Annette NelsonIs it possible to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks diet and workout plan? The more reasonable and sensible question is why do you need such a crash diet? Weight loss is not something event-oriented or a temporary triumph of your inner voice. First and foremost, it’s your lifestyle, eating behavior, and everyday habits. We are going to look into all the ways that can help you lose weight, and see if it is possible to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks.
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What Is Safe Weight Loss?
Weight loss can happen naturally if you follow all the recommendations of a healthy lifestyle – keep to a balanced diet and workout routine. Typically people get scared off after hearing such a ‘challenging’ combination because life without a portion of sweets looks unbearable, and cozy internet-surfing-evening is already second nature. However, without changing these fundamentals, all the attempts to lose weight will lead to stress, demotivation, and even greater weight – that’s, probably, not the results you are expecting when starting a new dieting round.
Rule No.1
Weight loss can and must be safe. Your body isn’t an experimental mechanism, don’t play weight loss yo-yo with it. Choose a healthy and stable way of weight loss to prevent all the possible negative influences.
Rule No.2
Quickly lost – quickly gained. And it works flawlessly. Crash diets don’t help you acquire new eating habits, so in case you tend to overeat, you’ll be back on the track and gain weight again.
Centers for disease control claim that safe weight loss is 1- 2 pounds a week. [1], and 4-8 pounds a month. Sometimes you can lose 10 pounds in a month as the water excess also takes place.
To reach this result, you need to burn 500 to 1,000 calories each day, through a lower-calorie diet and regular physical activity. A ‘lower’ calorie diet means consuming a balanced number of calories to cover your basic needs and help your body to recover.
Adding a regular workout will help you create a calorie deficit because the body will not get enough energy from food calories, hence, it will use the fat depot for it. As a result, without the usage of draconian measures you will reach the desired numbers and, what’s more important, you will be able to maintain this weight.
So, just give yourself time.
How To Lose 10 Pounds In 2 Weeks Workout
A regular workout is a part and parcel of losing weight. The workout schedule can include various types of exercises, combined with rest days. The most effective exercises for the fat burn are cardiovascular and strength training. While cardio is responsible more for losing fat, strength training will allow for growing muscle mass.
Cardiovascular exercise
Cardiovascular exercises include walking, running, stair climbing, cycling, swimming, dancing, etc. The options are endless, as well as the benefits for your body. [2]
The American Heart Association recommends having at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity heart-pumping exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise spread out over most days of the week. [3]
Reaching this goal isn’t that difficult, at least 25-30 minutes a day, which is super short, compared to checking another Instagram or Twitter update.
The benefits of cardio workout:
- Cardio improves brain and joint health. It can’t prevent us from aging, however, it helps to keep our brains working. It’s a proven fact, that people who have a physically active life have more vivid and clear thinking when being elderly.
- When you are active it helps to improve circulation, which is helpful for your skin. When your muscles are active, the oxygen supply of the body increases, which is an advantage for all body organs.
- Staying active helps to improve blood sugar control and reduce the chances of diabetes type 2.
- Fewer mood swings. Physical activities help to get rid of emotional problems and anxiety. Of course, it’s not a cure, however, it can help to alleviate the emotional burdens. Besides, while working out you experience the release of endorphins, which gives you enough strength and desire to work along the day.
- Prevents heart disease, and strengthens the heart muscle.
Cardiovascular exercises are pretty efficient for fat burn. Surely, everything depends on the intensity, current weight, age, etc., however, the newbies have more chances to burn calories because of the novelty effect.
For example, running 6 miles per hour for 60 minutes will make 850 total calories burned if your weight is 190 pounds, and around 600 if your weight is 120 pounds, The difference is significant.
Strength training
Strength training is another staple among workouts. Unlike cardio, which targets the fat tissue, strength training helps you build up strength and muscle mass, and thus, lose weight. Muscle mass is more metabolically active which means a need for more energy for its functioning. Thus, you lose more calories even while resting. The combo of cardio and strength training will lead you to the best results.
How To Lose 10 Pounds In 2 Weeks Diet
What’s best lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks menu? The best menu is balanced:
- It covers your basic caloric needs
- Food is consumed when you feel hungry, not bored, or emotionally excited.
- Your calorie intake is lower than the calories burned, this is the way to create a calorie deficit – the basis of weight loss.
Important tips to consider:
- Even if you don’t like to count calories per day, you need to listen to your body, it’s the best advisor. You need to stop eating when you feel that you are full or almost full. You are supposed to have a feeling of lightness, not the feeling of stones to carry.
- Every extra piece and bite joins together and helps you accumulate extra weight if you don’t burn the calories sooner. It may seem that one extra piece of that super delicious cake will not help matters, but when it’s too much-it’s too much.
- Another quite simple piece of advice to follow is to not eat the leftover after every member of the family, and we often do it, because we feel sorry for the food. Luckily, we can all use fridges to preserve food for further use.
- If you want to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks, or at least you have the intention to follow a healthy diet, eating fewer calories isn’t enough. Don’t buy too much food in the shops. Typically we get caught by discounts that offer a lot of food for a lower price. But the expiry date is getting closer and closer. If you buy a lot, you need to eat everything. And again, quite a common situation – we eat not because we are hungry, but because we need something so that it doesn’t go bad. As a result, you eat your way toward the extra weight.
Lean Protein
Protein is a crucial component and macronutrient of our health. It’s important for our proper functioning, especially when wanting to lose weight. The benefits of proteins are hard to underestimate:
- Proteins provide structure and support for cells. On a larger scale, they also allow the body to move.
- Transmit signals to coordinate biological processes between different cells, tissues, and organs. [4]
- Support muscle contraction and movement
- Help facilitate chemical reactions for proper digestion
- Help to repair and build up muscle structure.
Examples of lean protein.
High Fiber Foods
Fiber is one of the macronutrients important for our health. It has a significant influence on our health.
A high-fiber diet:
- Normalizes bowel activity and health
- Lowers cholesterol levels
- Helps control blood sugar levels
- Aids in achieving a healthy weight
- Helps you live longer
- Makes your belly looks smaller, helping to get rid of the leftovers of digested food.
Complex Carbohydrates
If you have already googled through numerous articles about weight loss, you may have found “super-duper” crash diets with “lose-once-and-forever” slogans. The main idea is typically about super low-caloric foods and the elimination of carbs because carbs give you just empty calories, while fats and proteins are about strength, weight loss, and health. That’s so far from reality. Despite being claimed as harmful to weight, they stimulate muscle growth and work as fuel for the whole body.
Simple carbs, which are mainly made of refined sugar, white flour, and lots of trans-fats, will not be a good meal. They contain lots of calories even being super light on weight. Think of a croissant – 2 pcs and you cover half of your daily needs. When accompanied by hot chocolate, it gets even worse. If you are going to spend the next several hours in the gym, you don’t need to worry. However, if it’s your typical breakfast/lunch/dinner, get ready to buy new clothes.
Yet another issue to consider is energy swings. You feel like a hero ready to rule the work world. However, after an hour, you feel drained, and you need another energy doping – hello sugar. And this is an endless cycle you can’t get out of.
Instead, choose complex carbs – they slowly release energy, so you feel not get hungry quickly, at least physically. They will provide a stable source of energy for several hours: grains, wholemeal products, brown rice, lentils, cereals, etc.
If the carbs are so beneficial, why do you keep gaining weight eating them? Everything is about balance. If you can’t control the amount of food, it will not bring you any good.
Even if you overeat proteins, you will have a significant plus in calories, and, of course, when you don’t use this energy input, everything is stored for later use – more fat tissue again.
Fats
Fats are also our basic macronutrient. They take part in thermoregulation and hormone synthesis. Women, especially young girls, who avoid fats to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks, may face problems with periods. Moreover, people who have an extremely low percentage of fat suffer from dizziness and cold feet/hands in the cold seasons.
The only thing to improve – is the source of fats – give preference to plant-based ones such as – plant oils, seeds, nuts, fatty fish, etc. These are unsaturated fats that are more beneficial for our health.
Drink Water
Water diets, so widely recommended are part of the evil side of weight loss. Drinking enough water is beneficial as our body mainly consists of it. If you don’t drink enough, you won’t feel capable of thinking, talking, or moving. Your body will seem spiritless.
There’s no standard for everyone, however, a general recommendation is – About 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men. About 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) of all fluids a day for women. [5]
The simplest way to follow the water regimen is to drink when you are thirsty. Besides, we sometimes take thirst as a feeling of hunger and start snacking. Anytime your hand is about to take another biscuit, candy, or chocolate bar – drink a glass of water.
Tips To Help You Lose 10 Pounds In 2 Weeks
Losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty exhausting and not sustainable. However, we need to define what type of pounds we want to lose. If we consider fat loss, it looks insurmountable:
1 pound of fat is 3500 calories.
35000 calories in 14 days give you 2500 calories to burn every day.
Just to help you understand these numbers in activities:
To burn 300 calories 15 minutes – High-intensity interval training – HIIT
To burn 200 calories 30 minutes – intensive and unstoppable rope jumping
To burn 400 calories 30 minutes – HIIT workout
To burn 350 calories 1 hour – brisk walking
To burn 400 calories 30 minutes – HIIT exercise
To burn 1000 calories in 2 hours – half-marathon
To burn 400 calories in 30 minutes – HIIT
To lose 10 pounds in two weeks, you will need a total of 2500 calories of fat burned per day. These numbers are not precise, as all the individual measures are left aside, However, they help to see the big picture. More than 5 hours of active and intensive workouts every day for 2 weeks.
Do Circuit Training Workouts
Want to know how to lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks and don’t know where to start? Circuit exercising is about interval-style resistance training workouts. It involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit. It targets strength-building and muscular endurance. Circuit training is a highly-effective type of workout quite similar to HIIT, however, it doesn’t have such intense bursts of activity. Besides, it engages all muscle groups. If you wanted to lose 10 pounds and don’t know what type of exercises to take up, try circuit training and its versatility will help you define what feels best.
Don’t Burn Out – Rest And Get Enough Sleep
One of the common mistakes of weight loss is wanting to get everything at once – dramatically lowering the caloric input and hitting the gym till it hits all your strength and spirits out.
This is a very steep way, as you can possibly lose weight due to constant fatigue, however, it will mainly be water. When you get back on track to normal life, you will have to do the impossible to maintain your current weight.
To avoid total and complete burnout, try planning the rest days, and leave enough time for sleep – make time for fun and physical exercises.
Keep A Food Journal
Keeping the food journal definitely sounds boring. Fortunately, food journals are quite accessible now in the form of apps, doing all the calculations and you just need to enter the amount of food you eat.
It doesn’t have to be a lifelong routine. It may only take a few weeks to help you see how much food and calories your really eat. It will present you with the real picture and analyze all the calorie input.
When you start following a healthy diet, make out everything about the nutritional value of different foods, and start eating only when you feel hungry, there will be no need for an app, as you will keep everything under control.
A balanced diet doesn’t mean eating only fruits and vegetables with boiled chicken. The variety of recipes is immense, you just need to give it a look. As a rule of thumb, avoid processed foods, too refined, too greasy, sugary, and salty dishes. However, you can have a treat from time to time, as too many restrictions will cause the boomerang effect.
Avoid Mindless Eating
Mindless eating makes up to 30-50% of the calories you eat on the whole – eating something to make a company, the leftovers after everyone, when you are bored and there’s nothing to do, movie-snacking, etc.
The only way to restrain from this type of eating is not to let your appetite and emotional hunger win over you. Learn to eat when you feel real hunger. It takes time and inner fight, however, it’s worth the effort.
Consider Intermittent Fasting
Sometimes a weight loss plan can include intermittent fasting. Some people claim that it helps to control the appetite. The main idea is to take turns eating and fasting hours. There are different types like 18/6, 5/2, 14/10, and 20/4. However, it’s important not to cross the border with fasting. Balanced nutrition and a meal plan as a part of a lifestyle is always the best choice.
In Conclusion
How to lose 10 pounds in 2 week? How to lose 5 pounds in one week with the safe limit of 1-2 pounds? Such rapid weight loss is certainly not about health, because such goals are hardly obtainable, let alone sustainable. The best part of such changes is a desire for changes, but give them time. At first, you need to follow a healthy diet and exercise habits, when you get used to them, weight loss will no longer seem like a problem and your weight will reduce in a natural way not being a burden for you. Instead of constant dieting, you will get a pleasing way of change. Try to start it and feel all the pleasure of lighter life.
