30-Day Weight Loss Challenge
It is tough to sweep away people’s concerns about numbers in weight loss programs. Before subscribing to a particular program, participants will want to know how long it will take them to notice that they are losing weight, given their budget.
People want to lose weight sustainably; however, some variables seem to impede their ambitions. Such variables are time, budget, and value for their money. We have t be honest; there are many agencies out here putting out adverts about how you can achieve a flat tummy in 10 days, or 1 week, etc.
Most of these agencies don’t deliver. But again, people still want data-based exercises. And, whichever way you look at it, one needs to track their progress to help them fuel their next journey. This is because weight loss is not a straightforward exercise where one loses one pound every week. Some may achieve their goals, and some may not. And even with those that achieve what they set out to do, they reach plateaus where they seem not to lose any weight.
This is why the 30-day weight loss challenge is here; it is backed by real numbers tracked from day 1 to 30 of your weight-loss period and analyzed. It is essentially aligned with a participant’s passion for helping them live healthy lives.
You don’t need an exercise plan, in-depth meal plan, or definitions about what is or is not junk food in this plan. However, we will guide you accordingly based on the following recommendations.
What do you need?
- A wearable fitness tracker to count steps
- Pen and paper for tracking sheet and notes
- A scale
- Time and commitment
- A weight-loss tracking application such as the MyFitnessPal app
Here are the guidelines;
Track your calories
If you have gone through some weight-loss publications online or in books, surely, you have come across general knowledge about calories and weight loss. For one to lose weight, one has to acquire what many call a balance of energy deficit. In this case, one’s caloric intake should be lower than the number they burn for fuel.
For a participant to lose 1 pound, they need to create a deficit of 3500 calories in the body. This should be your base beginning. Know what you are up against, then prepare to fight.
Tracking your caloric intake needs to be coordinated between your phone application and the actual food you eat. Meaning that you need to key in your daily records on food consumption, i.e., what you ate and how many grams.
Next, track your calories out. This is equal to the sum of calories burnt for your BMR and workouts. You can use a wearable device for this.
Using the above data, calculated by finding the difference between caloric intake and burn. If you burn more, then it is a deficit, and it is a good thing. If you consumed more, then it is a surplus, and it is a bad thing. If you get zero, then you are not doing anything; because you are balanced.
Conditions:
- Do not consume fewer calories than your daily body requirement. Otherwise, your metabolism will slow, enter into starvation mode, and you will gain weight.
- Your caloric consumption thresholds should be 1600 – men and 1200 – women. Consuming less leads to weight gain.
Those two conditions above are premised on the basic principle that your body has ways to survive in times of extreme food deficit. When your body receives less than the optimum requirement, it switches to a survival mode where metabolism slows. The few calories you are giving your body will be quickly converted into fats and stored to prepare for a worst-case scenario. This will definitely lead to weight gain.
Walk
Your daily target is 12000 steps. For those who don’t know, this is equivalent to 6 miles worth of distance. This challenge is not easy. Most people only get to half; however, to experience weight loss in 30 days, you need to hit your target without fail.
Fiber consumption
Many diets stress the importance of eating whole food alone. This is because it has fiber which processed foods don’t. We generally know that processed foods result in weight gain. Now, what do they have or don’t have that whole food has? You guessed right — fiber!
Many studies have found evidence that people who ate 30 grams of fiber in a day lost about 5 pounds in a year without doing anything else. Fiber is important for weight loss because you can eat fewer calories without feeling hungry.
In this 30-day weight loss challenge, your target is eating at least 30 grams of fiber per day. You can get them in vegetables, some fruits, and complex carbs.
Sleep
Sleep deprivation and weight loss can never mix. If you don’t get enough sleep daily, you have no business trying this challenge because you won’t lose weight.
In this particular challenge, we want you to sleep for at least 8 hours. We are aware that people recommend adults sleep for up to 6 hours, but where’s the fun in it if you cannot lose weight in the process?
Now, to help you further, we recommend that you don’t start binge movie watching on the couch so that you can get tired and sleep afterward. Your body will start craving for those snacks being advertised, and without hesitation, you will run out to get them. Don’t expose yourself to temptation.
Your app will help you to track the amount of time you slept and the quality of sleep you got.
Waistline
The easiest way to know that you are overweight is by measuring your waistline. A 40+ inches waistline is considered overweight for men, while 35+ inches for women is also considered overweight regardless of how your body is built.
You are therefore encouraged to measure your waistline as you track your progress through the challenge. We always measure the waistline circumference, which is two inches below the belly button.
A scale may also be used in tracking your data through the whole period of the challenge. However, since most people come to lose – most important their belly fat, a tape sounds like a more accurate device.
In addition to the guidelines above; here are some more;
Weight lifting: Weight lifting is a proven means of increasing lean mass development. It significantly increases your basal metabolic rate and helps burn calories even up to 6 hours long after you stopped lifting.
Drink water: Water is a component of a balanced diet. It makes up about 65% of our bodies and about 90% of the plasma liquid. Since exercises drive large quantities out through sweating, you don’t want to be dehydrated. We, therefore, recommend that you drink plenty of water all day throughout the entire 30 days of the weight loss challenge period.
Intermittent fasting: Try to fast intermittently according to your comfort because you don’t want to put more pressure and stress on yourself. Fasting can help enhance your weight loss experience.
Cook from home: this is one of the most significant but difficult tasks you have in this challenge. Not so many people have time or even enjoy cooking. But again, how will you track your food consumption in terms of the macros if you don’t cook yourself?
The bottom line
You will find many fad diets out there advertising how you can lose weight in a week. We are not telling you that. We are saying weight loss is independent to every person. This is because people differ in many ways; genetically, age, gender, body composition, goals, etc. These variables put people in different categories of the weight loss experience.
Too many weight loss challenges involve a long list of what you can, cannot, and need to do every day. We’ve reduced that to tracking five numbers a day — calories, steps, fiber, sleep, waistline.
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