How long can it take you to lose 20 lbs of body fat?

If you are overweight you probably already know the only way you are going to get Fit is if you exercise and start eating right for your fitness goal. Everyone's fitness goal, body type and lifestyle are different from one another and even if two people started at the same time each person will reach their goal at a different time. This is why it's not good to compare yourself to someone else but always compare yourself to when you initially started. Now if your goal is to lose 20 lbs of fat how long is that really going to take you? How many calories will you have to burn off to lose 20 lbs of fat? In today's blog we will go over how to estimate how long it will take you to shed off those unwanted pounds of body fat.

First and foremost if you are overweight chances are you are over eating calories and the only way to reverse that is by burning more calories than what you are ingesting to put yourself in a calorie deficit and force your body to use it's stored body fat. In order to burn ONE pound of fat you have to burn 3,500 calories so if your goal is to lose 20 lbs you would have to burn off 70,000 calories. (20 x 3,500 = 70,000 calories) I know it seems like a lot but that's what you have to do if you want to lose those 20 lbs, but before you start starving yourself or start doing a ridiculous amount of exercise it's important to know a couple of factors.

How much Weight Should you be losing per week

To lose fat at a healthy pace you really shouldn't be losing more than 2 lbs per week. If you are losing more than 2 lbs per week chances are you are losing more muscle mass than actual body fat which is something you definitely don't want to do, so strive to only lose at most 2 lbs per week. (7,000 calories)

Add More Lean Muscle Mass

Muscle helps you with the calorie burning process. The more muscle your body has the more calories your body will burn. For every pound of muscle you have your body will burn 50 calories, so if you were to gain 10 lbs of muscle that means your body will burn about 500 calories daily even if you don't train.

Don't Pay Too Much Attention To Your Weight Scale

I know I told you to only lose at most 2 lbs per week but the weight scale might not always tell you the truth. If you are doing exercises to build lean muscle like you should the scale can balance out at times. If you lose 5 lbs of fat but also gain 3 lbs of muscle the scale will only show that you lost 2 lbs. The scale only gives you an overall number of your weight but it can't specify how much is water weight, muscle weight of body fat weight. This is why taking pictures of your body is very important and more accurate in showing you the results.

Knowing what you know now it will be easier to estimate how long it can take you to lose that unwanted body fat. If your goal is to lose 20 lbs (70,000 calories) and you are burning 2 lbs per week (7,000) you can estimate that the fastest time you can do it in would be in about 10 weeks and that's if you are doing everything 100% right.. What I like to tell most of my clients is that you have to think of yourself as being in debt, so if you need to pay off $70,000 as fast as possible any chance you got to put some money down you would even if it's just one dollar. You need to take the same approach with your Fitness. Sometimes we might not feel like working out but you have to think of it as if you are paying off your debt.

Doing the Stair Master for 30 minutes sucks but if you burn 300 calories, that's 300 calories that you paying off to your balance. It might not seem like much but little by little it will start to accumulate and you will eventually bring that debt lower. Now every time you feel like cheating you should look at it like you are adding more debt to the calories you already owe. If you are 70,000 calories in debt I doubt you want eat that piece of cheesecake and add 1,000 more calories to your balance. I hope this blog has been able to clarify some things for you and helps to put you on the right path to reaching your fitness goals. If you are interested in reaching you goals as fast as possible feel free to try one of our customized programs specifically made towards your fitness goals.