If you are among the many people who think of just how good they would look and feel if they lose 20 pounds, then this article is for you. The first thing you need to know is that just as adding weight was an eventual thing, so is loosing weight. This therefore means that no amount of dieting, exercising or loose-weight fads will help you lose the pounds in just a day or two. Instead, you need to be prepared to make some lifestyle changes that will not only allow you to loose the weight in a steady manner, but also maintain your ideal body weight.
The quick-fixes usually proposed by the self confessed weight-loss experts do not last usually because they are too hasty. To lose 20 pounds in a healthy manner therefore needs you to adopt a more regular and healthy diet than you are used to, or you can take up an exercise regimen that will allow your body to burn the extra calories you consume or have stored in your body as fats. Since 20 pounds is not such a large amount of weight to loose, I would suggest a combination of both. This means that in addition to eating healthy regular meals, one should take up light exercises.
Most people think that skipping meals helps them loose weight in a shorter period. However, like hundreds of other weight-loss half-truths circulating on the internet today, abstaining from meals would only send fasting signals to your body, which in turn reacts by storing fats. Instead of loosing weight therefore, you end up remaining at the same level, or worse still, you may note some weight increase. This can be quite frustrating. Another group of thought holds the idea that intense training is the solution to lose 20 pounds. However, this too is untrue especially if the person intends to stop exercising as soon as they attain their ideal weight.
If you choose exercising as the way you would like to loose weight, it is important that you understand the importance of starting slow and allowing your body to adjust to the changes. Instead of an hour of intense jogging, start with 15 minutes jogging three times a week. You can increase these to 20 minutes four times a week the second week or even more if your body is adjusting well. If on the other hand you decide to take one hour jogging for an entire week, you will end up with painful muscles before end week thus hampering your exercising schedule in the days to follow.
To lose 20 pounds, one needs to first accept that there is no easy way to it. With this acceptance comes the knowledge that some sacrifices needs to be made. This may mean skipping the ice cream one eats for dessert, or going jogging when one would rather be seated on the coach watching their favorite movie. Once the decision is made on which course to take in order to loose weight, self-determination and the will to see a healthier, better you will be the main driving force. At the end of it all, you will realize that loosing 20 pounds is not such a tough task and that each and every sacrifice you made was well worth it.