The fastest way to lose 10 pounds is by a combination of diet and exercise. Coupling diet with exercise not only encourages healthy weight loss, but often keeps the pounds off in the long term, maintains the Mayo Clinic. This is largely due to the change in lifestyle you naturally create when using this approach to health care. You're teaching yourself what to eat, how much to eat and what activities can provide you with a slimmer figure.
Step 1
Set a goal, urges the Cleveland Clinic. While you may have already decided you want to lose 10 lbs., you still need to set a goal in relation to time. Without a timeline, the number almost becomes arbitrary. The National Institutes of Health suggest a weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs. a week. This means that you can healthily reach your goal is just over a month.
Step 2
Evaluate your body's caloric need, which is based on your base metabolic rate and level of activity. Once you understand the calories needed to stay at your current weight, you can take steps to create a deficit in this number.
Step 3
Create a caloric deficit with diet. Eating fewer calories than your body needs is one way to create a caloric deficit to help you reach your 10-lb. goal. According to the experts at the National Institutes of Health, 3,500 calories is equal to 1 lb. of fat. So if you eat 2,000 calories a day, dropping your caloric intake to 1,500 should lead to 1 lb. of weight loss each week.
Step 4
Create a caloric deficit with exercise. Burning more calories than you consume is another way to create a caloric deficit. This works a lot like diet, since you're still using the 3,500 calorie benchmark to lose 1 lb. of fat. If you're able to burn 500 more calories than you consume each day, you can expect to lose a pound of weight in a week.
Step 5
Combine diet and exercise. By combining diet and exercise, you compound the caloric deficit you're creating with each. If you're able to generate a 500-calorie deficit with diet and a 500-calorie deficit with exercise each day, you're going to lose 2 lbs. a week. After five short weeks, you've reached your goal.
Tips and Warnings
- Using your weight, height and age, you can establish your base metabolic rate, as follows: Male BMR = (pounds x 6.23) + (inches x 12.7) - (years x 6.8) + 66 Female BMR = (pounds x 4.35) + (inches x 4.7) - (years x 4.7) + 655 To establish your body's caloric need without exercise, multiply your base metabolic rate by 1.2.
- To ensure good health through the course of your weight loss, do not drop your caloric intake below 1,200 for women and 1,500 for men, urges the National Institutes of Health.
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