With a little sweat and will power, you can lose more than 10 pounds in five weeks. Combine diet and exercise to shave 1,000 calories off your daily total, and you'll lose 2 pounds a week. Keep these healthy habits as part of your daily routine, and you will continue to drop weight even after your goal date.
Step 1
Begin a food diary. Write every bite down on a scrap of paper or in a formal journal. Those who identify diet pitfalls and bad habits with a diary lose twice as much weight, as reported in the "American Journal of Preventive Medicine" in August 2008.
Step 2
Strive to ingest 1,200 to 1,800 calories per day and make those calories nutritionally sound. Eat three meals and two snacks daily. Arrange your plate so at least half is made up of vegetables and the remaining half contains a quarter each of protein and carbohydrates.
Step 3
Keep your portions under control. Learn to eyeball a 4-oz. serving of meat as the size of the palm of your hand, a 1-oz. serving of cheese as the size of four dice or a 100-calorie potato as the size of a computer mouse. Remember, even healthy food can derail weight loss if you eat too much of it.
Step 4
Make an appointment to exercise. Pen your workouts into your calendar. Treat exercise as a non-negotiable part of every day. Participate in exercise that makes you sweat for at least an hour a day, five days of the week. Strength train on two non-consecutive days during the week, conducting at least eight different exercises for eight to 12 repetitions.
Step 5
Drink at least 40 oz. of water a day to flush your digestive tract and help stave off hunger. Drink a glass or two before meals or snacks; often, our bodies misread thirst signals for hunger.
Tips and Warnings
- Get plenty of sleep. Your body can read the energy dips resulting from lack of sleep as a need for food, and you might become uncontrollably hungry. Never skip meals. You will set yourself up to binge. Enlist friends in your quest to lose weight. They can help your efforts.
- Consult with your physician before beginning an exercise routine. If you eat less than 1,000 calories per day, you will risk nutritional deficiencies.
Things You'll Need
- Paper or notebook and pen
- Athletic clothing
- Whole foods like lean proteins, fresh produce and whole grains
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