Question
Hello, I have a trip to San Diego coming up in about a month and I would like to look good in swimming trunks by then, I have roughly 26 days before the trip.

My current specs:

180lbs
5'9" Tall
Age: 19 (20 in October)

I LOVE food, that's my problem, I'm not fat but my stomach has enough of a bulge to make me uncomfortable. I love eating food, not to be nourished but to taste it. So heres my dilema, do I eat what I want, count the calories and not go over say 1,750 a day, and then work out at night doing the following:

4 x 12 Sit ups
4 x 12 Curls
4 x 12 Push ups
4 x 12 Pull Ups
Run for 15 minutes

Or should I cut back and eat as low calories as possible and work out? Is it possible to limit myself to 1750 calories per day and do the above work out and lose weight ina timely manner? If not, could you recommend something for me?

Answer
Unfortunately, there's a limited amount of weight you can lose in 26 days. If you burn, say, 1000 calories a day (the maximum without putting yourself in starvation mode and getting really sick) then you can lose maybe a pound every three or so days, meaning you'd lose 8 pounds. Plus maybe two or three more in water weight. So if you want to lose 10 pounds, you need to both watch what you eat and work out. I would say cut back on the calories a little bit, but not by too much - maybe 1400 or 1500 instead of 1725, and also do a more intense workout. Like maybe run for a half hour instead of 15 minutes? Your workout right now is a good one for slow, steady weight loss of a few pounds every couple of weeks, and I definitely think you should continue with it if you want to lose weight and keep it off, but since you're trying to lose weight for a particular event I would suggest maybe pushing yourself and understanding that after this trip you should go back and re-evaluate and pick a regimen that you can stick to for a long period of time.