Need some advice, I want to drop 30 or 40 kilo's in 4 or 5 months

[Artemisia]

As the title said, I need advice and I want to lose about 30 to 40 kilo's in about 4-5 months.
I don't know if this is possible and every bit I do get rid off is good anyway, but I want to maximise my results.
I recently weighed 75 kilo's after losing 35 kg by counting cals and doing aerobics on dvd, and was still very overweight at 155cm (5'1) but then I was put on a new anxiety meds (lyrica) that caused me to eat like a maniac and gained 12 kg in 5 months (always hungry, never full, cravings that never went away, gosh this was a hellish drug...and oh yeah, didn't help much with my anxiety either).
Now I'm on 3x Venlafaxine (Effexor) a day and my hunger is normal again, if not a bit less even and the anxiety is gone.
Now, I've been invited to be my best friends bridesmaid, which is extra special as the wedding is in Malaysia, her homeland (and I live in the Netherlands) and she'll be paying most of the plane ticket.
Now, I kinda feel a bit pressured to lose it faster cause of this event, and I want to look good/better.
I had some troubles with my ankle and got orthopaedic inlays now, but so far it didn't fix the problem much which means cross-trainers are out of the question.
I bought kettlebells and also something called kettlenetics which is a fushion of kettlebells and cardio and I ordered 2 diet books, the carb lovers diet and skinny carbs diet.
Tried low carb diets which made me physically ill so I can't do that, and a bit bored with counting cals.
Do you think that if I really put some effort into it, and work out 3 to 5 times a week and do the diet I can lose 30 to 40 kilo's?
Has anyone here tried these diets I mentioned?
Should I approach it differently?
Any tips and tricks welcome, or support too

 

[mkelley]

I'm probably not a good one to respond, but seeing how no one has yet I'll give it a try. As a man (and an old man at that) and one to whom kilograms doesn't mean a lot I may get confused here. If I have this right you want to lose up to 80 pounds or so, or almost half your weight, in four or five months? That does not sound realistic for a whole lot of reasons, not the least of which is that eating healthy is a journey not a destination, and you are likely to just gain back most (or all) of that weight after the event.

You need to start thinking of this as how you want to live the rest of your life, and alter your eating habits to that end. You *will* lose weight, and perhaps even a lot, but whether you make your target is not half as important as whether you can get to a place you can stay at comfortably.

I lost around 32 kilograms (again, if I'm doing the math right) in less than 9 months without going through any hardships. But far more importantly, I changed my habits so that I can now maintain that loss for ever, without ever feeling hungry or deprived of anything. Wouldn't you be a lot happier at that wedding to know that not only have you lost a significant amount of weight, but that you will continue to lose and not miss out on eating some of that wedding cake?

Working out is great -- but don't kill yourself and don't think if you miss a few days the world will end. You burn 85% of the calories in your system by just living, anyway. Where working out is important is both for your cardio as well as building muscle, which will help burn more calories. I wouldn't do strength training more than three days a week -- if you injure yourself you'll suffer a big setback. Do moderate cardio the other four days and that will be enough.

As for dieting -- again, this is a "diet" you will stay on the rest of your life. Cut out all sugar drinks (even fruit juice and for sure any "sport" drinks), eat five or six meals a day (don't skip even once thinking you are losing weight by doing so -- your body needs to keep burning fuel all day long and skipping meals just results in the furnace shutting down as well as making you binge at the next meal) and make sure you both eat breakfast as well as have at least 30 grams of protein at it and the rest should take care of itself (if for some reason following those three things doesn't cause you to lose at least a couple of pounds a week after a month, start counting carbs so that you eat no more than 100 grams a day. If THAT doesn't work -- again, after three or four weeks -- you'll have to count calories. But most likely you'll be okay long before you have to do this). Oh, and one more rule -- feel free to have one "cheat" meal per week, where you don't worry at all about calories.

The nice thing about those simple rules is that you can stay on them the rest of your life. You'll never be hungry -- or fat -- again.

 

[Artemisia]

Thanks for your reply.

I guess I was going through a wibble, cause looking back on this post I'm going like, what the heck was I thinking? LOL
It's going to take as long as it needs too and I'm not going to rush myself and do stupid things like starving myself.
I am going to try the Carb Lovers Diet though, I received the book and the recipes seem very nice and it sounds like a general good healthy eating plan, except they tell you to only eat 1200 calories for 1 week as a starting kick, and I don't quite agree with that as that's quite low and I believe in going by the right bmr for my weight, height, age, sex and lifestyle...