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Monday, January 04, 2010

Can I Lose 10 Pounds by Valentine’s Day?

It’s time for the weight loss resolutions again. It’s the time of year when people start asking me if I think they can lose 10 pounds by Valentine’s Day. Even though it can be done, I try to dissuade them from focusing only on a number on the scale. However, most people do want to see the number on the scale go down after they’ve spent the past few weeks celebrating the holidays with food and drink. So I have to bend a little and help my clients lose 10 pounds by Valentine’s Day. The motivation you can get from seeing your weight drop by 10 pounds is fantastic. If you too are trying to lose 10 pounds by Valentine’s Day, try my strategies and see what happens.

The first thing I suggest is exercise. If you can start doing 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise such as walking, jogging, bike riding or aerobics, you can burn between 250 and 450 calories. If you can burn 450 calories a day, six days a week, you will end up burning 2700 calories per week. One pound is approximately 3500 calories. Therefore in six weeks you could burn off 4.5 pounds which would put you well on your way to losing 10 pounds.

Next, examine your diet. To reach your goal of 10 pounds in 6 six weeks, you will have to cut out 500 calories a day. This sounds hard but it can actually be pretty easy. You will need to look at your daily intake and figure out where you can cut out the calories. Here are some examples:

Remove all juices, sodas, iced teas, etc from your diet. Drink only water or other sugar-free/calorie-free drinks. If you drink three sugary drinks per day, cutting them out can save you up to 500 calories.
Cut out your night time snack. If you are a late night snacker, this may sound impossible. However, late night snacks can add up to a lot of calories since most of the snacking is done in front of a TV or computer. Limit you late night snacks to a bowl of fruit or some veggies with dip. You may be able to save up to 500 calories.
Take away 1/3. Once you portion out your meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, remove 1/3 of the meal. You will most likely remove about 200 calories which will add up to 600 for the day.
Cut out the condiments! If you are a person who uses butter, mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, etc on most of your foods, cut it out. 1 tsp of butter equals 45 calories. By removing a few servings of butter, mayo and BBQ sauce you can save 500 calories.

If you can cut out 500 calories per day 7 days a week, you will eliminate 3500 calories which technically equals one pound. Over six weeks, you will lose six pounds.

At the end of six weeks, you will have burned off 4.5 pounds exercising and lost 6 pounds by cutting your calories. Your total will be 10.5 pounds in six weeks. It will be tough to stick to this regimen for six weeks but if you really want to lose 10 pounds by Valentine’s Day this is a healthy way to do it. After the six weeks, you can continue with a healthy diet and exercise and go back to losing 1 pound per week or maintaining your healthy weight. If you don’t reach 10 pounds in six weeks, don’t worry. Keep exercising and being careful with your diet and the weight will come off.

- Jennifer

Labels: Diet, Jennifer, Weight Loss

posted by My Sensei @ Monday, January 04, 2010

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2 Comments:

At January 04, 2010, Leigh said…

Great tips! I have been cutting out sugary drinks and snacks - boy does that really make a difference. My next feat is trying to cut back, I like the idea of "1/3"...going to have to try that!!

I am just looking to lose some weight by the spring time, but if I can get to 10 by Valentine's Day, that would be amazing!!

Thanks for the tips!
At January 04, 2010, Jody - Fit at 52 said…

Ya just have to break it down into components. Like you said, break that 3500 calories per pound of weight down in to smaller & achievable steps!