Trying to lose weight can be disheartening if you have no idea how long it is going to take you to reach your goal, but with a little math and self discipline, you can estimate when you will have burned off your excess weight. For most people, the goal of losing 20 to 30 pounds can be achieved in between three and 10 months of consistent dieting and exercise. Decide how hard you want to work and calculate how many days it will take to reach your goal.
Step 1
Use an online calorie calculator like the one provided by Baylor College of Medicine to find out your daily calorie consumption and write the number of calories down.
Step 2
Subtract 250 calories from that amount and start eating that number of calories every day.
Step 3
Use an online exercise chart like the one provided by the University of Illinois at Chicago to find out how many calories you are burning with your exercise activities.
Step 4
Add the calories from exercise to the 250 calorie deficit you created with your diet and mark down the value you get.
Step 5
Start with 70,000 calories and subtract your value from that number at the end of each day. When you have reached zero you will have lost 20 pounds. If you want to make it to 30 pounds, use 105,000 calories instead of 70,000 in your calculations. Without any exercise you could lose 20 lbs. in 280 days, but with an additional 500 calories burned each day, the number of days drops to 94, so it pays to exercise as well as diet.
Posted in: Lose Pounds