Depending on your size and the amount of body fat you have, you can expect to lose 6-20 pounds of body weight in the first 3-4 weeks of any properly designed nutrition program. Beyond this, a reasonable goal is to try to lose 2 pounds per week for the rest of the time. This means that a realistic weight loss goal is between 30 and 40 pounds in a period of 3 to 4 months. More than this in this time period is rare and possibly dangerous and should only be attempted with close medical supervision. If you have 100 lbs. Losing, for example, cannot normally be achieved in a 12-16 week program; you will need more than one nutrition program to achieve this goal. If you need more than one diet program, don’t plan on doing one after the other, as you will have diminishing returns. Taking a short 1-2 week break between programs is recommended, but the point is if you have more than 10-15 pounds to lose, you can expect to suffer from dieting for months. Staying as mentally fresh as possible throughout your plan will be imperative to staying on track.

Considering the time it takes to produce fat loss results on a diet, it’s smart to ease your way and practice measures at all times that will keep you from burning. Even if you are very excited to start your new diet, avoid the plunge method and try to follow your plan all the way from the beginning. If you have a rough 12 weeks ahead of you, starting too strict too soon causes most to start to slump long before the end due to starvation and mental stress. If you’ve been overweight for a long time or have more than 30 pounds of body fat to lose, dropping it cold turkey can even be dangerous. Going too low-calorie, eating completely clean, and/or over-exercising when you’ve never done it (or haven’t in a long time) can release toxins stored in body fat. This can make you sick and even hurt if done too quickly. Dieters with excessive amounts of body fat should ease up on their program to avoid poisoning their bodies with the rapid discharge of toxins that can occur from starting a diet that is too strict. An example of this is when an obese person begins a drastic 85% raw diet, drastically switching from highly processed foods to almost nothing but raw vegetables. Few can do this without getting sick. This is not recommended as the result can be very dangerous.

They say you have to do the same thing for 21 days before it becomes a habit. Once you’ve hit the 3-week mark on your diet, there will be numerous procedures that become a habit, making it much easier to stay on track for the long haul. The trick is to adopt healthy eating habits so it’s not too hard to get sick or mentally crash before you hit the 21-day habit zone. The best way to do this is to take the first ten days or even 2-3 weeks of your program and follow it halfway through, gradually tightening until soon you are doing everything to the letter. This can be done in several ways. One way is to practice several days of strict diet followed by one or two days without diet. Start the first week with just dieting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and take the rest of the days off. Week two try to diet strictly for Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday off, diet Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Sunday off. Week Three Diet throughout the week and take a half day off of the diet on Saturday as a reward. The fourth week should be a strict diet for the rest of the program.

Another way to facilitate a prolonged weight loss program is the elimination method. This is probably the most common and possibly the safest method of starting a diet, especially if you have a large amount of weight to lose. Instead of mixing strict days with off days in the first 2-3 weeks, take this time to eliminate bad foods and replace them with good ones. For example, for the first week, instead of following a strict portion-controlled diet, eat as usual, but cut out all processed sugar and bread; replace only with clean, complex starches such as brown rice, yams/sweet potatoes, oats, and vegetables. Replace all your fluids with water, and increase the amount of water you drink to at least 64 ounces per day, but up to almost a gallon per day if you exercise hard enough to sweat. If you eat out, choose plain chicken breasts, lean steak, plain potatoes, and salads for the first week. In the second week, all meals away from home are replaced only with pre-planned home-cooked meals, with each meal containing the appropriate amount of protein, but still not calorically restricted. The third week begins with calorie restricted meals and crash diets until the end of the program.

In addition to making your diet easier, it’s also a good idea to make your exercise program easier. Because of the amount of exercise required to effectively burn body fat, jumping headfirst can also produce adverse effects. Juggling strength training and as much cardio work as possible is like suddenly accepting a second job that can easily overburden you, especially if you’re new to the gym. Like your nutrition program, take the first 1-2 weeks to ease into your exercise program. If strength training is not something you are used to, start very moderately with low volume for the first few sessions. If you don’t, muscle soreness can be overwhelming, daunting, and needs to be watched closely or it will be hard to avoid overtraining. Go for a certain number of hours of cardio per week and increase this over time. For example, the first week do three 30-minute cardio sessions. The second week, do two 40 minute sessions and one 30 minute session, and keep increasing the number of sessions and time until you reach 5-6 hours of cardio per week (or whatever your effective volume of work is).

Another reason skipping your nutrition program is a bad idea is because of the undue mental stress it adds. Success in most weight loss plans occurs by being consistent with your regimen over a period of time. Being absolutely strict and relentless for 12 hard weeks will cause any professional to mentally collapse without any respite at least temporarily. Taking a few weeks off to ease into your program helps reduce the mental stress of dieting for long periods. Spending time preparing for your diet also helps a lot with this type of stress. For best results, stick to your diet as strictly as possible during the week, but reward yourself with a cheat meal on the weekend. This gives you something to work for, look forward to, and satisfy your cravings. It also gives your mind a rest and will renew your enthusiasm to start anew next week. Instead of always trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, eat one meal at a time, one day at a time, and focus on making each one perfect. Focusing on perfecting the process instead of just the product will keep your mind busy stringing together a series of numerous small wins. Soon enough time will have passed for the clothes to develop and the results to be seen.