How Long Does It Take To Lose Weight?

"If you ask me "how long does it take to lose weight?" I would have to answer you with, "Well, how long is a piece of string?"

Now, I'm not being a smart Alec. Your question is so vague it is not possible to give an exact answer. For a start it helps to know how much weight you want to lose, and what your body weight is right now. And a nutritionist or medical doctor would probably want to know your age, your height, your body-shape, your B.M.I.^*, your eating and grazing habits and your lifestyle before even attempting some kind of assessment.

So I will be bold and tell you outright. If you were to go into hospital today and be placed in a bed with a "nil by mouth" instruction for the nursing staff, then you would begin losing weight at about two pounds per day. But 'nil by mouth' means nothing to eat or drink. In hospital, they put you on a drip. Fluids are fed in through a cannula in your arm or in the back of your hand (that's usually saline solution) and a catheter to drain your urine out so they can measure the quantity. That's so the doctors know you are not dehydrating.

If you go on a very strict low-calorie, low-carb weight loss diet, you can still have three moderate meals a day - with no snacks in between meals - and just water or herbal tea to drink. Do that, and you will start to lose weight at a similar rate ... that is up to 2 pounds (1 Kilogram) of weight loss per day.

Weight loss diets that will do this for you - as long as you can stick to the plan and not "bust', include the food plans from F.A., from F.A.A. or from CEA-HOW. All of them are 12 Steps groups for people who have trouble controlling their food and their eating habits. All of these eating plans tell you to cut out alcoholic drinks and caffeine. (Booze contains calories and caffeine increases your appetite.) Then you also have to cut out foods which contain added sugar or flour, because these common food additives also make us want to eat more. Why else would food manufacturers delight in adding all kinds of sugars and flours to their packaged foods? Because it increases their profits.

But what's good for the food corporations' wealth is bad for our health. If they can keep us addicted to their foods, we just keep getting fatter and sicker. We need to break out of that vicious cycle if we're going to get better and have decent health once again.

If a super-strict weight-loss diet is not for you, it is well worth joining up with Weightwatchers or a similar weight-loss program. They have a whole line of aids and products to help you, and they have their own line of food on sale in the supermarkets which makes it easy to keep track of your food consumption and calories in a diary.

Everything is horses for courses, so what suits you will not necessarily be what works for the next person. But that's okay.

So before you can figure out how long it takes to lose weight, you need to see a doctor and work out what your ideal weight should be. Then you know how many pounds or kilos you need to lose. Then you need to find a group who will support you and help you stick with the weight loss food plan that will bring your weight down to a number that's healthy and right for you.

How long does it take to lose weight? I will tell you straight. It takes as long as necessary; but the whole trick is to stay on your food plan. Don't stop when you reach your ideal weight. Make some sensible adjustments, and don't binge, and you can stay slim and trim.`
 
^*BMI is a measure of the ratio of fat in your body. It's your body mass index.