How to lose 10 pounds in a week

January 27, 2010 by health1  
Filed under How to lose weight

Weight loss is a big problem for a big percentage of people and for proper results you need to follow a healthy plan based on natural weight loss methods. There are cases though that you need to adopt rapid measures in order to lose weight fast. We already outlined in a previous post about how to lose weight in a week and in this post we explain what you can do if you want to lose 10 pounds in a week. For sure losing 10 pounds in a week is not the healthiest thing to do but you can give it a try and see how much weight you can lose and also assess how easy or hard is the whole process.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: Get ready

Before beginning this 7 day challenge ensure that your body and state of health is capable for this. Do not start without first consulting your doctor. Fast weight loss can sometimes create other problems to your health and this is highly undesirable. If everything is ok, gather all the willpower and energy you have and you are set to go.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: Make a jump start

To begin your difficult journey you need a jump start. What you can do at day 1 is to follow a very strict diet that will help you get into the mood of fast weight loss. You can eat a good breakfast with cereals and low-fat milk and then during the day you will only eat a couple of fruits and a low-fat yogurt at night. Also you need to ensure that you will drink a lot of water and green tea. Remember that you will do this for only one day and not more.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: Less is more

For the rest of the days what you will do is try to limit the number of calories you consume through food. A good way to achieve this is by eating half the size of the food portions and by drinking lots of water. Water will keep your stomach full and away from calories. Do not try to skip meals and then eat more. This is not the correct approach for fast weight loss. The correct way to approach this is by eating small meals every 3-4 hours. Try to place your food in smaller plates so that you have a clear picture of how much you will eat.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: No more snacks

As far as what foods and drinks to include in your meals, you need to understand that to lose 10 pounds in a week you will have to dramatically reduce the calories you consume on a daily basis. If you take this into account in order to lose one pound you need to burn 3500 calories more than you consume, then this means that the calories you consume through food should be the minimum. So, for the next weeks you should completely forget about: Soft drinks, sweets, chocolates, snacks, dairy products, canned food, processed food, junk food and fried food. You should also limit the consumption of carbohydrates and proteins. What you are encouraged to eat is apples and oranges, green vegetables, fish, white meat and salads with no dressings.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: Breakfast is a must

As we said above, breakfast is a must and should not be neglected, while dinner is for the next 7 days obsolete. Start your day 1 hour earlier than you are used to. Spend 10 minutes doing stretching exercises to wake up all your muscles and then walk for 20 minutes (if you can also run this is much better). Get back to the house, do a quick shower and then eat a good breakfast with cereals and low fat milk. After going home from work in the afternoon, get some rest for half an hour and then exercise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. During this time you can walk, run and do weight lifting exercises. Your goal is to work your muscles and force your body burn more energy. Do not just perform the exercises; you need to ensure that you push yourself to the limits.

How to lose 10 pounds in a week: Skip dinner

Dinner for the next 7 days is obsolete. We said above that this week will be different from the rest. One big difference is the absence of dinner. To keep your stomach busy you can drink water and green tea. By skipping dinner you give enough time to your body to burn fat from the fat reserves. This will not only show on the scale but it will also have a positive impact on your appearance as it will help you lose inches. If you find this very difficult to do then go to bed earlier or try to keep your body and mind busy.

To sum up, in order to lose 10 pounds in a week you need to make a lot of sacrifices and you need to adjust your program so that you consume fewer calories while at the same time find ways to burn more. Weight loss programs like this one, or like the ‘how to lose weight in 2 weeks‘, are only suitable for a very limited amount of days and no more than a couple of weeks. For results that last for a long time you need to adopt healthy weight loss guides and practices; this is by far the best way to lose weight.

How to lose weight fast without pills

January 13, 2010 by health1  
Filed under how to lose weight fast

If you want to lose weight fast and safe then certainly you should do it without pills. Pills are not recommended in any way to help you lose weight. What usually happens when you take pills to lose weight is that at the beginning you think you are losing weight because the scale shows you a couple of pounds slimmer. In reality though the pounds you lost is not from fat but from water (water weight). After a few weeks you get tired of taking chemicals and all the weight you lose is coming back.

Pills are not a safe way to lose weight. Most pills try to either control your appetite or accelerate liquid disposal and the final result is not weight loss but more serious health problems. Weight loss pills can damage the liver and other body organs and in the majority of cases they are not even certified for circulation. The companies that produce and promote weight loss pills will try and convince you to buy them by giving you free samples or by showing weight loss success stories or even state that their products have been featured on news networks and TV Channels. This is all fake and completely wrong. If you need evidence then try to contact them and ask them to give you more details about the success stories or the exact programs that reviewed their products. Most probably you will not be able to find anyone to speak to but in the rare cases that you do you will not get convincing answers. Even more serious some weight loss pills claim that they are approved by the National Health Council but if you search about them you will find that this claim is also wrong. Finally following a weight loss program with pills costs a lot, and this is money given to people who are cheating you and to products you may harm your health.

So, if you are now convinced that weight loss pills is not the correct way of approaching weight loss, you need to understand how to lose weight without pills. In simple words, the correct way to lose weight is the healthy way. By healthy weight loss we mean using physical means through diet and exercise and not by using any chemical products, strict diets or crash diets. This does not mean that you cannot lose weight fast. On the contrary when you lose weight the healthy way you are sure that you will keep the weight off. The basic guidelines for a healthy weight loss are the following:

Healthy diet: A healthy diet is based on natural products and foods that are low in fat, sugars and calories. Examine your diet and identify the items that do not meet these characteristics. There are plenty of foods you can choose that can help you lose weight. All you have to do is read the food labels and only buy items that are within your standards. You can also get the assistance of a professional nutritionist to help you out.

Healthy living: People who live a healthy life have the following characteristics: they sleep good, they are able to minimize stress, they allocate time on things they like, they rest enough and they are active either through sports or exercise. They do not smoke and they drink and eat with a measure. Recall in your mind people who know who live a healthy life, as described here, are they obese or overweight? Most probably not.

Self confidence and optimism: Self confidence has a lot to do with weight loss. People who have high self confidence are able to control their weight very easily. This is because they have faith in their self and their capabilities and weight loss is about being able to push your self to the limits and withstand the difficulties with courage and believe. Finally, people who manage to lose weight are optimistic about the result. When you start your efforts you should be optimistic about the results and look forward to meet your new self and not pessimistic that you will fail.

Lose weight with out exercise

To get optimum weight loss results you have to do 2 major things. First you need to understand how to lose weight and second you need to appreciate the fact that for fast results you need to both take care of your diet and exercise. While these are the golden rules of weight loss there are cases where people for one way or another do not want to do both i.e. diet and exercise. In these cases there are certain rules to follow in order to get the best possible results from your efforts. In a previous post we explained how to lose weight with exercise, in this post we outline some ways on how to lose weight with out exercise.

Lose weight with out exercise – a quick overview

In order to reduce your weight you must be in a position to eliminate more calories from your body than the amount of calories you consume. This deficit in the long term will help you lose weight. To be more precise every time the deficit is 3500 calories then you will lose one pound. The ways to create this calorie deficit are two. First you need to eat less calories through your food and second you need to accelerate the calorie burning process through exercise and physical activity. As we said above, for fast weight loss results you need to do both i.e. eat less and exercise more. If you want to skip on of the two steps then to achieve good results you have to do more of the other. In other words, if you choose not to exercise then you should follow a more strict diet and if you choose not to diet then you should exercise more.

Lose weight with out exercise – Eat less but more quality food

Food has many different ingredients and not all of them are suitable for a healthy weight loss diet. Food that is full of fat and sugars, processed food and fried food is not good for people who want to lose weight but also it is not good for your health in general. If you want lose weight with out exercise then you need to selective on everything you put in your mouth. This means that you should read the full labels and decide whether a food is good for your diet or not. You can also get the help of a professional nutritionist to help you identify the kind of foods you eat and in what quantities. The best approach is to change your diet towards more quality food. In this sense quality foods are low in fats and sugars and full in vitamins and nutrients. Perfect examples of such foods are fish, legumes and of course fruits and vegetables. Some nice tips to help you select more quality food are:

1. Prepare a shopping list before you go to the supermarket – include in your list items that are suitable for your diet. When you go to the supermarket try not to buy items that are not in your list. This will also save you money and keep your diet on a healthy track.

2. Do not eat out or take away – Most foods you can buy from take away stores is considered junk food. This is because it is full of fat and other substances that are dangerous for your health and are capable of destroying your weight loss efforts. Sometimes this is also true for food you eat in restaurants. When eating out you have no control on the ingredients used to cook the food and so you can not be sure that these are based on the standards you want.

3. Skip the buffets – When you have to eat in a restaurant then prefer to order your own meal instead of selecting from a buffet. When there is a buffet menu then most likely you will be tempted to try something that normally you shouldn’t. This something is usually a sweet temptation full of calories and sugars or a ‘nice’ salad dressing.

4. Eat the right snacks at work – While at work you may have the desire for a quick snack in-between meal. If this is the case the go for a nice fresh fruit and try to stay away from biscuits or sweets. This action alone can save you tens of calories per day, multiply that by the number of days you work per month and you will see that you can save a lot of calories but doing nothing. Also, if you like drinking coffee then try to switch to black coffee with no milk or sugar. This may be difficult at the beginning but once you get used to it you will benefit from a good amount of calorie savings.

5. No more sugar soft drinks. This is a sacrifice that you have to do if you want to lose weight with out exercise. Completely remove drinks from your diet (even diet or light drinks) and start drinking lots and lots of water. Make it a habit to start your day with a glass of fresh cold water and repeat that every couple of hours. Water will help you get rid of toxins and also will keep your stomach full.

Weight loss with out exercise is possible if you follow the tips outlined above. If the reason you do not want to exercise is not because of a health problem then you definitely need to reconsider your plans and adopt a healthy life style with a proper diet and exercise schedule.

Fastest Way to Lose Weight

January 4, 2010 by health1  
Filed under how to lose weight fast

What is the fastest way to lose weight? Well, you have to follow a plan and stick to it. The first order of business then is to drink lots of water. Why does this work? Water suppresses one’s cravings and therefore the appetite. Also, it tones muscles, reduces cholesterol and aids in digestion and liver functioning. Not only that, water cleanses out the system and speeds up the metabolic rate so one can burn calories more proficiently. If you’re about 130 pounds, usually drinking eight glasses of water is enough for you to adequately burn calories and lose weight quickly.

Detoxing the System

Of course, drinking water in and of itself is not enough for you to lose weight fast. You also have to eat the right stuff in order to see any measurable reduction in your overall weight. Some of the foods that assist in immediate results when it comes to losing weight also help detox the system of any contaminants and pollutants. If you cleanse the system, your digestive tract and liver functions at levels that help speed up your metabolism and burn calories. Thus, if you eat foods that cleanse your system and are lower in calories, you will resultantly be not only thinner but more energetic too. If you’re more energetic, it only stands to reason that you’ll also burn calories more swiftly as well. So, what are the foods that are helpful in this regard?

Cleansing Foods
Eat strawberries and raspberries. They contain elegiac acid. This substance is effective in ridding the body of any contaminants. Eating grapes help the arteries to function with precision while cranberries assist in flushing out the kidneys. Lemons are helpful in cleansing the liver.

Ways to Burn Fat

Eat low fat dairy products, such as some cheeses, yoghurt or skim milk to burn fat in the abdominal area. These calcium-rich products help reduce the amount of absorbed fat in this region of the body. If you add to your fiber intake you will also lose weight at a much swifter rate. By doubling your consumption, you will feel fuller and at the same time cleanse the system so you can burn calories with greater efficiency.

Don’t Hold the Hot Sauce

If you like any type of hot food, you’re in luck. Capsaicin, which is found in chili peppers, speeds up the metabolic rate and increases your ability to burn calories by roughly ten percent.

An Excellent Diet Drink

A good beverage to add to your diet, besides water, is green tea. By drinking around 5 cups per day, you can boost your metabolic rate as well as burn as much as eighty calories in a single day.

More Meals and Smaller Portions

Keep in mind as well that it is best to eat more meals and smaller portions. That way, you burn calories more effectively as well as stave off any hunger pangs. Pick fruits such as bananas, apples, cherries, blueberries, cantaloupes and watermelon for optimum weight loss. Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cabbage, legumes, spinach, pumpkin, tomatoes, black beans, onions, and collard greens are also excellent foods to eat for quickly reducing one’s weight.

Select Grains

Choose grains such as whole wheat breads and rolls, whole grain cereals, oatmeal and barley to give any excess weight a quick “heave-ho.” Or, choose skinless chicken breasts, pork chops, tuna and salmon to burn fat and reduce weight at a quick rate.

Choice for Snacks

For snacks, good choices are popcorn (without butter of course), nuts, seeds, trail mix, applesauce, raisins, pretzels and granola bars.

Maintain a Schedule

When trying to lose weight in a minimum amount of time, it’s also important to plan your meals. Write down a daily schedule as to when you’ll eat and what food you’ll be eating as well. By doing so, you can maintain a type of diary to make sure you’re keeping on track with regards to your weight loss plan. A good schedule might include breakfast at 7 a.m., a nutritious snack, such as an apple at 10 a.m., lunch at noon, another healthy snack at 3 p.m. with dinner scheduled around 6 p.m. As you can see, by following this type of schedule, you can eat a number of low-calorie, fat-burning foods throughout the day without feeling deprived.

Consume Beverages Separate from your Meals

Don’t consume water or tea with your meals. By doing so, your foods will be better digested. Drink a cup of warm tea about ½ hour after you eat.

To Lose Weight Quickly – Choose a “Blue” Food

An interesting note – certain colors affect our perception of what we eat. For example, any foods that are colored blue, purple or black normally suppress the appetites of most people while foods colored red stimulate the appetite. Therefore, it might be helpful for some people to design a diet where they add some foods colored blue in order to help them in their weight loss efforts. Much of what we enjoy eating then has a good deal to do with the color of the food.

Stay with the Program

In any event, the above information can assist you if you want to lose weight fast. By referring to it as you plan your diet, you can be assured you’ll see results in a short manner of time.