Losing 3 pounds a week is vastly seen as an aggressive weight loss strategy – but necessarily unhealthy. Some people need to lose this much pounds weekly – amount to a monthly weight loss of 12 pounds every month – to get within a healthy weight range. And, since it is achievable then there’s certainly a way to go about it. It is on this leaning that the objective of this article has been forged.

You’re at the right place if your aim is to slough 3 pounds week in, week out for the next couple of months. So, without further ado, let’s get down to the main business of the day as insights are shared on the activities and/or observances that would help your cause.

Brace yourself

Remember that old saying that suggests that failure to plan is tantamount to planning to fail? Well, it applies to your weight loss program too. This is why you have to brace yourself for the lines of action you will have to adhere to while running with your 3 pounds per week weight loss objective. You must prepare your mind to botch a sedentary lifestyle, getting up to do your exercises as and when due. Inasmuch as we don’t subscribe to you pushing yourself too hard, you must exercise some degree of discipline while on any weight loss program – talk less of a 3 weeks weight loss routine.

Furthermore, you have to learn to let go of those non-profiting eating habits and be more committed to building a healthy lifestyle. Eating based on emotions or indulgences will have to be checked. You must, however, have it at the back of your mind that the best weight loss outcomes can only be achieved when you have a blend of dietary intervention and physical exercises.

Cut the number of calories you consume down to size

As you consider losing 3 pounds every week, you should be aiming to have a daily calorie deficit of 1,500 (calories) per day. This is provided that you keep to a 7-day program. FYI, 3,500 calories will give 1 pound of weight. In light of this, you should take 2 days or so to have a grasp of the number of calories you consume on average. Once you have found this out, you should push towards cutting it down – maybe by 750 calories. This presents the context through which accumulated fat in the energy reserve is released – thus ensuring that calories are burned – to fuel metabolic functions.

To effectively cut down your caloric consumption; you will have to watch the foods you eat, particularly with regards to the number of calories each constituent nutrient contains. Another aspect you need to give careful attention to is the way you cook at home. Consider things such as the type and quantity of oils you use and stuffs like that.

It may interest you to note a study revealed that raw foods contain fewer calories than cooked ones. Does this mean we have to go about munching on uncooked foods? – Far from it; the essential thing to take away from this is that we should be mindful of the ingredients that go into our meals.

More so, the methods used in cooking various foods should also be duly taken into consideration. For instance, sautéing is considered to be the best method for preparing veggies like cabbage, kale, broccoli, and mustard greens. Steaming and air-frying are regarded among the healthiest methods for cooking chickens. Some researchers once suggested the adoption of a caloric tracker to monitor the number of calories in food ingredients.

Go for a diet with a substantial amount of protein and fiber

The need for energy to fulfill daily metabolic activities remains constant irrespective of the reduction of the number of calories you consume. So, while you might have let go or limit those refined carbs, you should reach for a diet rich in protein and fiber, and also eat a good measure of fruits and veggies. The protein will be especially helpful in promoting metabolic functions and building muscle strength while the fiber ensures that remain satiated for an appreciably longer period – thus keeping hunger pangs in check. This helps to create a good balance, guaranteeing that the body is sufficiently supplied with essential nutrients.

Consider these exercises

Recall that the goal is to burn 1,500 calories daily, and we’ve taken half of this number out by establishing a caloric deficit of 750 (calories). Most of the calories left to be burned will come from physical exercise. There is a whole of exercises that can be embarked on for weight loss, and these have varied calorie burn rates. However, a moderate-high intensity workout will be the most suitable for you when aiming at losing 3 pounds per week.

Against this backdrop, you can root aerobics like high-knee running for 60 minutes. This should have you burning between 500 – 850 calories. You can break the exercise stretch into sessions – maybe a 15-minutes run on a roll. This doesn’t mean you have to maintain a similar pace all through – no lung-bursting or adventurous race. You can have an intermittent sequence of running and walking. Do a one-minute run and follow it up with a 15-seconds walk until the allotted time elapse. You should keep a calorie-counting device close to getting a hint of the precise number of calories you burn per time.

You can also maximize the stairways – if you’ve got one around your home. Going up and down the stairs repeatedly for one hour can help you burn around 450 – 650 calories. Once you’ve completed the hour stairway movement, you can do some extra runs around the house to burn the remaining calories.

Strength training will also do your 3 pounds per weight loss cause a great deal of good. An hour of a blend of such exercises – like bicep curls, squats, push-ups, glute bridge, deadlift, etc – can ensure that you burn around 340 – 500 calories. But that’s not all; there’s something called afterburn rate as the muscles are better developed with strength training. This means that even after the series of exercises, calories will keep being expended due to the rise in metabolism resulting from increased muscle mass.

References

Chi P-Y, Chen J-H, Chu H-H, and Jin-Ling L. (2008). Enabling calorie-aware cooking in a smart kitchen. Proceedings from Persuasive Technology, Third International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2008, Oulu, Finland, June 4-6, 2008, pp. 116 – 127.

Groopman EE, Carmody RN, and Wrangham RW. (2014). Cooking increases net energy gain from a lipid-rich food. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 156(1): 11 – 18.

Kahlon et al. (2012). In vitro bile acid binding of mustard greens, kale, broccoli, cabbage and green bell pepper improves with sautéing compared with raw or other methods.

Stavres JR, Zeigler MP, and Bayles MP. (2018). Six weeks of moderate functional resistance training increases basal metabolic rate in sedentary adult women. Int J Exerc Sci 11(2): 32 – 41.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326767#cooking-methods