How to Lose 10 Pounds in a Week – 5 Simple Steps
Looking to lose 10 pounds in your first week of keto?
Well, it is totally possible to lose 10 pounds in your first week on keto.
However, I should point out some of the weight you lose will be water weight. But not to worry, you’ll still lose fat as well.
A typical recommendation for a healthy, safe weight loss to be 1-2 pounds a week.
But with the keto diet, you’ll be limiting your carbs intake to force your body into ketosis. When you are in ketosis, your body burns fat instead of glucose, resulting in you losing a lot of fat, not just water weight.
This is why the keto diet is one of the most popular diets for weight loss.
Going on keto and getting into a metabolic state, ketosis, is a way to burn fat, lose weight, and keep it off for good.
Studies show keto diet can not only help you lose weight but also improve your overall health (1, 2).
How Do You Lose Weight on a Keto Diet?
The diet is unique because it uses fat to fuel your body.
This is unique to the keto diet and it’s one reason why weight loss on keto works so well.
This alteration of dietary macros forces your body to enter ketosis. It’s a metabolic state where your body is depleted of its primary energy source, glucose. It’s a derivative of carbohydrates that are produced in the body.
Drastically cutting carbs results in less glucose your body has to burn to fuel itself. Essentially, when your body enters ketosis, it begins to break down fat instead of carbs for fuel.
Replacing carbs with fats enforces this switch in fuel source and turns your body into a fat burner. It’s what happens in ketosis and when your body produces ketones. Your body becomes extremely efficient in burning fat, both from stored fat and new fat intake.
Because your body is constantly breaking down fat to use as fuel, you’ll naturally lose weight.
This is how you lose weight on keto.
Another way weight loss happens on keto is through a filling diet. Ketogenic diet tends to be filling and satisfying, thanks to a decent intake of protein and loads of fat.
By feeling fuller and having fewer cravings your calorie intakes, naturally decreases.
Whenever you take in fewer calories, you lose weight.
What Is the Fastest Way to Lose Weight?
The fastest way to lose weight on keto is to force your body into ketosis.
So your goal is to reach this metabolic state and start using the ketones as your body’s main energy source.
That being said, reaching the state of ketosis and turning your body into a ketone body is a process. It also requires some work and planning.
Here are 5 steps to get into ketosis fast, to lose 10 pounds in a week.
1. Limit Your Carb Intake
The core of a ketogenic diet is its low-carb diet. It’s the most important aspect of achieving ketosis.
And this can only be caused by carb deprivation.
In natural, carbohydrates or glucose serves as the body’s primary fuel source. But when glucose is lacking, the body turns to other energy sources like ketones, the fatty acids.
When carb intake is low, your body releases fats stored in your body to be used as fuel. This is where fat burning happens and weight loss occurs.
To induce ketosis and make this switch in energy source, the carb intake needs to be as low as 20-50g a day.
With that said, the level of carbs to reach ketosis is different for everyone.
Some need to go as low as 20 grams a day or even fewer, while others can tolerate 50g or more of carbs.
To lose weight fast, it’s best to start as low as you can to guarantee ketosis. Once your body becomes a ketone body, add back some carbs gradually.
Promoting weight loss on keto requires an alteration of your body’s metabolic state. Consult with a specialist near you to find your best keto macros before starting the diet.
2. Add Healthy Fats to Your Diet
A low-carb ketogenic diet is supported by a hefty dose of healthy fats. And that’s for a reason.
Consuming lots of healthy fats helps boost your ketone production.
A successful keto diet meal plan for weight loss gets as many as 80% of calories from fat. A keto diet for epilepsy or therapeutic keto can see calories from fat as high as 90%.
But more fat does not necessarily translate to more ketones.
A study shows eating 79% or 90% fat did not make a difference in the ketone levels produced (3).
Rather, focus on eating enough of quality, healthy fat for ketosis.
If you don’t know where to start, aim taking 80% of calories from fat.
Some of the good keto fat sources are coconut oil, avocado oils, olive oil, and butter. Olives, coconut milk, avocados, and fatty fish and nuts can also help you boost your fat intake.
One thing to note here is, for your weight loss, you need to still remain within your calorie budget. Don’t fall short of fat intake but also, don’t go overboard and break your calorie budget.
3. Exercise to Speed Up Weight Loss In Ketosis
One question people always ask is this.
Does exercise speed up weight loss in ketosis?
The short answer is yes.
Exercise helps speed up weight loss in ketosis by depleting the body’s glycogen. They are normally replenished when you eat carbs, which glycogen is derived from.
Studies have shown that physical activity can help deplete your glycogen (4, 5).
With glycogen supply being kept at low on keto, this only forces your body to tap out on glycogen stores. In response, your body produces more ketones to fuel your muscles and cells.
Another study has shown a remarkable increase in ketone levels with exercise. They recorded a 137 to 314% increase in ketones when exercising before a meal. In other words, exercising in a carb fasted state (6).
For the best results, exercise before you eat to encourage more ketone production.
4. Try Intermittent Fasting With Keto
One way to speed up weight loss on a keto diet is to go on a short-term fast.
By that, you go a portion of your day without eating.
This type of short-term fast is known as intermittent fasting or IF diet. And when it’s combined with keto, it’s called keto fasting.
Intermittent fasting is not a diet in itself. Rather, it’s an eating schedule that involves a period of fast to simulate your body’s fasted state.
Fasting on keto is an effective way to induce ketosis and boost the production of ketones.
It does that by depleting the body’s primary energy source, glycogen.
Lack of food intake for a period of time allows your body to use up its glycogen stores faster. Moreover, it forces your body to tap into your fat stores as an energy source, boosting your fat loss.
This process is known as lipolysis. It’s about your body breaking fats to produce free fatty acids, which help create ketones.
The longer you fast, the more of those fatty acids will be released and the more ketone body you get to create.
So how does intermittent fasting and keto work?
Intermittent fasting on keto helps your body get into ketosis faster.
They both deplete glycogen supplies and add demands for ketone production.
The way to do keto fasting is to incorporate fasts while eating keto meals. It’s that easy.
A sample keto fasting plan would have you fast for 16 hours and eat in the remaining 8 hours.
Since you can incorporate your sleep time in the fasting period, it’s as effortless as can be.
If your goal is to lose 10 lbs in a week or something similar, try keto fasting. Its effectiveness for weight and fat loss is seen in many studies, and it is easy to start. a
5. Keep Track of Your Calories
If you caught me saying “you don’t have to track calories on keto” earlier in this post, you read it right.
And it’s true.
Keto is one diet that primarily focuses on burning fat by reaching ketosis. Calories take a back seat and in many discussions, they don’t even get brought up.
But there is also another truth.
Weight loss is directly related to the number of calories that go in and out of your body.
When trying to lose weight, it’s critical to create a calorie deficit.
This is true even for a keto diet, especially when you are aiming to lose 10 lbs in a week.
You can help foster weight loss by creating a calorie deficit on keto.
On the other hand, if you switch to a keto diet and don’t watch your calorie intake, you’re less likely to drop pounds.
With keto diet being full of fatty foods like avocados, nuts, and dairy, it helps to watch calories. Without your watchful eye, they can add up quite fast and lead to weight gain.
The best way to cut calories is by skipping snacking. If you are not particularly hungry, don’t snack. Also, this is where keto fasting can help.
By limiting the eating time, you can limit your overall daily calorie intake.
Keeping a food journal as well as downsizing your portion can help limit calories.
The bottom line is this. When following any diet, it’s important to create a calorie deficit to promote weight loss.
How Much Weight Can You Expect to Lose In a Week On Keto?
Weight loss results on keto can vary greatly from person to person.
With that said, the first week of following a keto diet can bring significant weight loss. And more often, the drop in weight is greater on a keto diet than other conventional diets.
In a more conventional weight loss diet with an exercise plan, losing 2 lbs a week is the norm. On a keto diet, dieters can see up to 10-pound weight loss within the first week.
Some dieters have even reported a loss of 7, 10, or even 12 pounds immediately after starting a keto diet.
But again, weight loss results on any diet including the ketogenic diet can vary. And you may lose more or less depending on many personal factors.
To shed light on what’s possible, here are some crazy keto results.
These are weight-loss transformations that happened by following the keto diet.
These positive keto reviews really highlight the effectiveness of the keto diet. And more likely than not, you can see weight loss results right from the start.
Despite that, keto weight loss doesn’t come easy on some.
So if you’ve been on a keto diet for a week or more and not seeing any drop in weight, it’s time to take a look at why.
Why am I not losing weight on the keto diet?
Based on the effectiveness of the keto diet for weight loss, it is very unlikely you are not losing weight on keto.
But of course, that’s if you are doing the keto diet correctly.
Some keto dieters may find that they are not experiencing any drop in weight on keto.
Too often, this can happen when you actually never hit ketosis despite following the diet.
In general, here are possible reasons why you are not losing weight or reaching ketosis.
- Eating too many carbs. Eating too many carbs on keto is a common mistake on keto. And it’s a top reason for dieters not losing weight on keto. Without minimizing carbs to where it needs to be, it becomes that much harder to reach ketosis. To avoid this pitfall, keep your carbs low to the minimum. Carbs shouldn’t represent more than 10% of your calorie intake.
- Eating too many calories. Even on a keto, it’s essential to create a caloric deficit to enforce weight loss. You can achieve this by reducing your overall calorie intake or upping your exercise.
If you start a keto diet and don’t watch your calorie intake, you’re unlikely to drop pounds.
It’s essential that you pay attention to your portion size. And choose keto snacks and meals that are filling without excessive calories.
By avoiding these common keto mistakes, you should be on your way to reaching your weight loss goal.
Take-Home Message
Following the above tips will help you lose 10 pounds in 1 week while following a low-carb ketogenic diet.
