Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store checkout and see those magazines that say how to lose 10 pounds in a week? I certainly have, and good news for you, I will give you the secret to lose 10 pounds in a week and you don’t even have to buy the magazine.

The secret…don’t eat anything for a week and you will lose 10 pounds no problem. Literally nothing. The only way to lose 10lbs in a week without getting some sort of surgery or liposuction.

Doesn’t sound appealing at all does it? It sounds like the worst thing in the world and a terrible idea. Guess what? It is a terrible idea. You would literally be starving yourself. It is impossible to lose 10lbs in a week in a healthy manner. Stop trying to do it. Just like it didn’t take 1 week to put 10lbs on, it is going to take longer than a week to take it off.

Here is the thing about this magazine. They put that on the cover so you buy the magazine. Once you buy it, the article is probably going to tell you how to lose the 10lbs and it’s going to take way longer than the cover said. Or worse and more likely, they will give you a strategy to lose the weight really fast with some fad diet and once you get off the diet you gain all the weight back and more.

 I have a good news/ bad news situation. Good news, I want to help you lose 10lbs. Bad news, it’s highly individualized so I can only help you with strategies. So here we go with 7 strategies to help you lose weight. If you don’t want to read any of this, at least read number 7.

7 strategies for Weight Loss: So you can stop googling how to lose 10 pounds in a week.

1. You need to eat in a calorie deficit. That means you need to eat less calories than you consume. Now this doesn’t mean eating no calories. This means finding your calorie maintenance, or how many calories you need to eat so you don’t gain weight or lose weight. Then eat 200-300 less calories than that number.
2. Walk. Hit your 10,000 steps every day. Walking is the easiest, cheapest way to get your cardio in without hurting yourself. Guess what? It burns calories too. Not like 1000’s of calories but enough to help you lose weight. So get your fit bit, apple watch, or whatever pedometer you like and start walking.
3. Start lifting weights and not light weights. Heavy weights. You want to try to build some muscle. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn at rest. That means you burn more calories literally doing nothing. Sounds pretty nice to me.
4. Eat as many whole foods as possible. Reduce the amount of highly processed foods in your life. One 6 ounce potato is 156 calories. The same 6 ounces of potato chips is 960 calories. It’s hard to overeat whole foods. The body has natural mechanisms that prevent you from over eating whole foods. It’s easy to overeat highly processed foods. They were designed to make you eat them and eat wayyyy more than you’re supposed to. I’m not saying eliminate them. I eat them, not every day but I eat them. I just control how much I am consuming instead of mindlessly eating them. 
5. Carbs aren’t the enemy. As seen in number 4. Both are potatoes and both weigh the same amount. You can’t tell me that carbs are the issue. Over eating highly processed foods are the issue.
6. The more restrictive you are the more likely you are to quit on yourself. I never told you to stop eating the foods you like. You shouldn’t stop. You just need to control your portion sizing. Eat those chips, but try to keep it to the serving size and maybe don’t eat them everyday.
7. Lastly, be patient. I cannot stress this enough. It’s going to take longer than you want. You are going to hit roadblocks, you are going to mess up and over eat, you are never going to be perfect. No one is perfect. Don’t try to be. There will always be a birthday or holiday or vacation. Enjoy it and get back to work after it’s over. The only way you fail is if you stop trying.

Try out these 7 strategies for weight loss and see how your progress goes. Like I said everyone is different. I wish I could say eat this amount of calories and everyone would lose weight. Life doesn’t work like that. It’s easy to put on weight. It’s going to be hard to take it off. You will hit plateaus in your journey. Just because you stop losing weight doesn’t mean it’s time to give up or switch to a new strategy. It means you need to be patient and good things will happen.

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