Committing to a new fitness goal can be daunting. However, having a structured plan can make the process clear and the goals more attainable. A six-week weight loss plan is a good timeframe to produce noticeable results in body composition, improved fitness, and overall well-being.
In this guide, we’ll share practical tips on how to create a sustainable weight loss plan to help you make significant progress in your goal over the next one and a half months.
Following exercise and diet plans is the key to your fitness journey and significantly impacts results. In 4 weeks, users can typically expect to lose not more than 1-2 lbs per week. Individual results may vary.
A realistic 6-week weight loss transformation plan emphasises consistent exercise, healthier eating habits, and steady, achievable goals – it’s not about crash diets and overnight success.
These key components are as follows:
A gradual and sustainable weight loss rate is considered to be 1-2 pounds a week (1). According to these experts, those who lose weight at this gradual rate are more likely to keep the weight off in the long term than those who lose weight faster (1).
Therefore, following this expert advice, a realistic and achievable weight loss goal should be a loss of 6-12 pounds in 6 weeks.
Nutrition is the foundation of any weight loss plan. According to research, dietary modifications influence your metabolism, satiety, and overall well-being (2).
By reducing your energy intake while maintaining the nutrient density of your foods, you’re able to reduce fat mass while preserving lean mass and increasing satiety (2).
In simpler terms, eating healthy, whole foods at a calorie deficit will help with fat loss while maintaining muscle. Whole foods also help with satiety, i.e. the feeling of fullness. This prevents you from overeating and consuming more calories than your body burns in a day.
When it comes to weight loss, progress is made by inches, not miles, so it’s much harder to track and a lot easier to give up. The BetterMe: Health Coaching app is your personal trainer, nutritionist, and support system all in one. Start using our app to stay on track and hold yourself accountable!
Note that:
Are you unsure how to incorporate these healthy foods into a meal plan? Our 6-week meal plan article gives you simple ideas on delicious meals that you can make easily at home.
In the same article mentioned above, experts also stated that, alongside nutrition, exercise is fundamental to weight loss. They stated that regular physical activity helps this goal by increasing your energy expenditure and metabolic rate (2).
The more skeletal muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn when at rest. Resistance training can help you build strength and burn calories.
Experts recommend a combination of aerobic and resistance training exercises for weight loss. Their reasoning states that (2):
Increased physical activity also helps improve hormonal balance, insulin sensitivity, and reduce stress, all factors that are related to the accumulation of excess body weight (2).
Read more: Weight Loss and Muscle Gain Workout Plan for Total Beginners
In addition to diet and exercise, factors such as sleep and stress can also impact your weight loss efforts. To maximize your chances of success on the six-week weight loss challenge, try your best to reduce your stress levels and sleep more.
Remember that:
In short, a realistic six-week weight loss plan should:
Pro tip: If you have a hard time sticking to your goals, make this 6-week workout challenge more fun by exercising with friends or family. Support from outsiders can make it easier to see our goals through.
Here are the factors that are needed to make a sustainable six-week weight loss workout plan at home:
1. Keep the Sessions Short and Manageable
For adults, a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity workouts 5 days a week is recommended, with 2 days of muscle-strengthening exercise (8).
However, if you have more time in your schedule, you could increase the duration to 40-60 minutes per workout session (9).
2. Include Both Cardio and Resistance Training in Your Routine
As previously mentioned, a routine that combines both cardio and resistance training works best for weight loss. A simple workout routine can look as follows
Light cardio exercises such as jogging, jumping jacks, or jumping rope, and dynamic stretches such as hip and arm circles
This should last between 20 and 30 minutes
Once the main workout is completed, spare at least 5 minutes to do some static stretches. These can include hamstring stretch, frog pose, calf stretch, quad stretch, etc. They help improve your flexibility and jumpstart the muscle recovery process (10).
For more details about 6-week challenge workout, take a look at our prior publication.
3. Prioritize Recovery
Without ample rest and recovery, your body won’t function at its full capabilities. This increases your risk of injury and overtraining. Some ways to rest and recover include:
Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. It helps with muscle repair, hormone regulation, in addition to improved pain sensitivity and athletic performance (11).
Increase your protein intake, as this is the building block of muscle. When exercising, a high-protein intake of 1.2-1.6 g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day is recommended. This macronutrient also helps with increased satiety, which keeps your calorie intake low (12).
Your rest days can be passive, where you simply relax without engaging in any activity, or active, where you engage in light activity such as yoga, walking, or foam rolling to promote blood flow and reduce muscle soreness.
Not a beginner? See what a 6-week cut routine looks like.
Yes, it’s possible to transform your body in 6 weeks. According to a study published in the Journal of Exercise and Nutrition, women who participated in a 6-week weight loss program saw the following changes (13):
To see these results, the women in this study combined:
The BetterMe: Health Coaching app will provide you with a host of fat-frying fitness routines that’ll scare the extra pounds away and turn your body into a masterpiece! Get your life moving in the right direction with BetterMe!
In six weeks, you can realistically expect to lose 6-12 pounds (1).
Don’t be tempted to lose more than this number in 6 weeks.
Studies have shown that rapid or extreme acute weight loss will have adverse effects on your physical and psychological health and performance (14, 15).
Yes, it’s possible to lose noticeable weight in 6 weeks. This is particularly true if you consistently follow a healthy calorie-deficit diet and exercise.
Read more: How Long Does It Take To Lose 15 Pounds? What Science & Experts Say
A sweaty six-week weight loss for females may refer to a high-intensity workout plan to achieve noticeable yet sustainable weight loss in just over a month.
Some key components to this plan could include:
As previously mentioned, slow and gradual weight loss is preferable and more sustainable than rapid weight loss. A realistic goal for this sweaty plan should be a loss of 6 to 12 pounds in 6 weeks.
No matter how intense the workout plan is, you can’t out-exercise a bad diet. The best way to ensure that you’re in a calorie deficit is to track your calorie intake. Find out how many calories you’re typically burning in a day and then track how many calories you eat. Reduce your daily average calorie intake by 500 to 1000 calories. Ensure that your meals are also made up of whole foods and well-balanced in terms of macronutrients.
According to experts, a combination of nutrition and exercise leads to more effective and sustainable weight loss (2). Your sweaty 6-week transformation female weight loss plan should have the following elements:
As the plan is to sweat during the workout, your cardio exercises should be moderately intense. The exercises should increase your heart rate and make you breathe faster, e.g. choose brisk walking over leisure walks or steady cycling over slow cycling.
Building muscle helps increase your metabolism. This helps with increased calorie burning. The previously mentioned resistance training exercises can work for this.
HIIT refers to high-intensity interval training. Such workouts involve short bursts of maximum effort exercise followed by a brief recovery. This type of high-intensity training can lead to more sweating during the exercise session.
Yes, it is. Most people typically see weight loss results after 4-6 weeks of consistent healthy calorie-deficient eating and exercise. Therefore, by following the tips mentioned above, you may also see positive results at the end.
It would be an unrealistic and potentially dangerous goal to lose 20 pounds in 6 weeks. As previously mentioned, a healthy rate of fat loss is 1-2 pounds a week. Therefore, in 6 weeks, the realistic number would be a loss of 6-12 pounds. If your goal is 20 pounds, increase your timeframe to 10-20 weeks for safe and sustainable weight loss. Regardless of your weight loss goal, it won’t happen overnight. You need to remain consistent with both your food intake and your daily movement in order to see results. It’s difficult to say. To tighten the stomach, you essentially need to lose fat and grow/strengthen your muscles. Diet and exercise are the two main factors that affect how this happens. However, other factors influence the rate of fat loss and muscle growth, including (16, 17): Due to all these factors, we cannot accurately predict how long it will take an individual to tighten their stomach. Morning weight is often considered the most accurate reflection of your “true” weight as you’re in a fasted state. As you haven’t eaten or drunk anything in a few hours, the number on the scale isn’t skewed by recent food or liquid intake. However, you should remember to use the restroom before your weigh-in. Digestion and water retention can play a role in daily weight fluctuations. It’s a targeted walking technique that’s intended to help tighten the stomach. The technique involves brisk walking with proper posture. This forces you to engage your core while simultaneously increasing your heart rate. Proponents of the flat tummy walk suggest engaging in this exercise for 20-30 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week, to maximize your weekly calorie burn.Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to lose 20 pounds in 6 weeks?
How long does it take to tighten the stomach?
Is morning weight your true weight?
What is a flat tummy walk?
With the right tips and tools, a six-week weight loss plan can lead to a strong fitness foundation. It can also lead to noticeable progress in weight loss and muscle strength, tone, and endurance.
Remember, the best weight loss results happen due to a combination of regular exercise, healthy calorie-deficit meals, and patience. Gradual progress is better than quick, unsustainable results.
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