Ten Steps to Losing 10 Pounds in One Week –
Before you get too excited, if you decide you really need to lose 10 pounds in a single week, consider this: you need to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound, so over the course of your week, you have to cut 35,000 calories from your life, by changing your diet AND your activity level.
Even assuming you have two or three pounds of water weight to lose, you still need to cut 24,500 to 28,000 calories – that’s between 3,500 and 4,000 calories PER DAY! Even if you follow a 800 or 1,000 calorie diet (which aren’t recommended for any length of time) unless you were consuming almost 5,000 calories a day, you still have a huge task ahead of you.
Losing weight through exercise (I’ll keep it simple and stick to walking) isn’t easy either. If you weigh 150 pounds you will have to walk one mile in less than 15 minutes (over 4 miles per hour) to burn 100 calories. You would have to walk 35 to 40 miles PER DAY to lose the weight with walking alone. The real gain from exercise is in the boost to your metabolism, which will help you burn calories faster all the time – but it takes more than a week to feel the benefit.
So, if I haven’t put you off with the numbers and you still want to give it a try, here are 10 suggestions that may help:
1) Visit your Health Care Provider – Losing 10 pounds in seven days will stress your body, and you need to determine if you are sufficiently fit to lose that much weight, that quickly. Even if you feel great, make sure you are healthy enough to make the necessary changes for such a drastic diet. Be honest about your goals and your strategy.
2) Stop Drinking Alcohol and Sodas – Even if you only do so temporarily, the calories you cut by switching to herbal teas, water and juice will add up to a big savings – and you will have more energy for exercising. Although sugar-free sodas have few or no calories, they contain nasty chemicals your body will flush out and you will feel better for it. Herbal teas and juices will give your system a boost and help you to lose water weight.
Having said that, I don’t recommend cutting out caffeine all together. If you typically consume a lot of caffeine and stop cold-turkey, you will go through several days of nasty withdrawal, which may subvert your attempts to increase your activity level, as well as making you feeling depressed. Cut back, by all means, or switch to green tea , which contains caffeine, but is a great antioxidant as well.
3) Take a Multi-vitamin – If you don’t take one already, start taking a good multi-vitamin, with iron if you are female. You will be eating less and exercising more, so your body will need more of the right nutrients to keep going. If your eating habits typically aren’t great, your body may be deficient in one or more vitamins and/or minerals, and a multi-vitamin is a good way to start re-balancing your system.
4) Cut out Salt – Salt causes your body to retain water, and water adds pounds. Try other seasonings to make your food interesting, especially lemon juice (fresh, not from concentrate), which has the added benefit of providing vitamin C. Sumac, a Middle-eastern spice, has a lemony taste and is good on chicken, veggies and potatoes.
5) Adjust Your Diet – Add more fruits and vegetables, and include as much fresh and organic produce as you can. Juice counts too, just make sure it doesn’t contain sugars, salts or other chemicals. Keep in mind that many fruits are high in calories – avoid bananas and avocados, for this week at least.
Reduce your meat, simple carbohydrate (sugar) and fat intake. Fish or lean meat, brown rice or potatoes are OK, fried chicken, white bread and cheese, not so good. Sweets are out too. And cut out red meat at least for this week – it is hard to digest and can make your system sluggish.
If you are counting calories, you need to aim for 800 to 1000 per day, and make those calories count. Spread them out during the day, don’t skip breakfast and eat much smaller, more frequent meals. Don’t forget hidden calories, for example in condiments or non-dairy creamer.
6) Drink More Water – Especially if you have stopped consuming those ‘bad’ foods and drinks, your body is holding on to all sorts of nasty things that need to be flushed out. Because you’ll be exercising more, you’ll be sweating more too, and that fluid needs to be replaced – you won’t be retaining it because you’ve cut out the salt! Bottled water is good – filtered tap water is better, and cheaper.
7) Walk – With the changes in your diet, your body will probably have enough to worry about without starting a weight lifting regime or joining an aerobics class, but you can walk. Find a sturdy, comfortable pair of shoes, head out the front door, and don’t forget your water bottle. The goal is to walk as fast as possible without getting completely out of breath. Start with shorter walks several times a day and build up to as long a walk as you can cope with – if you can, you should be walking miles, not just blocks.
8) Detox Treatments – There are numerous detox therapies out there, and I recommend a mud wrap, a foot soak and/or a massage. You can also take an Epsom salt bath, or try skin combing – use a dry brush or luffa and brush upward from foot/hand to head, to stimulate your circulation, which will in turn help you expel toxins. Loosing the toxins will give you more energy and make you feel great.
I also recommend adding psyllium powder to a glass of juice, this will help clear your digestive tract of any thing that may have gotten ‘stuck’ and help keep things moving.
9) Don’t get Obsessed with Statistics – Take your measurements at the beginning and the end, and maybe once or twice in between, but don’t get discouraged and give up or backslide. Even if you only loose eight pounds, you have made a great start!
10) Reward Yourself – Every day you do good and stick to your plan, reward yourself with something special – a new book, a SMALL piece of chocolate or a beauty treatment. Avoid anything too naughty, but even a small glass of white wine won’t hurt just once. A little reward is a great way to keep yourself motivated, and everyone needs an extra bit of help to keep to a strict weight-loss program.
A one-week diet can be a good way to get things started, but the weight won’t stay off unless you make some permanent changes to your diet and life style. It’s important to remember that you can’t stick to strict low-calorie regime for any length of time and stay healthy. Once you have lost your initial 10 pounds, be content will more moderate progress, and rest assured that if you do make lifestyle changes, you will keep that weight off for a very long time.
