Let us discuss some of the statistics of weight loss. A pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories. Thus, to lose five pounds of fat, your body needs to burn a total of 17,500 calories. You can achieve this goal by either eating a low calorie diet or by doing enough exercise or by combining both the things together. Since our goal is to lose 5 pounds in a week’s time, hence, we will begin by dividing the 17,500 calories into daily calorie deficit that we need to create. It comes out to be 2,500 calories a day for 7 days.
How to Lose 5 Pounds in a Week
1. Calculate Your BMR
TheBasal Metabolic Rate (BMR) of a person determines the amount of calories an individual needs to take each day to maintain his basic metabolic needs or maintain his body weight. This is done by calculating the Basal Metabolic Rate using the Resting BMR calculator. Just enter the appropriate information with regards to age, weight in pounds, height, and gender in the BMR calculator. In this way you will obtain the number of calories that you require daily from which we can calculate the calorie deficit.
For an online BMR calculator, click HERE.
2. Get Low-Calorie Diet
If you want to figure out how to lose 5 pounds in a week, after calculating your resting BMR, you have to follow a reduced calorie diet according to the deficit that you need to lose weight. However, diets lower than 1,200 calories are not recommended as they can create nutritional deficiencies. Follow religiously the reduced-calorie diet program for the week.An example of a common menu for 1,200 calories provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute include a piece of whole wheat bread and shredded wheat to be eaten at breakfast, roasted beef sandwich for lunch, popcorn for snacks, and vegetables with 2 ounces of salmon for dinner.
Following is a 1,200 calories diet plan for a week that you can follow:
Monday Meal Menu | ||
---|---|---|
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
Unsweetened fruit juice, a small bowl of cereal with skimmed milk |
260 |
Lunch |
1 orange and 1 banana |
130 |
Snack |
Nonfat yoghurt-a small bowl, 1 apple |
90 |
Dinner |
Fried rice prepared in minimum oil-1 medium bowl, vegetable curry-1 small bowl |
700 |
Tuesday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
1 large slice of melon, 2 slices of buttered toast, 1 egg-hard boiled |
337 |
Lunch |
Cottage cheese-100 g, 1 baked potato and Baked beans-100 g |
380 |
Snack |
1 Muesli meal replacement bar, 1 apple |
240 |
Dinner |
Whole wheat pasta salad prepared using ½ tsp. olive oil with very little sauce for flavoring |
250 |
Wednesday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
2 slices of toast w/butter or jam, 2 bacon-grilled |
420 |
Lunch |
1 banana, tinned tomatoes-100 g, 1 slice bread with butter |
172 |
Snack |
A pack of low fat fries, 1 apple, 1 orange,wf loaabbutter or jam, 2 gra wekor |
190 |
Dinner |
300 g chow mein-chicken, some vegetables |
350 |
Thursday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
A small bowl of cereal along with skimmed milk, a glass of unsweetened fruit juice |
260 |
Lunch |
Fresh vegetables, cod bake frozen meal |
470 |
Snack |
1 cup low fat yoghurt, 1 apple |
100 |
Dinner |
Peas and Caribbean rice |
430 |
Friday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
A glass of unsweetened fruit juice, 1 small bowl of muesli with skimmed milk |
410 |
Lunch |
150 g-French bread pizza, mixed salad-1 large portion |
380 |
Snack |
mixed vegetables-200 g, 1 apple |
140 |
Dinner |
100 g baked potatoes and 100 g baked beans |
300 |
Saturday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
2 whole wheat toast w/2 tsp. light margarine, 4 ounces of skimmed milk w/1 tsp. sugar, 6 ounce of low fat yoghurt |
360 |
Lunch |
1 ounce low fat cheese, baby carrots-1/2 cup, fat free chocolate ice cream-1/2 cup, toasted whole wheat English muffin |
360 |
Snack |
1 tsp. peanut butter, 1 orange |
95 |
Dinner |
1 medium-sized baked potato, 3 ounces of lean protein, 2 tsp. light margarine, 1 cup of steamed broccoli |
297 |
Sunday Meal Menu | ||
Meal |
Items |
Calories |
Breakfast |
1 hard-boiled egg, 1 cup strawberries-sliced, 1 cup shredded wheat cereal |
303 |
Lunch |
1 cup fat free vegetable barley soup, 18 ounces of skimmed milk, 1 slice whole wheat bread w/2 tbsp. humus w/1 slice tomato |
90 |
Snack |
1 container low fat organic yoghurt |
130 |
Dinner |
2 veggie cakes, 1 cup blackberries, 1 stick mozzarella cheese |
402 |
3. Exercise to Burn the Rest Calorie
As the next step to solving the concern: how to lose 5 pounds in a week, minus 1,200 calories from the calories of your resting BMR.
For example, if your daily requirement is 2,500 calories for weight maintenance, then by eating a diet of 1,200 calories a day, you will have a resulting calorie deficit of 1,300 calories, leaving 1,200 calories to be consumed by exercise.
Consult your nutritionist, dietician or physician while following a reduced-calorie diet program since the American Obesity Association recommends that people eating 1,000 calories or less should do it under the supervision of a health expert.
Get involved in regular exercise. Running for approximately ten meters per hour (10mph) will burn around 1,000 calories an hour. Most likely, you will have to do more than one hour of exercise daily to reach the goal of burning 2,500 calories per day. You can break your exercise into short sessions of 20 minutes duration. However, when you do lower intensity exercises such as water aerobics or walking, you will probably have to spend a lot of time exercising each day.
You may use cardio machine while doing exercise so that you will know the amount of calories burned. This device will record the accurate calorie count based on the information provided by you such as your age and weight. You may also use an activity calculator to estimate the burned calories per hour based on your weight.
Want for some common exercies for calorie expenditures, click HERE. Choose the suitable exercise for yourself to burn reset calories