Lower Calorie Intake To Quickly Lose 10 Pounds In A Week
The best way to lose 10 pounds in a week is to make sure your diet plan to lose weight fast greatly reduces your daily calorie intake.
Calories represent an energy source for your body, and any unused calories are stored in the body as body fat or water weight. To lose as much as 10lbs in a short space of time, you need to both reduce portion size and swap foods high in calories for healthier choices. This means limiting saturated fats and eating more fruits and vegetables.
By consuming fewer calories every day, you will notice a change in your waistline and your health in general. Many doctors agree that saturated fats pile on the pounds and also cause many cardiovascular problems.
What are healthy food swaps you can make if you want to lose up to 10lbs in a week or two? To lose as much as 20lbs in a few weeks, here are some healthy food swaps doctors from the National Health Service recommend to help you lose weight:2
- Instead of white bread and pasta, choose wholegrain types.
- If you eat meat, choose leaner cuts of meat like turkey, chicken breast, and choice sirloin beef.
- Choose tomato-based and vegetable sauces rather than creamy cheese sauces on wholegrain pasta or fish dishes.
- Drink more green tea for weight loss and drop sugar-laden sodas.
- Try some alternative dairy products that are rich in calcium but low in fat.
Can You Lose Weight With Intermittent Fasting
The answer is – 100% yes! By limiting the time you eat, you naturally limit your calorie intake. The best part – IF is especially effective in burning fat. Normally your body takes the energy from glucose in your blood.
Problem is, people tend to consume way more food than we actually need for our bodies to run. The energy we didnt use, simply explained, becomes fat.
Thats where the benefit of fasting comes in. About 8 hours after your last meal, your body is out of blood sugar and starts using fat for energy. Thats how you burn fat by basically doing nothing.
Reduce Carbs For Speedy Weight Loss And Drop 10 Pounds In A Week
Eating too much unhealthy carbs can make you fat so you should consume less unhealthy carbohydrates to lose weight.
Unhealthy carbohydrates include simple carbohydrates that have been refined. Some examples are foods made from white, refined flour like white bread, pasta, cakes, pastries and so forth. Added sugar is also a simple carbohydrate. Low-carb diets have a proven efficiency in helping to lose weight fast as well as other health benefits.
When you think about cutting out carbs to lose weight, you should remember that not all carbohydrates are unhealthy. Complex carbohydrates consist of foods like wholegrain bread, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, vegetables, beans, and fruits.
In an article on WebMD entitled Good carbs, bad carbs: Why Carbohydrates Matter to You, Dr. Kathleen Zelman says that food containing fiber is necessary for a well-balanced diet. These food sources help control weight and can even lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer.8
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This Is How Long It’ll Take For Intermittent Fasting To Work
When it comes to getting healthier and toning up your body, one of the most popular of the countless options out there right now is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting includes several different approaches to choose from, but most involve eating for only a short period of time during the day and/or limiting the amount of calories you consume. The results are apparent to those who’ve tried the method, but according to the experts, you need at least 10 weeks of following a few basic rules to see any changes.
Read on to find out how to make intermittent fasting work for you, how soon you can expect your body to start burning fat during fasting, and how else this method may benefit your overall health aside from lowering the number on the scale.
A Quick Note About The Scale
So, the scale is definitely a love-hate thing, but its important. I grabbed a biometric scale that tracks more than just body weight so it tells the whole story. The one I got and absolutely LOVE is the Renpho Bluetooth BMI Scale. This scale is so awesome because its 1/3rd of the price of the Fitbit Aria scale and has everything you need to track your progress.
I like it a lot because it syncs seamlessly to my iphone and comes with a free app for tracking all my data.
So thats how I save my sanity when weighing in, and also am able to calculate so much more than just pounds!
My favorite metrics to track with the Renpho scale are BMI, pounds, hydration and body fat but theres so much more if youre a data hound. And the charts and graphs are a visually pleasing way to see your progress in seconds!
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How Intermittent Fasting Helped Me Lose 10 Pounds
Recently I embarked on a popular fitness challenge called 75 Hard. In doing the challenge I was required to commit to a diet plan.
I decided to choose Intermittent Fasting as my approach largely because of the positive effects IF has been shown to have on inflammation.
Although Im not finished with the challenge, Ive already lost 10 pounds and thought I would share some of the reasons IF has been a success for me!
IF is simple! These are the most popular methods:
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The 16/8 method: Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as 19 p.m. Then you fast for 16 hours in between.
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Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
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The 5:2 diet: With this method, you consume only 500600 calories on two nonconsecutive days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.I choose 16 hours of fasting/8 hours of food consumption.
Intermittent Fasting has been a big reason for my 10 pounds of weight loss! I highly recommend it for its effectiveness, and because the method has been proven to have real health benefits.
The simplicity of IF was a big contributor in my weight loss as well! Ive been able to follow the plan when traveling, and when life gets chaotic and busy.
I wasnt required to pre-cook meals, swallow a pill or restrict certain foods, although you cant just eat anything you want.
Intermittent Fasting Is Popular But Not All Strategies For It Are Safe
People around the world have known for centuries that fasting can do a body good. Periodic fasting can help ward off diseases like diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity it can boost the production of a protein that strengthens connections in the brain and it can serve as an antidepressant. Scientists even think fasting may lengthen our lifespans by keeping cells healthy and youthful.
But the question of how often and when to fast is still the subject of much debate. Recently, a brand of fasting called “intermittent fasting” or “I.F.” has been touted as a straightforward way to lose weight, but there are different definitions for what the term means.
Many people adhere to a popular 16:8 plan, which involves eating for eight hours each day and fasting for the remaining 16. While this particular plan is generally considered healthy, some people report issues with nausea, bowel movements, and vomiting when their feeding time is limited to 8 hours. Others go to more dangerous extremes with their fasting escapades.
“They’re reading things on the internet that tell them to skip breakfast, or you fast for two days, or you fast for one week, and so there’s just a lot of confusion out there,” Taub said. “We wanted to come up with something that was really doable that everybody could do and not feel deprived and still maintain all of their routines.”
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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting: A Different Gut Microbiome Profile
Time-restricted feeding has also been shown to modify the gut microbiota, or the collection of microorganisms living in the gut. Like other aspects of our metabolism, our gut microbiomes ideally change routinely throughout a 24-hour period, according to a circadian rhythm that is largely dictated by when we eat. In fact, the daily cycling of the gut microbiome is thought to be a biological clock of sorts. This clock helps regulate metabolic activity in various tissues throughout our body, including our brain.
Weve known for a long time that what we eat can change our gut microbiota. But many animal studies have revealed that when we eat can also impact our gut microbes. According to a 2020 study, mice that fasted for 16 hours every day for 30 days showed increased levels of Akkermansia and reduced levels of Alistipes bacteria, compared to mice that werent subjected to fasting. More Akkermansia and less Alistipes are associated with reduced intestinal inflammation and decreased fat accumulation in the liver. Therefore, many of the benefits of fasting likely come from the alteration of our gut bacteria.
Fasting might also prime the gut to regrow short-chain fatty acid-producing gut bacteria. Short-chain fatty acids help control inflammation in the gut and can ameliorate symptoms of gut inflammatory conditions such as inflammatory bowel syndrome. They also cause blood vessels to dilate, which lowers blood pressure.
Intermittent Fasting The Best For Weight Loss
Ive been a personal trainer and nutrition coach since the mid-2000s and intermittent fasting is without a doubt the most effective diet for weight loss and slowing aging . Its also very simple to follow since youll just be restricting the times youre allowed to eat.
With intermittent fasting your body doesnt have any calories coming in. This allows your body to feed off your fat stores as an energy source . Since youre restricting your feeding hours youll instantly be cutting down on how many calories youre eating . Lowering your caloric intake does play a significant role in how much weight youre able to lose .
Finally, your body will release fat-burning hormones such as human growth hormone . This helps to preserve lean muscle mass which is needed to get a toned and slim physique . But dont worry about getting big bulky muscle mass from fasting.
But a lot of the weight youll lose with intermittent fasting depends on how much you have to lose in the first place. If you only have 10 pounds or so to lose then the results will be lesser if only doing it for a short time. But if you have more than 30 pounds to lose then your results will be much more.
You can expect to lose the most weight in the beginning few months and then itll start to slow down from there. And if youre trying to break through a weight-loss plateau then fasting for longer hours can get you there too .
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Move More Throughout The Day
Even when youre running short on time and cant squeeze in a full workout, adding small amounts of activity can chip away at your body weight.
The term non-exercise activity thermogenesis refers to the calories your body burns throughout the day by doing regular non-exercise activities like typing, gardening, walking, or even fidgeting .
Its estimated that NEAT may account for up to 50% of the total number of calories you burn each day, though this number can vary quite a bit depending on your activity level .
Making a few modifications to your daily routine can bump up calorie burning to speed up weight loss with minimal effort.
Parking farther away in parking lots, using the stairs instead of the elevator, taking a walk during your lunch break, and stretching every 30 minutes are a few simple ways to add more movement to your day.
Understand Portion Sizes And Stick To Them
“Eating directly out of a box or bag (almost always leads to overeating. Serve your food on a plate or in a bowl to keep portion sizes in check and to get used to what one serving looks like. Also, when we take the time to sit down during meals versus standing or driving, we tend to feel more satisfied with our meal. In fact, research shows that you will eat up to 30% more food at the next meal if you ate standing up! Serve yourself, sit down, and enjoy!” Jennifer McDaniel, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD, food and nutrition expert
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Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting: Weight Loss
Findings to date reveal that ADF and the 5:2 diet produce similar degrees of weight loss over short intervention periods in men and women with obesity. Longer-term studies have found that ADF and the 5:2 diet do not result in greater body weight reductions than found in short-term studies, suggesting that the weight loss efficacy of these diets might peak at 12 weeks.Varady et al., 2022
In the only long-term study of time-restricted eating conducted to date, those who ate reduced calories within an 8-hour window dropped 9% of their body weight after 12 months, while those who cut calories without the time restriction lost 7.2%. These changes in weight were not significantly different. Most other studies of time-restricted eating show 3-4% weight loss within 8-12 weeks.
One major advantage of limiting your eating window to 6-8 hours a day is that you dont have to keep count of your calories, which makes it more sustainable and effective at achieving and maintaining weight loss compared to caloric restriction.
Whether you want to lose 5 pounds or 100 pounds with intermittent fasting, youll want to tune into what you eat and when you eat. Learn to recognize actual hunger from external triggers that make you eat, eat a balanced diet with plenty of plant fats and fiber and stick to your fast-day calorie goals.
Lose Weight Faster By Changing Your Eating Habits
If you are determined to lose 10 or 20 pounds fast and keep the weight off, then its important to change your eating habits.
Effective rapid weight loss and being able to keep the weight off is only possible by learning good positive habits when it comes to food. This can help you continue losing weight long after your initial drop in body weight in the first seven days of dieting.
Dr. Arefa Cassobhoy on WebMD recommends drinking a 16-oz. glass of water before every meal. This recommendation to help boost the speed a person loses weight was based on a study of the effects of drinking water and obesity. It was observed that obese individuals who drank a large glass of water 30 minutes before their meal were able to lose weight faster.3
Another effective tweak for safe weight loss is to start your day with protein. Great sources of protein that keep you feeling fuller for longer are eggs, lean meat, milk or nuts. You might be surprised at the health benefits you can enjoy if you have eggs for your breakfast regularly. A protein-rich breakfast will give you plenty of energy and prevent you snacking before lunchtime. This will help you lose weight quicker in a 1 or 2-week weight loss plan.
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Track Your Diet In A Food Log Or Journal
“Whether it’s an app or paper food logs, tracking what you eat will certainly be eye-opening. Almost everyone consumes more than they think. Write everything down as soon as you’re done eating so you don’t forget anything. The simple act of recording what you eat will make you eat less. When the calories are in your face, it makes you think twice!”
Allison Jackson, NASM-certified personal trainer and Precision Nutrition coach recommends using a free app like MyFitnessPal to take note of how many total calories you average in a week.
To lose 10 pounds fast, Jackson explains you’ll then want to cut your calorie consumption by 10%. “For example, if you average 2,000 per week, reduce that amount to 1,800 calories and see if you lose weight. You’ll also want to take notice of the percentage breakdown of protein, carbs and fat. Aim for a ‘bodybuilder breakdown’ which is 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat. You’ll begin to drop weight in no time!”
Why Intermittent Fasting Is The Best Way For Your Weight Loss
So heres the deal most diets achieve weight loss through the same equation a reduction in total daily calories consumed in relation to the calories needed to maintain your weight.
The most important question is whats the best way to reduce your daily calorie intake without forcing yourself. If you dont feel good when youre on a diet, you simply cannot achieve long-lasting results.
If youre reading this article, it might be, that you already tried tons of different diets and its great if the result satisfied you, but if youre still looking for ways to lose weight, you might want to hear about intermittent fasting.
Another thing you want to keep in mind losing weight is just the aftermath of a healthy lifestyle. If you are overweight or obese, you might want to think about your health as much as you think about that dress you want to fit in by the New Year.
Even if you don’t lose weight in the first few weeks of your diet, always keep in mind, that a healthy lifestyle is good for your body and your soul even without the dropped pounds.
Here are some of the questions we received from our customers, we think youll want to take a look at the answers too.
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