I have been sick for the past couple of months and haven't been able to exercise. I have gained about 20 pounds with all of this and have several performances coming up and am going to Brazil for a mission trip and want to look my best. How can I do this without taking pills and only having a college cafeteria as my source of food?
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Tags: college cafeteria, going to brazil, mission trip, taking pills
It is doubtful you gained twenty pounds in one month, and you shouldn't try to lose it one month. You gained twenty pounds over your desirable weight because, over a long period of time, you consumed more calories than you burned through your activities.
One pound a week or so is a sustainable weight loss goal, and even that requires a lot of discipline. This is a numbers game, and you have to know that one pound of stout equals 3500 calories. Thus, to lose one pound, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you take in through food. Over a seven-day week, that boils down to 500 calories per day.
You could easily take care of this by keeping the same eating habits and walking five extra miles each day, since each mile walked equates to about 100 calories burned. Or, you could eat 250 calories less than you have been, and walk an extra 2.5 miles per day. You get the thought–you can twiddle with the numbers.
Trying to lose five pounds a week would mean multiplying the above numbers by five. For instance, keeping the same eating habits as before, but walking an extra 25 miles PER DAY.
Trying to lose five pounds a week leads some to pursue any number of fad crash diets which can hurt your metabolism over the long run.
You are in college now, eating at the college cafeteria. Why should it bother you more to have the people in Brazil seeing you a few pounds overweight than the people you go to college with? Don't let the opinions of others dictate your own personal affairs either. Your own health is much more vital than the opinions of others about it.
Take it slowly. Lose the weight gradually, and it is much more likely to stay off. Look at women like Oprah Winfrey and Kirstie Alley to see the effects of crash dieting. According to CNN (see below), slow and steady wins the weight loss war.