Trying to lose 20 lbs in 2 months. I have some calorie questions!?!

Trying to lose 20 lbs in 2 months. I have some calorie questions!?

Okay- I want to lose 20 lbs in about 2 months. If I exercise away 300 calories... How many calories should I be consuming?

First, you need to figure out how many calories you need to consume just to maintain what you have. For a rough estimate, take your weight and muliply it by 10. Then take that number and multiply it by 1.2 if you have been mostly sedentary for the past year, 1.3 if you have been moderately active over the last year, or 1.4 if you have been very active over the last year. That'll give you a rough idea of how many calories you need per day to stay at your current weight.

If you want to lose two pounds a week (which you would need to do in order to lose 20 pounds in two months), subtract 1,000 calories a day from that. WARNING: DO NOT EVER go below 1,500 calories a day. That's starving yourself, and when you do that your metabolism slows way down and your body greedily hangs on to every last bit of body fat that you have. Not good.

Exercise also factors in. If you burn 300 calories extra per day through exercise, that means you'd only have to cut 700 calories per day to lose two pounds a week. Bear in mind this is not a perfect system. You may lose the 20 pounds in five weeks through changes in your eating habits and exercise. That's OK as long as you're not starving yourself or using diet pills or drugs or anything like that. Most people start a new diet and exercise plan and lose more than two pounds a week for the first month or so, but then it tapers off to two pounds a week until you get within 20-30 pounds of your body's "ideal" weight, at which time it takes longer and more effort to shed those last few pounds.

Good luck!