Hi everyone, this is my first post.

I have 4 weeks before a big trip south to warm weather, sunshine and the beach... So, I would love love love to get to my goal weight in time! My question is do you think this is possible? I'm 5'7'', 148 lbs, goal 135 lbs. I did the math and I would need to lose 3.25 lbs a week for the 4 weeks. I'm currently at about a 2 lb per week loss. Is there any way to rev up my weight loss?

Thanks!

Not if you want to be healthy.

A healthy and safe rate of loss is 1% of your body weight per week. If you're consistently losing 2 lbs per week, be happy about that. Don't make yourself ill for a handful more pounds. It's not worth it.

Why is it unhealthy to lose 3 lbs a week? I'm very happy with 2 lbs per week, but I thought I could use this trip as a motivator for myself. I'm not going to starve myself, I'm thinking more like working out a lot...I was just wondering if anyone had some helpful tips to drop pounds?

I tend to agree with Kara. Few people would notice a 5 pound difference and you would be unlikely to be keeping up the extra exercise while on holiday. I wonder how much you would gain in the first couple of days on the holiday if you did go down that route. Holidays tend to be a time when we cut ourselves a little slack. You would probably be better off to continue as you are now and keep watching your food and exercise levels while on holiday.

It's pretty much simple math.

In order to lose an additional 1.25 lbs a week, you'd have to somehow burn an additional 4375 calories a week, or 625 calories per day.

So you'd either have to do somewhere around 2 additional hours of intense cardio PER DAY ... or cut your calories down below a healthy level, or a combination of each. And even then, with the shock to your body - burning so much and eating so little - you might not lose that extra pound anyway because you'll be setting your body up to conserve nutrition.

As Omega said, that extra 5 pounds isn't going to be noticeable to anyone but you ... and if you crash-diet it off, it'll most likely come right back in the first couple of days of your vacation.

It's just not worth it.

Okay, that makes sense. I really didn't get why it wouldn't be healthy but now I see!! Thanks so much guys, I will continue on the healthy path and focus on those last pounds during/after my trip! Thanks again