What is not okay is skipping meals. Although this might seem like it is helping you cut calories, it is bound to fail in the long run. When you skip meals, there are high chances that you will get more hungry, and you end up eating more than you would have eaten or are required to eat. This deters your weight loss journey (4).
You may need to consult a dietician or a nutritionist for this. There are so many diets out there, and it is wise to choose the one that works best for yourself. You don’t want to choose a fad diet as it comes with unhealthy complications as discussed earlier. You can choose to adopt a plant-based diet, a low-carb diet, a low-fat diet, or any other diet a health practitioner recommends to you (1). You may even opt for a non-diet approach, which your dietitian can help you with.
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Sleep is crucial for weight management. A person is supposed to sleep for 7-9 hours a day. Sleeping helps prevent unhealthy eating habits like midnight snacking. This makes you take in more calories than you are required to and this leads to weight gain. Getting proper sleep also helps manage stress and balance hormones that are involved in appetite and metabolism.
Foods with a high fiber content help promote weight loss. Fiber promotes satiety faster and longer (2). It means that you feel full faster and for longer, and you end up eating less than you would otherwise do.
That is how to lose 50 pounds in 6 months. When cutting your calories, always make sure not to go below 1200 per day. Make sure to also consult an expert before you adopt a new meal plan and always perform the various exercises in the right form.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!