6 Aspects On How to lose 3 pounds a week?
Contents
Introduction
How to lose 3 pounds a week? To answer this question in one word – Hard work! Weight loss is a journey that isn’t easy and sometimes comes with a lot of patience and hard work. Of course, losing 3 pounds a week isn’t an unrealistic target and can be achieved but only with sheer determination, concentration and control!
While people try to follow all fancy diets in the urge to lose weight and try to chase unrealistic goals to aid in the weight loss process, the truth is that when you are trying to lose weight all that matters is how balanced and healthy your body is! If you are not giving your body the required nutrition, your body shall not support the fancy diets you follow and shall soon give up! Therefore losing 3 pounds a week is a good goal provided you chase it with a smart mind!
Areas to hit during weight loss journey.
Any weight loss process is kick-started by analyzing your body needs, check on your weight, your food habits, your lifestyle and determine what your body is ready for! When you are too much into a junk food lifestyle you shall immediately know what to stop to aid weight loss. And so, people should analyze their body and find out the target areas. The two factors that mostly affect one’s weight are:
Food intake
Analyze your food habits and evaluate for yourself the food that goes into your body. If you have been surviving on a lot of junk food, unhealthy food items, negative food etc. then surely your body isn’t getting much of nutrition but just loaded on calories which in turn is making you gain weight. The time you start feeding yourself with healthy food your body shall start responding at an alarming rate resulting in 3 pounds or maybe a few more in just a week.
It is advisable that one opts for a well-balanced diet from a certified nutritionist to give their body the right nutrition when they are chasing a weight loss goal!
Activity
The second key factor in staying fit and keeping your weight in check is to involve in activities. You could be running, walking, hiking, exercising, doing yoga or doing one of the 5 components of fitness – the activities burn down your calorie intake and help you lose weight. Your activity levels must be always more than what you eat to accelerate weight loss. Or at least your body should be made to work as much as your food intake to make you lead a balanced life. This could include playing a sport, swimming or spending time in the gym and burning those calories each day speaking about calories .the most effective calories diets so far is 800 calorie diet and 1100 calorie diet.
The weight loss number game! and How to lose 3 pounds a week?
Frankly, it’s hard when it comes to chasing weight loss targets. So, if you are looking for a way to lose 3 pounds in a week – here is the necessary calculation that you are required to understand!
A pound of body fat usually contains about 3500 calories and therefore when you talk of 3 pounds a week you are talking about a calorie deficiency of 3500 x 3 = 10500 calories in a week. This deficiency, when distributed during the week, accounts for 1500 (10500/7) calories each day! Therefore, one shall have a target of creating a calorie deficiency of 1500 each day.
In order to process such calorie deficit in your body, there is an utter need to not just look for the right food intake i.e. cut down on the calorie taken but also equally do some workouts i.e. expend calorie undertaken!
The important point to note here is that one should not start starving themselves for creating a calorie deficiency. As 1500 calories deficit isn’t an unattainable target one can smartly cut down on the calorie intake as well as equally workout and burn those calories to be able to achieve the target.
Things to do to lose 3 pounds a week!
With a good goal comes a great plan of action! There are a variety of ways in which you can instill goodness to your body so as to fight against the fat and lose weight. To be able to lose 3 pounds a week it isn’t just necessary to cut down on the calories but having a proper schedule with the right kind of diet is equally important. Here are some of the aspects that you need to look into and follow religiously to stand on the weighing scale with a smile!
1- Exercise to burn the calories!
Cutting down on calories is one aspect of losing weight, exercising is another – when both are combined you shall be able to lose weight at a good rate while boosting up your metabolism. Exercising helps in improving blood circulation, toning the muscles, improve stamina, make for good metabolism and keeps you fit. Do you find a reason to stay away from exercising? The answer is a big NO! It is really important to incorporate a steady routine of at least 45 minutes of exercise for anyone in their daily life. And when you are on a weight loss journey you shall get smarter and work on the aspects required the most.
One should focus on a combination of cardio and resistance training to keep up the high-calorie burn and aid fat burn. While running on the Treadmill or Elliptical will boost your stamina and aid metabolism, the resistance weight training will tone the muscles and bring in fat burn! When you have to chase 3 pounds a week it is best to at least workout for an hour to one and a half hour each day.
2- Maintaining the right kind of diet!
Maintaining a diet is the key to cutting down on the calorie intake and creating calorie deficiency. One needs a proper diet which takes care of the necessary nutrition, protein content while taking care of the fact that you are not starving. Merely cutting down on the daily food intake for a week is going to make you feel weak and inactive while a good diet will help in keeping you active and normal throughout the day.
As the body needs its required antioxidants, vitamins and minerals – a well-balanced diet is going to help you keep up with the weight loss journey and work towards a healthier body without having moments of cheat!
3- Eating meals at a proper time!
No matter whether you have meals three times a day or six – it is important to have a schedule and stay true to it. As your body is always working the supply of right food at the right time is really important to keep the metabolism rate high. As the focus is on burning the calories on a faster rate the improvement of metabolism is really important. Hence when you have proper meals at the right time your body shall be able to process the food on time and burn it right as well.
4- Sleep to give your body the rest it needs!
As much a good workout cannot be avoided – a good sleep is required too! With so much hard work and stress on the body, your body needs time to relax, repair and rejuvenate. Hence a good sleep of 7-8 hours comes as an essential.
Sleeping helps in calming down the muscles, relaxing your mind and prepares you for the next day. The time when you start doing extra workouts and eating in a certain pattern your body shall require good sleep to cope up with the change. Make sure you are sleeping for at least 7-8 hours a day!
5- Maintain a journal
To stay with your goals you can resort to maintaining journals of what you ate, the exercises you did and write down how you feel each day. Doing it daily and reading it the first thing in the morning shall not just motivate you to go further but also make you find the mistakes at the end of the day and work hard towards achieving your goals on a daily basis.
This way you shall even know if you starved yourself or over-exercised so that you can avoid the mistake and come out good!
6- What to eat to lose 3 pounds a week?
Popular platform Women’s Health Mag has clarified that “if you really want to step up weight loss – without sacrificing long-term results, Slayton (Expert) suggests cutting back on calories”. So when we look closer at the diet that needs to be followed for aiding 3 pounds weight loss in a week one should not starve but ‘Cut down on Calories’.
For being able to create a calorie deficit you need to consume high-fiber low-carb foods. fruits, Green vegetables, protein, and whole grains. One needs to cut down on the bad-cholesterol fatty foods and make way for healthy salads, soups and more. Any form of oily, fried, creamy, sweet or high-processed food is to be avoided.
In fact, if we could sum up some of the eating items which can really be picked in consumable amounts for aiding the target, they have to be!
Eat This:
Fruits – High fibrous fruits like oranges, papaya, apple etc are to be preferred. One should avoid drinking juices and instead opt for raw fruits to keep the fiber content high! Fruits like papaya, Woodapple, Watermelon etc prove to be filling the stomach and give the essential nutrients too while being low on calories.
Vegetables – We cannot stress enough on eating salads here particularly Cucumber, tomato and lettuce with hints of lemon as these prove to be highly fibrous, high on water content and also supports the weight loss process. Salads keep you fuller for longer and the fruits detoxify your body and give you vitamins and minerals to the best. One should totally go for vegetables that are high on protein, leafy veggies etc and avoid high-calorie vegetables like potato, sweet potato, peas etc.
Protein – Protein is an important element in our diet which should be taken no matter you are on a diet or not. This opens the door for drinking milk, Cottage cheese, poultry food items etc. but one should only consume them in limited quantities and as per the level of activity, they indulge into. Protein is best when you are working out to equally burn the calories.
Water – Experts recommend drinking about 12 glasses of water each day for us to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated is equally important when you are planning for a weight loss. Drinking enough water keeps the stomach fuller while making you consume less of any other form of food. This works in the time when you are hungry in spite of following the diet religiously.and if you are challenger go for the water challenge.
What are the things to be avoided to lose weight?
The modern day lifestyle is so tricky that we fall prey to various forms of food items which may look pleasing to the eyes and treat to the taste buds but are very harmful to the body. Consumption of these food items doesn’t just harm the digestive process but also provides no good to the body. Food items like pizzas, burgers etc are chosen by a large section of people as their daily diet making them tackle digestive issues, low metabolism rate, high sugar diet, bloating and belching, nausea and more problems on a daily basis.
To be able to successfully start the weight loss process is to be able to successfully stop the junk eating.
There are a lot of choices which need to be refined in the selection of food for weight loss. Here is a little list of items which needs you complete avoidance!
Stay Away from:
- Sugar – Sugar is high on calories and does no good to your body. The amount of sugar that your body really needs is supplied naturally in fruits and vegetables. Hence, one can easily lead a sugar-free life. By this, it is implied that anything that is labeled ‘sugar-free’, or ‘low sugar’ ‘no added sugar’ isn’t an option too. Pick up only the items which have ‘No sugar’ in it. One should not try to find alternatives like diet-sugar or sugar-free tablets as these have saccharine in it that is more harmful than sugar. If you feel like having sweetness in your meal you can always add in a little of raw honey, stevia or dates to add in mild sweetness.
- All-purpose flour – Look closely and you shall find that mostly the cakes, pizzas, tarts, noodles, burgers etc are all made with all-purpose flour. The digestion of all-purpose flour is difficult for the stomach and hence you are required to target the items made of all purpose flour or maida and avoid it completely. One can switch to Oatmeal, wheat, bran, millets, etc to make up for the same items in their healthier versions.
- Fried food – Fried food items like French fries, cutlets, chicken wings etc are deep fried in oil and thus are very high on cholesterol and calories. Avoiding them is important for your diet to be healthy.
- Desserts – As said already, sugar is bad for the body and should be completely avoided yet there are desserts which are off sugar but are very high on calories to break your diet any time. To lose 3 pounds in a week your diet should completely go without ice-creams, tarts, creamy desserts, cheesecakes and more. These items only add into unnecessary calorie intake when your goal is to bring about a calorie deficiency!
- Canned items – The focus should shift from canned or processed items to raw and fresh food options. Avoid canned fruits or beans and only opt for the ones which come fresh and handy!
- Binge eating – Binge eating has proven to be the top reasons aiding weight gain and hence needs to be stopped altogether. One should choose only limited amounts from the permitted food from their diet and eat at the right time to lose weight. Binge eating, especially after 8 in the night, is to be completely banned!
Word of Caution!
Bringing change into your daily routine and increasing the level of workout you do is going to cost you more than just a few pounds. A lot of people bring about drastic changes in their routine without thinking about the consequences. One needs a proper consultation with a physician to start with anything that brings a sudden change in your body.
There are lots of people who try to push the limits even though they have been dealing with heart diseases or joint problems – it is not recommended for them to do so without consulting their doctor. Similarly, there are people who start consuming food supplements, weight loss supplements or preach medicines which promise to make them lose weight – we recommend not going for anything without consulting a doctor.
Conclusion
A sudden change in routine, incorporating a heavy workout routine or eating lighter than one usually does can cause a lot of changes in the body which might not come always in a good way to everyone. Hence one should only go for it after proper advice from their doctors.
Starving, over-exercising, etc need to be avoided because a few pounds aren’t as important as your health and goodness.
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