how much can i possibly lose?? help?!

ok so i just found out that something i really want to go to is on august 19th. most importantly, if i go i have to look fantastic, since old friends and old flames will most likely be there.. well they'll for sure be there, at least some of them. so i weigh 171pounds.. and i'm 5'8. my goal is like 120-125.. obviously i cant possibly lose that much that fast without surgery lol, but exactly how much weight can i lose by then?? people say 2 pounds a week or something.. but i've heard it varies.. now i want to do it healthy.. but fast. so how much?

and if you have any advice for fast weight loss i'd appreciate it. i know "slow and steady wins the race" but thats just not going to work very well..lol

so help?

and thanks in advance:)

1% of your weight per week is generally the most you can lose.  So, if we average it out, that'll be about 1.5 pounds per week.  Since there are 13-14 weeks between now and your target, you could reasonably aim to lose about 20 pounds.

I think you already know the answer to this

there is no magic pill or diet that will make you lose a lot of weight really fast

the only way to do it is by not eating and exercising a lot.. because the only thing weight loss comes down to is calories

if you really starve yourself straight for the 2.5 months you'll lose a significant amount of weight, you may even get down to 140. but what is more likely to happen is you'll start starving yourself and then you'll be at a party or at the mall and all of a sudden you notice you just scarfed down thousands of calories on chips or icecream or cookies or hamburgers

OR you actually do continue to starve yourself and the weight comes off and immediately after your event it is back on and probably more than before and then you'll be miserable until you have another event to go to and you'll wish that last time around you did take the "slow and steady wins the race" route

now to the science of it

3500 calories = 1lb

you have about 50lbs excess that you'd like to lose. that means you have to burn 175,000 calories to be at your goal weight

the best way to do this in a healthy way is by figuring out exactly how many calories you EAT every week and then subtract those calories by 500 each day

this way by cutting back your food alone you will lose 1lb/week

now if you add in exercise, let's say you burn 500 calories a day.. you will lose 2lbs/week

if you keep this up until august 19th you will have lost around 20lbs

and yes it does vary because your metabolism will be adjusting but if you keep it up by christmas you'll be really close to your goal weight, if not already there. And you'll feel healthy, you'll be healthy, energized, and the next event you have to go to the last thing you  have to worry about is your weight and all you will have to worry about is finding the perfect dress and shoes

good luck

i think the bigger questions are these: who are you trying to impress, and why?  and what does being thin have to do with it?

if you're going to go to this event, i hope it's because it's to have fun and not to rub something in some dude's face.

Thanks guys. I pretty much figured about that. but reassurance is nice. lol. though the 175,000 calories is a little intimidating i'll take the slow and steady method and be happy about it.

as far as rubbing something in someones face its more like so i dont get something rubbed in my face lol. he's the clear happiness and success winner, i just didn't want to have become a total fat ass too

hahahh

thank you all though:)

Hiya, you can also try weightlifting as part of your exercise program...keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, so don't go by scale weight alone, but muscle also uses more calories just to sustain itself, i.e. increasing your metabolism so by having some muscle (I don't mean bodybuilding of course) you will be burning more calories on an ongoing basis in addition to your general exercise and healthy eating efforts.

Of course, you won't actually be able to build much muscle if you're eating at a deficit.  (Maybe a pound or two at the very beginning, but it'll taper off fast.)  The real bonus to weight training is that it'll force your body to hang onto your muscle mass and burn fat instead.  Plus, regularly worked muscles burn more calories than inactive ones so you'll speed up your metabolism by a hundred or so calories per day if you stick with it.  You'll be hungry enough that you'll probably eat those hundred calories back, but you get to eat a little more than you otherwise would have.  In my opinion, that's totally worth it. 

awesome, i really didn't know that. i'll have to add some weight lifting into my workout.

thank you!