Are you wondering how long does it take to lose 30 pounds and how? Well, you are in the right place. For starters, it’s not a walk in the park to lose this kind of weight. It takes time and quite challenging to accomplish. However, it’s not an impossible task if you stick with the right guidelines.
That said, you will have to make a few major changes when it comes your lifestyle as well as diet. Furthermore, you need to be careful when implementing these changes to avoid stress elevations, sleep disruption, and poor eating habits.
In general, it’s very important to have a calorie deficit. Therefore, you need a regular healthy diet that’s low in calories to reduce weight gain as you try to lose the extra 30 pounds. And with fewer calorie intakes, the fat reserve in the body that’s adding you the extra weight will be used for energy.
So, the more calorie deficit the more weight you lose, and the faster you can accomplish your weight loss goal. So let’s find out how long you will take to lose this weight and how in this article:
How long will you take to lose this weight?
In general, it’s recommended that you should aim at losing about 1-2 pounds of weight weekly. So, if your target is losing 30 pounds, then you will need about 4½ to 8 months to accomplish this. But depending on certain factors about your body, you may need more or less time to fulfill this.
Factors that affect how long you take to lose weight
Hormones: hormones play a vital role in the normal function of all our body systems. However, where there is an imbalance in the release of these hormones, it can negatively interfere with your body performance.
For instance, Leptin, Ghrelin, and Cortisol are very important when losing weight. They play a critical role in encouraging weight loss. However, when there is an imbalance of these hormones, they can hamper with your efforts of losing the extra weight.
Genetic makeup: every one of us is bone with a unique genetic makeup. And this gene sequence plays a vital role in determining our characteristics both physically and biologically. Therefore, you may lose weight faster or slower than another person while both of you are under the same condition.
Medical conditions: there are various medical conditions with some having a direct influence on your weight gain and weight loss. So, if you have an underlining medical condition you feel it’s interfering with your rate of losing weight, you need to get in touch with your doctor.
Your current weight: What’s your current weight? People with more weight tend to lose extra pounds faster. However, it will reduce with time as you gradually lose weight. But if you don’t weigh that much, you may need more time to accomplish your target weight.
How to lose the 30 pounds
You have 4.5 to 8 months to accomplish the 30 pounds weight loss. However, this will not just happen without effort and determination. Therefore, you need to ensure that you are losing more calories than what you are gaining.
And you need to do this if you need to stimulate the natural metabolism to act on the fat reserve in your body. And that’s not all; some weight loss workouts will come in handy in enabling you to lose weight faster.
And according to the findings by the American College of Sports Medicine, you should spend about 250 minutes weekly in moderate-intensity workouts. And on top of that, incorporate two or three strength training sessions to promote lean mass.
Last but least, creating the calorie deficit relies on the lifestyle and the diet you take. But averagely, you need a deficit of 500 calories on a regularly. However, do not overdo this to an extent of dropping it below the baseline.
The intake of calories below the baseline is a health risk from missing a sufficient amount of essential nutrients. And due to this, losing weight may turn out as an impossible mission. Thus, women should not consume less than 1,200 calories while men 1,600 calories. That said, let check how you can start this and various way to lose weight effectively:
Getting started
Always keep in mind that “If you fail to plan you plan to fail”. So, the first step in starting this journey of losing weight is planning. Through planning, you raise the chance of accomplishing your goal. Therefore start by getting a planner, which either a notebook or the digital option in your smartphone or tablet.
In the plan, you need to plot the workouts and diets you will have to reduce your weight for the next 4.5-8 months. Alternatively, you can plan on what to have and exercise weekly to avoid guesswork and stay focus on your journey to lose 30 pounds.
And while planning, you can consider some of the following effective tips of losing weight to attain your goal:
Lifestyle change
- Cardio exercise
Through cardio exercise, you will be engaging in physical workouts that enhance your heart rate. Through this process, you will lose extra calories through metabolism. Therefore, you must incorporate a cardio workout in your routine if you want to attain your weight loss goal sooner.
According to studies, this form of exercise is effective enough to enable you to lose up to 11.5 pounds in less than 10 months. Therefore, consider incorporating at least 200 to 300 minutes for cardio weekly. And while doing that, consider carder exercises like boxing, swimming, biking, and jogging, among others.
- Practice HIIT
You need to have HIIT in your daily workout routine to boost weight loss. HIIT stands for High-Intensity Interval Training, which is a great workout for heart rate stimulation. And in the process, you lose weight naturally through fat metabolism to release energy.
If it’s impossible to have it in your daily routine, then consider several times a week. Remember, your goal is to shed 30 pounds in less than eight months. Furthermore, studies have shown that engaging in HIIT for at least three times a week has a significant impact on the reduction of body weight, fat mass, and belly fat in about 12 weeks.
- Resistance training
Resistance training is also another effective exercise that promotes weight loss. As the name states, it involves resistance during the workout to stimulate muscle contraction as well as boost the endurance and strength of the body. So, if you are aiming at lean body mass, then this workout is what you need.
That said, it works by enhancing the rate of calorie burn to release energy while you are rest. As per a study done on resistance training for ten weeks, the body metabolism rose by 7% and lean mass by 1.4kg. On the other hand, there was a 1.8kg loss of fat mass. Therefore, it’s an effective exercise that works well in weight loss.
To do this at home or in the gym, lift weights, use weight machines, pushups, planks, crunches, and squats, among other resistant exercises. Thus, start today and enhance your health apart from losing extra weight. If you are not well acquainted with the above workouts, then you can consult a professional trainer.
- Long term commitment
When you have hit your target, it doesn’t mean you should relax and drift back to your old habits. Long term commitment is necessary if you want to maintain your accomplishment or make it better. That said, you need to stick with a healthy diet and maintain your activeness in the Gym.
- Indoor workouts
It’s not always that you may have extra time to spare for the gym. When you get a tight schedule during the week and can’t make it to the gym, why don’t you try indoor workouts? They are also effective and convenient. You can do this in the comfort of your home. All you need is a few sets of weight. If you can’t access weights, then your body weight is also handy. You can do a few cardio workouts as well as resistance training. Meanwhile, you can use protein shakes among other healthy supplements that encourage weight loss.
- Outdoor workouts
At times exercising in the gym may get on your nerves or perhaps you end up getting bored with it. In such a situation, you should give up but rather try something different. In this case, why don’t you try outdoor workouts?
You can do it as a group or alone as long it’s working out for you. And if you have the guts and energy to take your exercise to the extreme, try out hiking. It’s fun and effective in losing extra pounds you don’t need.
- Weight loss challenge
According to the findings, you can be able to lose 30 pounds in about eight months. However, it’s not impossible to lose the same weight in half that time. Therefore, create a challenge or join a preexisting challenge that aims on losing the same weight but at a shorter period.
And it’s not just about creating or joining a challenge but also, directing all your effort and focus in attaining it. This means, doubling the workouts and strictly maintain the weight loss diet. Furthermore, you can include a trainer in your workouts so that they can encourage and push you to attain your goal.
- Conscious eating
Food consumption plays a critical role when you are aiming to lose weight. And it’s for this reason why you need to eat consciously. Through conscious eating, it means you will be dining on healthy food while avoiding unhealthy meals that encourage weight gain.
With a healthy diet, your body will be able to lose excess fat naturally by maximizing metabolism. On the other hand, you will become healthier and with enhanced body energy to push forward towards accomplishing your goal.
- Share your goal with others
It’s not easy to find the motivation to visit the gym regularly and stick to the right diet when no one is watching. When we are accountable to someone or people, we naturally get motivated to attain our goal to ensure we are not a disappointment.
Therefore, take the initiative and share your goal with your family, friends, or colleagues in the gym, among other places. Be accountable to someone and you will feel more compelled to attain your goal as compared to working alone in secret.
- Progress photo
Have you ever thought of taking before and after photos? If not, it’s time to start. You need to find inspiration or motivation to stay focused and accomplish your goal. And what other way is better than the progress photo. With this photo, you will be challenging yourself to do better as you approach your goal.
And if you don’t mind, you can share with friends and family or with the public on social media for self-motivation. Furthermore, someone may get inspired through these images and decide to join your 30-pound weight loss target.
- Struggle to succeed
One thing we can all agree is that it’s not a smooth ride to lose 30 pounds within several months. But with struggle and determination, you can achieve this. Along this journey, you will be faced with difficulties and temptations that may lure you off your goal. When this happens, try your best not to drift so far.
Do your best to stay focused on your goal. Meanwhile, it’s also great to celebrate a few gains you make towards your goal. Through this celebration, you will be more motivated to accomplish it.
- Track your calorie
At times it’s more important to set assumptions aside and focus facts. In this case, do not assume you are attaining a better calorie deficit daily. Take a better step and use a calorie tracker to watch your progress.
With such a tool, you will be motivated to attain your goal as you can closely monitor how many calories you are losing. It can either be an application on your smart devices or a gadget specifically for tracking your calories. Choose a tracker that fits you.
- Holistic approach
Through the holistic approach, you will be using a broader perspective in dealing with the 30 pounds of weight you are targeting to lose. In this case, it means a combination of a healthy diet, a healthy lifestyle, and routine weight loss workouts. However, for this to work out, you need to be completely engaged.
That said, you have to avoid unhealthy habits like drinking and feasting on unhealthy diets. Meanwhile, you should stay focused on your routine workouts (cardio and resistance training). And with this crash program on the action for the next several weeks, you may attain your goal sooner than expected.
- Build muscles
By focusing on building muscles, you are counteracting the storage of fat in the body tissue. However, to achieve this, you need to combine a healthy diet and lifestyle. And this also involves taking more water, exercising a lot. To start, you need to combine resistance training and cardio.
With resistance exercise, you will be building muscles while cardio is handy in burning the fat reserves and toning your body. Also, it’s important to note that using a weighing scale to measure your progress won’t work in this case.
And this is because you will be eliminating the fat weight while gaining muscle weight. But with body measurement, you can be certain about how close you are to accomplishing your goal of losing fat weight.
Dietary change
- Drink more water
Unbelievable as it may sound, water is also an effective weight loss technique. It’s the most convenient weight loss technique within your reach. All you need to do is have at least a glass of water before you take your meal. Through this, you will get satisfied fast with food, and in the process; your calorie intake will be lower. For better results, you can do this regularly before having your meal.
- A diet full of fiber
Fiber is exclusive in plants. Therefore, if your meals have been low on veggies or fruits, it’s about time you increase you change it. You need to fill your diet with more fruits and veggies full of fibers. Fiber is very tough and indigestible and as such, makes you full faster as compared to a meal full of carbs.
What’s more, taking soluble fiber is also healthy and great in managing your hunger. It balances the glucose levels in your blood and protects you from spikes or crashes that may stimulate more hunger. Some of the foods full in fiber you need are whole grains, veggies, fruits, seeds, and nuts, among others.
- Need more protein
Consuming a diet full of protein has been shown to enhance weight loss. And this is according to a study on a few people who have more protein for breakfast. According to the findings, the protein in the diet suppressed the release of ghrelin hormone that promotes hunger.
Also, through having a heavy protein meal, you will be reducing the rate of calorie consumption and as you well know, the more calorie deficit, the more weight you lose. Some of the meals with high protein content you can have include: Poultry, Fish, and Meat. Other great options include legumes, tempeh, and tofu.
- Avoid processed food
Most of the processed foods are high in calorie content. Therefore, you need to avoid them even though some may be your favorite. Some of these processed foods you need to avoid include pretzels, crackers, potato chips, fast food, and instant noodles. With these out of your diet plan, you have a better chance of losing 30 pounds promptly.
And it’s not just processed foods you should be avoiding; also you should not take processed drinks like soft drinks. These drinks come with a high sugar content that promotes weight gain. And this is even proved by many studies that have found processed drinks with sugar to promote weight gain and also obesity.
Lastly, some of the drinks you should be avoiding include fruit juice, sweetened tea, sweetened coffee, and soda. If you want to take a beverage, choose unsweetened tea or water or coffee.
- Reduce calorie intake
As mentioned earlier, the daily calorie deficit plays a vital role in losing the extra weight. Some of our favorite dishes like baked goods, frozen meal, and potato chips supply our body with high-calorie content. And such, you need to avoid them. Furthermore, these foods lack some of the essential nutrients we need like minerals, vitamins, fiber, and protein.
Thus, dining on a meal low on calories will keep you feeling full for longer and also reduce calorie intake. And as such, you will be losing more weight with time while preventing weight gain.
On that note, consider having foods like legumes, fruits, veggies, lean meat, whole grain, poultry, and fish, among others. They are low on calories, very nutritious, and healthy in the body. And while focusing on low calories, ensure you are not overdoing it. Extremely low-calorie intake means your body metabolism will be under stress and this will disrupt weight loss.
Final Take
Losing the 30 pounds in less than eight months may seem like an uphill but it’s not. You only need a few drastic changes in your diet as well as lifestyle and you will manage this. But even this alone is not enough, weight loss workouts, motivation, and staying disciplined throughout this period are essential.
From time to time, you may be tempted to break the rules and drift back to the whole diet and lifestyle, but try and avoid it. Without maintaining a healthy exercise routine and diet plan, it means you are defeated. Stay focused on your goal as a motivation as well as the good shape you will attain.
And apart from the guidelines provided above, consider any additional healthy tips to accomplish your goal faster. Lastly, losing weight takes as much time as gaining. Therefore, don’t push your body to the extreme that much. Always listen to your body, feel it, and respond accordingly.
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