Some people lose weight with a strict diet in a short period of time like losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks or losing 10 pounds in 1 week. However, once the diet is over, they often go back to their old eating habits, and with them, the extra pounds come back. What is the disadvantage of short-term diets? The body does not have time to get used to healthy foods, but it has time to miss the junk tasty things. Therefore, if it is better to change your way of life, you should do it in the long term. Lifestyle includes foods and drinks, the quality of food, diet, and physical activity.
Realistic goals will help you to succeed much faster than exaggerated ones. If you set the goal of getting the perfect body in the shortest possible time, you will achieve nothing, and after unwanted results and slow progress, you will give up that idea. The most important thing is to start. Instead of thinking and guessing whether it is possible to lose weight in a month by 15 pounds, you need to focus and work on it. So what do you need to do?
Drink More Water
Drink at least 1.5 litres of water a day. When the stomach is full, you wouldn’t want to eat so much food. Models lose weight in that way. If you don’t drink a lot of water, do not try to pour it into yourself by force. Gradually increase the amount. As a rule, it takes one or two weeks to get used to it. The body also gets water from vegetables, fruits, and other foods and drinks. Keep an eye on how your body is adjusted. The universal 6-8 glasses may not be your norm.
It is helpful to start your day with a glass of water. This starts all the necessary processes in the body and wakes it up. Drinking while eating is not recommended, as it dilutes the gastric juice and stretches the stomach. Hence, the feeling of heaviness and bloating of the stomach. However, this does not mean that you should completely forget about drinking. The stomach needs moisture for better digestion of food, but water can only be drunk in moderation. It is recommended to drink water 20-30 minutes before meals. So, during eating, there is no more liquid in the stomach. The water should not be cold, but a little warm, and you should drink it in small sips, not in a gulp. It is better to give preference to pure water. It has no calories, no salts, no sugar, or other elements that can harm the body.
Avoid Stress
Stress is a universal physiological reaction of the body in response to a strong environmental impact. This reaction is expressed in the increased tension of our nervous system. Everyday problems have an impact on the human psyche, either it could be financial difficulties, quarrels in the family, lack of sleep, or skipping a good meal. And also there are traffic jams in the big city, busy work schedules, muscle overload, information noise, cold, and even unhealthy self-esteem. Most of these factors we can not control, and we are talking about a chronic state of stress, which has a cumulative effect.
As a consequence of this constant nervous tension, we suffer from headaches, constant anxiety, insomnia, loss of appetite, or, on the contrary, uncontrollable hunger, fatigue, and difficulties with concentration and memory. In neglected cases, panic attacks, rashes similar to an allergic reaction, high blood pressure, the development of cardiovascular and digestive diseases, nervous tics, and depressive disorders are likely. Most of us ignore the discomfort of chronic stress and take it for granted as not dangerous. Meanwhile, the consequences of stress can be very serious. Chronic stress negatively affects our health, well-being, ability to work, mood, and relationships with others. It’s very important to try to neutralize the effects of stress factors on our psyche, and there are many proven ways to do this.
Add Fiber to Your Diet
Our feeling of fullness depends on a full stomach. For example, fibre tends to absorb moisture, increase in volume, “swell” and not be completely digested. They not only slow down the absorption of excess fat and cholesterol and remove their residues from the body, but also have a positive effect on the intestinal microflora, contributing to the growth of beneficial bacteria. The very first thing that is done when a patient comes to a therapeutic nutrition clinic is a dietary analysis. Most often it turns out that the intake of fats is “off the charts”, and dietary fiber is consumed in insufficient quantities. That “imbalance” in the diet is the main reason for being overweight.
Dietary fibres are responsible for many internal positive processes in our body that we do not directly feel. For example, they slow down the absorption of glucose and its conversion into fat, support blood cholesterol levels and improve gastrointestinal function and intestinal microflora composition. And this is the key to a strong immune system and clean, beautiful skin without inflammation. To add fiber to your daily diet, you need to eat as many natural plant foods as possible. Such as broccoli, carrots, beans, or cauliflower, seasoning them with hummus or fresh salsa, and adding nuts, berries, and fruit to plain yogurt without sugar. Fresh fruits and nuts are often more expensive than the usual candies, and there is not always time to make inexpensive cereals, beans, and lentils, but it will help to stick to a balanced diet.
Get Enough Sleep
Go to bed before 10 p.m. Early going to bed is not lazy, it is a necessity! A chronically sleep-deprived person consumes almost 40% more calories per day than required. Poor night’s sleep is the reason why the hunger hormone is not produced properly. And the signal of satiety reaches the brain with a delay. Those who sleep less than the recommended eight hours a night usually have trouble losing weight, even if they follow a strict diet. Sleep deprivation contributes to obesity and related diseases. Those who did not get enough sleep had more fatty tissue, and attempts to lose weight proved futile.
Lack of sleep can cause daytime fatigue, making you less inclined and less motivated to exercise. Constant lack of sleep increases the chances of rapid fatigue during physical activity. The good news is that getting a full night’s sleep, on the contrary, can help improve your athletic performance. Sleeping well at night is perfect not only for people who want to lose weight but also for those who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Very often people in the struggle for an ideal weight forget about their health, which can subsequently lead to irreparable changes in the body
Eat More Vegetables
Giving up one product once a week and eating more vegetables can help too. Gradual rejection of “junk” is perceived by the body much better than a diet “off the bat”. For example, today you stop putting sugar in your tea, and tomorrow you do not eat white bread, but wholemeal flour, and so on.
Eating fresh vegetables help to maintain normal intestinal function, stimulates the secretion of digestive juices and increases their activity. The low-calorie content only adds to the attractiveness of these foods, because it allows you to eat them in large quantities without the risk of getting fat. Almost all leafy vegetables and herbs contribute to weight loss. Try carrots, cabbage, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, cucumbers, and other natural healers. Vegetables containing a lot of vitamin C also help to lose weight: peppers, beets, radishes, and their relatives, as well as green onions and garlic.
However, of all vegetables for weight loss, there is such a wonderful option as celery. Why is it so valuable? It helps not to gain extra pounds, and also to lose the existing ones. The secret is that celery burns intercellular fat in the body. It has so-called “negative” calories. Therefore, both dishes cooked with it and celery juice are very useful for those who want to lose weight quickly and effectively.
More Walking or Running
The activity itself will only improve the result. Choose your favourite activity: dancing, walking, biking, yoga, etc. A 20-minute yoga session in the morning is an extremely effective method, as it will force the burning of fat reserves and lose «breakfast» calories.
Also, both walking and running contribute to fat burning. Running is a more intense workout. But a very large load is put on the musculoskeletal system, the heart rate increases and blood pressure rises due to more frequent contraction of the heart muscle during such activity.
Quick walking is more effective in terms of weight loss. The body begins to feed on glucose by reaching the upper threshold of heart rate during running. And mainly fat cells are used when walking for about an hour.
Walking is preferable to running:
- For the untrained;
- People with large body weight;
- The elderly;
- Pregnant women;
- People with musculoskeletal problems;
- People who have had a stroke or heart attack.
It is better to start walking or training by warming up all the joints of your feet. Be sure to choose comfortable shoes. Develop a route in advance. Stick to a comfortable pace for the chosen method. You should walk at least 6-7 km (10,000 steps) a day to keep your body toned. Walk forward, and you will achieve your goal!
Eat Less Salt
Salt, an indispensable ingredient in cooking can be the source of your weight problems: its excess retains fluid in the body and generally inhibits metabolism.
It is not necessary to completely abandon salt. Moreover, the sodium contained in salt is a necessary element of a healthy diet, it is responsible for the removal of calcium from the body, an overabundance of which is harmful. But salt, like any other substances and trace elements, is needed by the body in reasonable amounts. The physiological norm for a person is considered to be the consumption of 5 grams of salt per day. In the diet of modern people, this amount is greatly exceeded – sausages, frankfurters, bread, canned foods, chips, salted nuts, and many other products that already have salt.
How to reduce your salt intake by 20:
Don’t put salt on your food when you cook it.
This also applies to the water in which you are going to cook pasta, vegetables, or rice.
- Read the label carefully before adding dressing or flavoring to a dish. Ready-made spice mixes most often already contain salt;
- Avoid sauces with high salt content (ketchup, soy sauce, French mustard, etc.).
Conclusion
In fact, to lose weight by 15 pounds in a month at home you do not need to make huge efforts. You should first reconsider your diet and drastically change the products in the refrigerator. You should not set a more difficult goal in losing weight, because the rapid loss of weight can lead to unwanted health problems, both physical and psychological. In such cases, not only gastritis but also unstable blood pressure, ulcers, and depression can bother you. The body will best tolerate a weight loss of 3-4 pounds per week.
Important! It takes 21 days to form a habit. Therefore, if willpower allows you not to break and to last three weeks, overcoming the first 7-day stage of the organism’s adaptation to the new conditions, success is ensured.
FAQ
1️⃣ Is it realistic to lose 15 pounds in a month?
According to research, losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is a safe and sustainable rate of weight loss. This means losing 4 to 8 pounds per month – not 15 pounds in a month.
2️⃣ How long does it take to lose 15 pounds?
It is recommended to lose weight gradually, 1 to 2 pounds per week. At this rate, you will reach your goal of 10 to 15 pounds in as little as five weeks or as much as 15 weeks.
3️⃣ Is the 15 pound loss noticeable?
It depends on your BMI and body type. Your height and weight play an important role here. However, on average, you need to lose 14 to 19 pounds to notice a difference in weight.
Nina Burkovskaya is a senior content writer at Raisetwice since 2020. She has 12 years of yoga experience and 5 years experience of motivational coaching. On a free time loves to read biographies of the famous people and go for a walk with her dog.