Quote by Magical_felix

Look, loosing weight isn't magic. It's science.

In two weeks you should have dropped 5 - 6 pounds after drastically changing your diet and starting up a serious exercise regime. There is no easy way to do it and the food you eat is about 70% of it.

To lose 1 pound you have to burn 3,500 calories.

A good place to start is finding out what your resting metabolic rate is. There are many places in your area that can do this for you. It takes about 20 minutes.

Let's just say your resting metabolic rate is 1,800 - 2,200. About normal for a woman. That is the most amount of calories you can consume to not gain weight if you spend your days literally doing nothing but laying, sleeping and eating. If you eat more than 2,000 (for example) you will gain weight.

If you add vigorous exercise to your day you will drop pounds fast. My suggestion would be 40 minutes of cardio in the morning. Swimming, spinning, walking with an incline. Whatever you like the best. The thing is you can't fake it. You need to get your heart rate up for it to be effective. If you're feeling more determined and adventurous I suggest you go hiking. 3 - 5 miles on an easy trail. It will burn tons of calories.

After cardio (not including hiking, you need rest and food after that) you should lift some light weights to tone your body. There are all kinds of videos on YouTube you can follow that are geared toward women. You will need this tone to actually look better to yourself when you look in the mirror and not just the scale. Ideally you will do 40 minutes of cardio and 1 - 2 hours of strength training 4 days a week. On the days you don't work out also watch your calorie intake while trying to remain active.

An activity tracker like a Fitbit would make it easier to get an idea of how many steps you're taking and what your heart rate is doing while you workout.

As far as diet goes. 2,000 may sound like very little if you're used to eating a lot of high calorie processed foods. But it takes a lot of grilled chicken breast and spinach to add up to that much. You'll see that you actually feel fuller and more energetic when you stick to real food cooked in a healthy way. Also stick to just drinking water, tea and black coffee.

If you drink alcohol, try to have no more than 1 light beer, glass of wine, or spirit an hour. 1 drink is all your body can metabolize an hour without converting it to fat. Also, your body stops burning calories to break down alcohol so its a double whammy. This is one of the harder ones for me since many of my social and work activities include wine. Also if your alcohol of choice is hard liquor don't mix it with sugary drinks. That's the worst thing you can do. Vodka with club soda or tomato juice would be a better choice.

Avoid candy, buttery popcorn, white bread, soda, high calorie coffee drinks etc. that's obvious but it is everywhere in our society. So it's easy to add 500 unnecessary and unfulfilling calories a day with junk.

If you do all these things you will easily create a calorie deficit of 1000 a day and drop 2 lbs a week. 8 lbs in one month. 32 lbs in 4 months. I'm sure if you lost 32 lbs while toning up your body, your confidence, health and overall quality of life would skyrocket. It's only 4 months away if you really want it.

It's not easy. But if you stick with it you'll actually grow to like it. Youll look forward to working out because it's fun when you see results. You'll become a mirror whore and that's great.

This was very good. All so true. Health and fitness are not magic. Fad diets like Atkins Diet can drop weight fast but a life style change of both diet, and exercise are critical. After I gave birth to my son, I was frustrated that I had twenty pounds to lose. That is a lot for a woman of five one. My doctor set me up with a nutritionist and it changed my life. First thing he did was give me a dietary list of things to eat and not eat. I realized most of my diet was on the bad side. Suddenly I was faced with a decision. It took one look in the mirror as incentive. first he changed me from two meals a day to six. That's right, six. Six small meals no larger than the palm of my hand. My diet consisted of vegetables fruit and lean meat such as fish or chicken. No bread, no sugar, no artificial sweeteners. Complex carbohydrates only. Then came excercise. Tread mill 30 minutes, elliptical ten in morning. Active during day as much as possible. I was a teacher so I stood more and cut down desk time. I'd walk the isles when students were reading which improved class behavior. I renewed my love for tennis and now jog on beach. That was twenty years ago and stick to it today. I stay at 103 to 105 depending on my time a month.

So I would say to start with seeing a professional. A nutritionist. It might change your life. Good luck.

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