Hey everyone. I'm a fresh n00bian in the world of online weight management, but I'm certainly looking forward to seeing progress. Currently around 224 lbs and about 5' 9" I wish to lose at least 24 pounds by July 10th. Among several other reasons, I'm going to be going to Peru to visit a very good friend of mine and want to impress her .

While I'm at a loss on the idea of a "good" diet plan, here's what I surmise I'll be doing:

-1250 Daily Calorie Intake
-Two 30 minute running sessions (morning and night)
-1 vigorous weight training session every week (1 hour+)

The reason I'm confining myself so much is that, like many people, I find it hard to find the time to do anything for myself: I'm in college, I work, and I'm in a band. Homework aside, I barely have time to spend with my family and friends.

I would like some feedback from you guys on my plan. Keep in mind, this will only be effective for the next 62 days (until July 10th). After that I'll change the plan around to fit to a long-term lifestyle.

Thanks, in advance.

1250 cals a day for a guy your size may be too drastic.

Assuming an age of 25 (you didn't say how old you are), your maintenance cals are about 2600 (sedentary), so dropping 500 a day to lose a pound a week should work on about 2100 cals a day. Add exercise into the mix and that one pound will go up (1-2 pounds a week is optimal and healthiest). Being a guy, you may also lose a little more quickly than us ladies.

You could start out at the 2100 mark and see how it goes, then decrease/increase as you find what works best for you. If you start higher, you leave yourself some wiggle room for later if the fat gets a little stubborn.

Good luck in your quest, there's a great bunch of postive, helpful people here to offer advice as you go along

I agree with Jen, 1250 seems way low for your size. You want to lose less than 2 lbs a week which is doable even at 1700-2000 calories, and likely would still happen with more. I recommend eating little amounts often, and paying attention to your protein intake. A lot of people I know that go on diets end up cutting way to much protein yet continue to work out hard. When you say two 30 minute runs twice a day, for how how many days a week are you talking?

FWIW, you might actually find better results if you only ran once a day and spent the other 30 minutes focusing on one body part for strength training. Using your muscle keeps your body from stealing it due to calorie defict and more muscle equates to more calorie burn during the day just for living.

My two cents, good luck
Vern

Yeah, eating 1250 a day will be tough. You'll be hungry all the time no matter what you eat. Better to set sights on 1800-2000 calories a day. Even then you'll still be pretty hungry unless you really focus on eating the right foods. I'd suggest having lots of protein shakes (even slimfast) on hand in the event you get desperate.

Running an hour (at moderate pace) burns about 1000 calories for me (5 10" 165 pounds) so it'll probably burn even more for you depending on what shape you're in. That plus lifting weights and eating (2000 calories a day), you'll probably have a calorie deficit of more than 1500 a day. Thats a pound lost every 2 days. At that rate you'll need to be very sure that your body doesn't eat away all its muscle.

I'd scale it back a bit. Maybe shoot for 3-4 pounds a week. CalorieKing has a nice (not free) tool where you give it a date and your desired weight, and it'll tell you how many calories to "net" every day to meet that goal. Then you can track everything (eating and exercise) and just focus on hitting the calorie deficit every day to hit your final goal.

It's all just a math equation. Once you figure it out, it's really simple (though definately not easy) to change your body. I really like this chart
http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TSCalDeficits.h tm and how it shows the close relationship between weight and calories lost.