Isn’t it everyone’s dream to lose a pound a day with ease? At some point in time, we have all tried to achieve this dream of an ideal body weight that is fast and doesn’t check our patience level. However, losing one pound daily might not be a good idea if you do not understand your body and the way it functions. Plus, professional help is always recommended when planning on doing something extreme to get rid of that fat from the body.
Can you Really Lose a Pound Per Day?
To lose a pound per day, you need to invest in intensive exercising sessions. But, not just that, you also need to cut down your calories. When done the wrong way, it might lead to an abrupt metabolism crash, further increasing problems such as low sugar levels and electrolyte imbalance.
This routine can only be successful if you can successfully burn 3500 calories daily. On average, you require about 2000 to 2500 calories to function normally while carrying out your daily activities.
This means you have to starve through the day & exercise a lot to lose extra calories. Doing this is practically impossible without professional help. And even with that, losing one pound/day could be extremely risky for your health.
So, your question shouldn’t be “How to lose a pound a day?” rather “How to lose a pound a day in a healthy way?”. You always have to put your health first and then embark on a journey of healthy weight loss.
Getting Rid of the Water Weight
The only way you can lose your weight this fast is if you are losing the water weight & not fat. Fluid retention or water retention is actually a situation that leads to excess buildup of fluid within the body.
It is mostly a result of dehydration, a high carbohydrate diet, salty food, kidney diseases, heart problems, certain medications, physical inactivity, or hormonal changes.
Drinking water can be a good way to reverse this problem. It helps you tackle dehydration issues and helps your kidney function in a better way.
In addition, with the water retention problem solved, you can be assured that excess sodium and water in your body are flushed out properly without making you look puffy.
Once you have achieved proper hydration & the excess salt+water within your body is discarded, you can weigh yourself & find that your weight has come down 1 pound or even more.
However, it would help if you kept in mind that this pound loss isn’t due to the fat reduction in your body but due to excess water reduction.
Additional ways to bring down the water retention problem include exercising, intake of vitamin B-6, water pills, carb intake reduction, or magnesium oxide health supplements use.
Now that we are well updated on the basics let us understand how you can lose one pound per day through some tried and tested methods.
Tips to Lose 1 Pound/Day in a Healthy Way
As mentioned earlier, it is practically impossible to lose 3500 calories/day regardless of the exercising frequency or food consumption reduction. Therefore, you might assume that you can exercise for long hours and lose weight fast.
However, it won’t make you lose weight this fast; it only leads to extreme dehydration and exhaustion.
So, here are some tips to help you healthily lose weight without actually feeling like you are dying out of exhaustion.
1 — Always Start Slow
Losing one pound per day is achievable but not from the get-go. If you aren’t used to running or walking, jumping straight up on your treadmill and sprinting would lead to muscle injuries that would cause you pain.
Instead, it is better to start up slow with casual strolls that start with 15 minutes daily as you keep increasing the duration.
This helps increase your body’s endurance. If you aren’t a big fan of casual walks, you could instead invest some time in brisk walking or jogging with some baseline exercises.
2 — Eat Right
There is a myth going around that eating food that doesn’t have fat, calories, or carbohydrates would help you lose weight faster. However, I’m afraid that’s not right. Out body is designed in a way that it needs every type of nutrition to function well.
Even fat is required to metabolize your hormones and thus keeping everything in balance.
Losing weight doesn’t have to be starving yourself, rather keeping the diet rather balanced. When picking up fat or carbohydrates for a balanced diet, make sure you pick items with healthy options such as omega fatty acids and so on.
Always select complex carbs to be a part of your diet as opposed to simple carbs. Complex carbohydrates like pumpkins, beans, or sweet potatoes take time to digest and keep you full for longer without adding to the weight.
However, simple carbs digest easily and make you hungry too fast, leading to overeating and hence weight gain.
3 — Medical Supervision is Necessary
Losing one pound a day can be very challenging, especially if you have been dealing with certain health ailments.
However, even if you aren’t, it is important to consider medical supervision just in case of adverse reaction to an abrupt switch in exercising session and your diet.
Schedule regular check-ups with your healthcare service provider and seek immediate medical attention in case you feel something out of the blue happening to you in terms of health. For example, you might find how to lose a pound a day, but we do not advise you to go for it without medical supervision.
4 — Cardio Plus Strength Training
One might assume that simple cardio can help you burn down those calories fast and easily. However, plain and simple cardio would work initially, but you will surely reach a plateau very soon. The key is to mix it with strength training to lose weight faster.
Your body sure burns calories when you opt for cardio or strength training. However, bundling them together can provide you better results.
Plus, you don’t have to worry about the skin sagging issues that happen due to lack of muscle development when you simply opt for cardio exercises.
Remember, the more muscles you have, the faster it is to burn down those pesky calories.
Muscles also help you maintain the lost weight, and you don’t have to worry about the weight coming back in case you have to quit exercising for a short time.
5 — More Protein & Less Processed Food
As per research, consuming a protein-rich diet is known to support better appetite control. This means you will end up feeling fuller for longer and don’t have to worry about the midnight hunger pangs.
Plus, it would help if you avoid processed food intake when trying to lose one pound per day. This is because processed food items are loaded with salt, which causes water retention and hence adds to your weight.
Additionally, you should also include fiber-rich food items in your diet. Food such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, or whole grains is loaded with fiber that can decelerate the stomach emptying process.
This further helps curb cravings & boosts weight loss.
6 — Count Your Calories
When it comes to food, the ingredients matter more than the size. For example, a big piece of cucumber or pumpkin has fewer carbs than a cheese of the same weight or even meat.
So, even if you feel that you didn’t eat a lot, you might end up consuming more calories than required.
So, make it a habit to count your calories. As an adult, you need nothing more than 2500 calories daily. So, ensure that you take nothing more than this.
You already have to lose about 1000 calories extra than your daily consumption. So if you add more calories to your daily consumption, you might have to struggle more to lose that extra intake.
Always check out the calorie information in the food packaging. When ordering from the restaurants, ensure that you check the calorie content of the dish online and order accordingly.
7 — Do Not Take Stress
This is something most weight loss enthusiasts do not focus much on. We can’t stress this enough that you need to be happy and stress-free regardless of whether you lose one pound a day or not. Stress is known to be the biggest cause of weight gain.
Stressing about losing weight can be an oxymoron as it actually causes you to gain more pounds.
Cortisol is released by your body when you are stressed, which could lead to overeating and other health problems when left unchecked for long.
So, ensure that stress isn’t a part of your weight loss journey.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, what counts is that you are healthy and fit. So regardless of how fast you lose weight, if you see yourself in the mirror and there is an obvious change, embrace it.
Even if you have a goal to lose one pound per day and manage to achieve this, don’t worry if there are days when you fail to hit the goal. Going slow yet steady is always better than fast and haphazard! If you are not in good health, instead of considering “how to lose a pound a day?”, get professional help.