10 Tips to Help You Lose 10 Pounds in a Month

Losing 10 pounds in a month is no easy feat, but it is possible if you stick to the right strategies. The key is to avoid crash diets, cutting your calories too low or overdoing it with exercise, and instead, focus on building healthy habits you can keep up in the long run.

To lose weight, you will need to eat fewer calories than you burn. The daily number of calories you need to eat for weight loss is highly variable, and depends on your age, current weight, height, sex and activity levels.

You’ll first need to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight. You can estimate your calorie needs by taking a look at the chart from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which breaks it down by age, sex and activity level.

To get a more precise number, you can use a calorie tracking app, which takes more variables into account and gives you the ability to track your calorie intake.

This is the maximum amount that’s considered safe and sustainable. (You may be tempted to speed things along by cutting your calories even lower, but this can backfire, making weight loss harder and potentially harming your health.)

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t fall below about 1,500 daily calories — this is considered the minimum calorie count for weight loss because going lower could put you at risk for nutritional deficiencies and other health issues.

Eating more foods high in fiber (fruits and veggies, for example) could help you feel fuller on fewer calories and lose weight.

Fiber-filled foods include:

• Acorn squash
• Avocados
• Beans
• Berries
• Edamame
• Green peas
• Lentils
• Seeds (chia, flaxseed)
• Sweet potatoes

When you’re cutting calories for weight loss, don’t pare back on protein — in fact, you should actually up the amount of this nutrient in your diet, according to a December 2019 meta-analysis of 18 studies in ‌Advances in Nutrition‌. Protein helps you feel full, and it also helps you maintain your lean muscle mass as you lose weight (that’s a good thing because muscle burns more calories than fat).

(Your body weight / 2.2) x 1.3 = grams of protein per day

To be mindful of calories, choose lean foods high in protein, such as:

• Chicken breast
• Ground turkey
• Lentils
• Salmon
• Tofu
• Low- or nonfat yogurt

We’re looking at you, soda (and other sweetened beverages). Drinks packed with sugar don’t serve up any nutrients, but they can add a ton of calories to your day.

Try replacing soda, energy drinks and the like with water or unsweetened seltzer, both of which have zero calories.

Speaking of H2O, make sure you’re guzzling plenty of it to stay hydrated, which helps your body function at its best (that includes burning through calories), according to the American Council on Exercise.

In terms of timing, try drinking a full glass of water about a half hour before each meal, as this might help prevent you from overeating, according to an August 2015 study in ‌Obesity‌.

Otherwise, a good general guideline is to drink half your body weight in ounces each day. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, aim to drink about 100 ounces of water daily.

Research has linked ultra-processed foods (think: those with very long ingredient lists packed with unfamiliar terms) to weight gain and obesity, so limiting or avoiding these foods may help in your weight-loss quest.

According to a November 2019 review in ‌Current Treatment Options in Gastroenterology,‌ the major culprits are:

• Potato chips
• Sweets and desserts
• Sugary drinks
• Refined grains (white rice and foods made with white flour, like white bread and crackers, for example)
• Red and processed meats

Losing weight isn’t just about changing your diet. If you want to lose 10 pounds in a month, you’ll need a workout plan, too.

Find a cardio activity you enjoy and can do for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Here are some ideas:

• Running
• Brisk walking
• Hiking
• Swimming
• Cycling
• Rollerblading

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) should have a place in your exercise plan to lose 10 pounds. This involves alternating hard periods of exercise (anywhere from 20 to 60 seconds) with short, less-intense recovery periods.

HIIT workouts are an effective way to burn fat and lose weight, per a February 2018 review in ‌Sports Medicine‌ that looked at 39 studies on the topic.

The best part is that they don’t take long. People who did HIIT for 36 minutes lost the same amount of body fat as those who did moderate-intensity exercise for 68 minutes in a January 2017 study in the ‌Journal of Diabetes Research‌.

You don’t wan to do HIIT every day, though. Try doing it two or three times per week, and space out sessions.

Cardio exercises burn calories in the moment, but strength training better supports weight loss and maintenance in the long run because it helps you build muscle, which, as we mentioned before, burns more calories than fat (aka supports a higher metabolism).

Not sure where to start? Check out the Ultimate Guide to Strength Training.

If you don’t get enough sleep, you could sabotage your weight loss. People who get less sleep lose less fat when intentionally trying to lose weight, according an April 2022 study in ‌Nutrients.‌

Plus, research has shown that people who aren’t getting enough shut-eye tend to store fat faster and feel less satisfied after eating (which can lead to overeating and weight gain), according to a November 2019 study in the ‌Journal of Lipid Research‌.

Adults should get at least seven hours of sleep each night, per the CDC.