How to Lose One Pound in a Week

January 7, 2012

If weight loss is your goal for 2012, there's no time like now to get that ball rolling. It's simple math when it comes to losing weight. You have to burn or cut out 3,500 calories from your diet each week in order to lose one pound. That breaks down to 500 calories per day, and the easiest way to do that is to do this combo move: each day, cut out 250 calories from your diet and burn 250 through exercise.

Check out the handy chart I made below. Each day, follow through on one from the diet column and one from the exercise column, and after seven days, you should see the scale budge. Keep reading to get started on your weight loss journey.

*All calculations for calories burned are based on a 130-pound woman.

Diet	Exercise
Swap out your morning bagel with (493 calories) for a bowl of Chobani Nonfat Vanilla Greek Yogurt (120 calories) with an extra small banana (72 calories).	Take a brisk walk for an hour and 16 minutes.
Forget the blueberry muffin with butter (585 calories) and go for a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Cereal with skim milk (231 calories).	Hop on your bike for a moderate ride for 28 minutes.
Instead of buying a bacon, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich from Dunkin' Donuts (530 calories), make a cheese omelet with two eggs (143 calories and an ounce of cheddar (113 calories).	Lace up your sneaks and run at a moderate pace of 10 minutes/mile for 28 minutes.
For lunch, instead of scarfing down two slices of cheese pizza (544 calories), just enjoy one slice (272 calories).	Hit up your gym and swim laps for 26 minutes.
Snack on 15 baby carrots (53 calories) and two tablespoons of hummus (70 calories) instead of a whole wheat English muffin (130 calories) with peanut butter (168 calories) and jelly (60 calories).	Take advantage of the snow and go cross country skiing for 35 minutes.
Instead of a baked potato with butter and sour cream (418 calories) as a side dish for dinner, have a cup of steamed broccoli (55 calories) instead.	Vigorously jump rope for 23 minutes.
To satisfy your sweet tooth, skip the bowl of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (360 calories) and instead savor a cup of strawberries (46 calories and two Hershey's Dark Chocolate Kisses (40 calories).	Take a cardio class at your gym for at least 28 minutes.

Source: Thinkstock

17 Comments

Giasbash6260 1 year

Thank you for giving people a realistic way to lose weight. Some of the swaps aren't the healthiest, but they're better than the former and certainly less calories! http://gigieatscelebrities.com/2012/01/24/grill-the-video/

Pazuzu 1 year

What about the people without snow and no gym membership? I live in a city with no hiking trails, it never snows, theres no bike trails ( and its illegal to bike on the sidewalk) these weight loss articles always tell me to use my natural resources but I don't have any. With work and school I don't have time to fit in all these exercises.

onepound 1 year

Good list! When you start counting calories, you realize just how easy it is to gain weight if you don't watch yourself. Losing weight is easy. The trick is simply to get a feel for how many calories you are consuming, and about making smarter choices, just as this post suggests.

MissMariaK 3 years

I'll try it and I'm really curious about the results... It seems like a really good list and I hope it works for me too...

lighthouselady 3 years

I've noticed that as I get closer to my goal weight (right now I'm at 150 and would like to get to 142-145) I find it harder and harder to find that "magic" number calorie-wise for me.

3 years

I think fit is saying this kind of stuff to any new readers, because they may be some new readers who have a new years resolution to be healthier and they just found this site.

T S 3 years

Anyone who is interested enough in health to read this blog is probably already not eating muffins and breakfast sandwiches. Also, "to lose weight, eat one slice of pizza instead of two," is a pretty silly thing to say.

Spectra 3 years

I'll echo what a lot of others said--this is great if you regularly eat Starbucks' muffins and pizza and barely work out, but if you already eat a very healthy diet and work out a lot, it gets a LOT tougher to lose those last few pounds. You have to step up your exercise intensity and look for hidden calorie culprits in your diet in order to lose a pound or two.

katyharper 3 years

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I've found that since I eat well and work out regularly, if I want to lose a couple pounds, I absolutely have to monitor every morsel of food that goes into my body, have NO "slipups" when it comes to eating and work out at my maximum capacity. It's frustrating.

Hill82879 3 years

katyharper, you're right on. I bike 25 miles per day, I strength train four times a week, I run on the weekends, and I eat really, really well. I can't drop a pound for the life of me.

3 years

I thought breakfast was supposed to be your "main" meal of the day, to rev up your metabolism, and lunch and supper were supposed to be smaller?

3 years

I agree that trying to eat under 200 calories for breakfast may not necessarily fill you up. But one fast and healthy breakfast for under 200 calories is egg whites, assorted veggies, and veggie breakfast sausage all mixed together to form a hash. I can't make an omlet so I always end up just stirring everything together. It keeps me full for a while.

Vanonymous 3 years

I like to make smoothies for breakfast because they are low cal (usually under 200 when made with fruit, low fat yogurt and wheat germ) and I can sip them for a while. I'll usually have one at my desk and sip it from 8:30 to 10am, and at that point lunch is only 2 hours away. This makes it so I can skip my 10am snack too. Like katyharper said, it's tough to burn extra calories when you've already cut out a lot and exercise frequently. This is one way I've managed to cut out a bit more (that morning snack).

zeze 3 years

Not necessarily, my usual breakfast is one egg and one slice of whole wheat toast with some fruit. Usually comes in at under 200 and I rarely get hungry before lunch.

katyharper 3 years

That's great and all, but what about for the people who very rarely eat the things on that list, and already workout regularly? That's when it gets hard. When you have to, say, add a 30 minute run after you've already been to your spinning class.

3 years

I'm not sure how you expect to get by on a 192 calorie breakfast. I would definitely still be hungry after that!