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Home arrow Nutrition arrow Weight Management arrow How to Lose 50 Pounds in 3 Months: An Expert’s Take

How to Lose 50 Pounds in 3 Months: An Expert’s Take

Dennis-Njoroge-author-at-healthreporter
Written by Dennis Njoroge
HR_author_photo_Rosmy
Fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
Last update: March 30, 2023
7 min read 1077 Views 0 Comments
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Losing weight fast for personal and health reasons can be enticing, but do they have tangible results?

how to lose 50 pounds in 3 months

You might have tried many trendy workout crazes and different fad diets only to realize they don’t work for you. 

But making minor modifications to your lifestyle and diet can help you lose weight at a healthy and manageable rate.

Read this article where we explain how to lose 50 pounds in 3 months.

How to Lose 50 Pounds in 3 Months: 6 Effective Lifestyle Changes

The weight-loss equation is a difference between calorie intake and calories burnt. Your body needs to be in a calorie deficit for you to shed off the excess pounds. You, therefore, need to make dietary changes and increase the level of physical activity.

Below are some effective lifestyle changes that help you reduce weight in a healthy way.

#1 Try the keto diet

A simple way to refine the quality of your diet and help in weight loss is by adopting a keto diet. A keto diet focuses on cutting on carbs. A ketogenic diet is high in fat, low in carbs, and moderate in protein.

As you reduce your carb intake, the body enters into a metabolic state known as ketosis, whereby the body burns fat to ketones to supply the body with energy.

You need to swap your foods with keto-friendly alternatives to go easy on carbs. Avoid processed and junk food. They have too many calories and make you gain weight. You can switch your pasta for veggie-noodles, and instead of carb-laden rice, you can exchange it with cauliflower.

The keto diet increases fat burning, reduces fat storage, suppresses appetite, and improves insulin sensitivity.

Avocados are also an excellent base for keto desserts; use parmesan cheese crisps instead of potato chips and MCT oil instead of ordinary vegetable oil. You can also replace artificial sweeteners with natural keto-friendly alternatives.

#2 Stay hydrated

Starting on a weight loss diet, staying hydrated, and choosing healthier beverages is a simple and effective way to shed weight. Sugary drinks like sodas, energy drinks, and coffee with syrups are loaded with empty calories. All those calories in sugary beverages contribute to weight gain with time.

30–59% of Americans trying to cut weight increase their water intake. Your exercises are also more efficient when you drink water.

Water helps you feel full and boosts metabolism, thus cutting your calorie intake and enhancing weight loss. A study showed that drinking 16.9 ounces of water increased metabolism by 30% in 30 to 40 minutes.

#3 Strength training

Strength training is high-intensity workouts involving working against a force to build muscle and increase strength. It increases your lean muscle mass growth and helps burn fat.

More lean mass improves your normal maintenance energy expenditure, known as basal metabolic rate (BMR), meaning your body burns extra calories at rest hence losing more weight.

Some resistance training exercises you can incorporate into your exercise plan are push-ups, weight lifting, resistance bands, and deadlifts. Combining cardio training and resistance training helps in burning calories and yielding better results.

Other than diet, it is best to get enough sleep, be active, and manage your stress to get the best results from working out.

#4 Cardio workouts

If you are not a big fan of the gym, you can try out cardio activities like walking, running, swimming, and cycling. These are aerobic exercises that increase your heart rate and help you burn calories faster.

Different cardio exercises yield different results. The intensity and duration of exercise determine how many calories you burn. For instance, a 30-minute rope jumping workout burns more calories than stationary bike workouts.

#5 Try intermittent fasting

One popular strategy for losing weight is intermittent fasting. It involves limiting your food consumption for regular, short-term intervals, resulting in gradual weight loss over time.

Intermittent fasting reduces your food consumption as you eat fewer calories. Besides weight loss, research shows that time-restricted fasting helps lower blood sugar levels, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Ensure you eat a balanced diet with fruits, veggies, and whole grains to reap the highest potential benefits of intermittent fasting. One food that nutritionists recommend eating is sweet potato. Eating it keeps you full for a long period as it is rich in fiber.

The app also motivates you and challenges you through new fasting milestones, thus helping you test your willpower and form better eating habits. The plans are made by experienced nutritionists who help you safely cut weight.

The app also has a progress tracker to help you celebrate successes every step of the way. The progress tracker tracks your current weight and daily calorie intake and lets you know what to eat and minimize in your daily food intake.

#6 Start meal prepping

Meal prepping is a great way to ensure you stay on track on your weight loss journey. You can measure exactly what you are eating and efficiently track the ingredients and nutrients in your foods.

Meal prepping also ensures you get your calories from nutrient-dense whole foods. Prepping meals beforehand also saves you a lot of time, reduces the stress of thinking about what to prepare during mealtime, improves your diet quality, and helps you reach your ultimate goal.

Some diets are overly restrictive, taking enjoyment out of food, but you are more likely to enjoy the food you have prepared.

How Much Weight Can You Lose in 3 Months?

So what’s the magic number needed to lose weight? According to the CDC, the recommended weight loss rate is 1 to 2 pounds in one week. You can, therefore, lose 12 to 24 pounds in 3 months.

Losing weight is easy and challenging at the same time. Numerous fad diets promise instant gratification but end up leaving you with unhealthy habits in the long run.

However, it is possible to lose more than 2 pounds a week, especially in the early days of your weight loss routine, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s healthy or the weight will stay off.

Other physical factors affecting weight loss include age, gender, height, and genetics. If you are heavier, it’s also easier to lose weight faster as you burn more calories moving around and biophysics favors you during exercise.

Can I Lose 50 Pounds in 3 Months?

If we take in fewer calories than we burn, we end up losing weight, as the body burns fat for fuel. A pound of fat is 3,500 calories, and you need to be on a 500–1,000-calorie deficit to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week.

Therefore, it is practically impossible to lose 50 pounds in such a short period at a healthy rate. Setting such unrealistic weight goals can lead you to lose weight rapidly, but the lost weight will likely come right back.

Losing 50 pounds in 3 months is more than twice the recommended weight loss rate. When losing weight, use a solid eating and exercise plan to reach your goals. Strength training and cardio exercises give your body the extra boost necessary to shed excess pounds.

You do not have to lose a lot of weight to see positive changes in your health, as losing 5–10% of your body weight reduces your cholesterol levels, your risk for diabetes, and high blood pressure.

Don’t focus on rapid weight loss, but choose a weight loss routine you can stick to. It is best to contact your doctor and nutritionist for medical advice on your weight loss plan.

How Long Does It Take to Lose 50 Pounds?

Following the recommended weight loss rate of 1 to 2 pounds, a week will take you 4 to 8 months to shed 50 pounds, but the exact answer to this depends on your weight loss approach and the sacrifice you are willing to put in. Other important factors are age, current weight, height, and health condition.

This might be slower than you hoped for, but setting a realistic goal for yourself is more effective. Rapid weight loss leads to a loss in water weight and lean muscle mass that might have adverse health effects.

Focusing on a sustainable weight loss plan and making lifestyle changes such as exercising more help you attain your weight loss goals and keep off the lost weight with more ease.

A Word From Nutritionist

Many people find weight loss challenging, but keeping off the lost weight is more difficult. One meta-analysis showed that more than half of the weight lost is regained within two years.

Losing 50 pounds in 3 months is an unrealistic target, and it would be best to lose weight in a healthy manner. You can do this by adjusting your diet and increasing activity levels.

Most people rely on the basic calorie equation of calories in vs. calories out, but other factors such as Body Mass Index, weight, and genetics affect the weight loss rate. Be sure to consult your doctor before making any drastic changes to your diet.

Conclusion

Losing 50 pounds in 3 months is an unlikely endeavor. To succeed in losing weight, you need to make long-term changes to your lifestyle. Most people treat weight loss like a hop-on-hop-off bus and revert to unhealthy behaviors after losing weight.

Losing a lot of weight in a short time can cause adverse health effects. It is best to consult your nutritionist, trainer, and doctor before setting out your weight loss routine.

Written by Dennis Njoroge
Dennis is a seasoned writer who focuses on writing health and wellness articles. His career goal is to educate people on how to reprogram their lives by breaking free from unhealthy eating habits and fostering new sustainable habits. Dennis tries to give easy-to-follow advice based on scientific research. He strongly believes that regardless of age, fitness level, a person can always learn something new and reach their health goals if they have a positive mindset.
The article was fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
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Dennis-Njoroge-author-at-healthreporter
Written by Dennis Njoroge
HR_author_photo_Rosmy
Fact checked by Rosmy Barrios, MD
Last update: March 30, 2023
7 min read 1077 Views 0 Comments
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