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Can you lose weight quickly in a healthy way? Yes, but it depends on a number of different factors. In this video I outline what is possible if you want to lose weight quickly.
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Hey guys and welcome back to After The Run. In this episode we're going to talk
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about whether or not it's even healthy or safe to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. So
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I'm excited to dig into this. When I posted yesterday that I'd be doing this
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10 day challenge, the first comment that came up was, do you know or do you
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realize that that's not healthy? And this is a tricky one for me because last
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year when I lost 100 pounds in a year, I did a ton of research and I tried to do
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it the right way. And I feel way better. I'm certainly healthier now. I went from
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40% body fat to under 20% body fat. I can do a lot more. My body feels better. I'm
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sleeping better. And so if we just look at that objective measure that you know
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starting at 306 pounds and going down a hundred pounds from there, I'm certainly
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healthier now than I was then. However, that doesn't mean that everything I did
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was healthy or the best way to do it. And so I spent actually a lot of time today
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doing research on this topic to see can you lose weight quickly and what are the
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you know consequences of doing that. Obviously losing weight slowly is going
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to be healthier, but why? And so in this episode we're going to talk about can
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you do it in a healthy way and what are the the pros and cons of doing that. So
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first, consensus across the board in research shows that it is better to lose
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weight slowly than lose weight quickly. And that's just a fact. Now can you lose
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weight quickly? Yes, you can. Can you lose 10 pounds in 10 days? Yes, you can
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Absolutely. Can you do it in a healthy way? Yes, but there are a lot of
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qualifiers for that. And so let's go through some of those things. Now why is
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it unhealthy to lose weight slowly? Well first off, for our bodies to lose fat
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typically we can't lose more than one to two pounds a week of fat. So if you're
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losing 10 pounds or let's say 7 pounds in a week, that means you're losing 5
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pounds of something else. Now that's going to mostly be muscle and water. Now
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you want to have your water weight high because that's what makes your body
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function. However, not all water weight is healthy. If you're eating a lot
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of processed foods, if you're eating a lot of sugary foods, then you are eating
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foods that hold a lot of water. And that's why your body is going to be bloated and inflamed. And that is not healthy. And so actually losing some
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water weight, if you've been on a bad diet, losing water weight quickly can be
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a really good thing. And that's kind of where I'm sitting. After holiday eating
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I've been eating a lot of junk for the last few weeks, so I'm retaining a lot
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more water than I used to. And I know that because my weight was pretty stable
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for a long time and then it shot up over the holidays. And so some of that's just
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actual weight gain, but a lot of it's actual water weight. And so can you lose
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some water weight and do that in a healthy way? Absolutely. In fact, I expect
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in these first two or three days, just in the first two or three days, to lose
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upwards of five pounds of water. And I think that's okay to do as long as
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I'm doing the other things that I'm going to talk about here. So you can lose
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five pounds in a week of water. Of course, we want to minimize any muscle loss. Now
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can you still be healthy while losing muscle? Yes, you can. Because what
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happens is when you're really big, you have a lot of muscle from carrying all
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that extra weight. And as you slim down, you don't need as much muscle to carry
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that weight. Now, obviously we want as much muscle as possible because muscle
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helps burn calories. And so the more muscle we have, actually the better we're
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going to be out losing weight. It also helps with metabolism and hormone
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regulation. And so having as much muscle as possible is a good idea. But if you're
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going to lose weight quickly, just know that you're probably going to lose some muscle with that fat, with that water. Now, when I lost 100 pounds, I lost
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about 25 pounds of muscle. And then last year, I actually gained about 25 pounds
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back. And it was mostly muscle. I lost another 20 pounds of fat. But then as I
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gained muscle, my weight went up slightly. And so that can be healthy. It's okay
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Okay, so let's talk about what you can do to make sure that you're losing weight
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quickly but in a healthy way. One is by making sure that you are gaining muscle
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while you lose fat and possibly some water weight. And so the way you gain
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muscle, of course, is through exercise. Now, doing cardio is not going to gain..
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you're not going to get a lot of muscle quickly. If you really want to gain
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muscle quickly, that's through resistance training, strength training, lifting weights. And so if you want to lose weight quickly, probably you should be
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hitting the gym. And that's just going to minimize some of those negative
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effects of losing weight quickly. Okay, now can you still do cardio? Absolutely
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And cardio is a great way to burn calories. You can burn a lot of calories
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by doing a lot of cardio. I know because I ran 10 miles today and burnt about
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1,500 calories. And so that's absolutely a great way to burn calories. And then
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after my run, I also did some strength training and did some micro workouts
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throughout the day. Now, you want to keep your metabolism up. And if you over
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exercise, you can actually see a decrease in your metabolism. And so you have to be
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careful with that. I'm a little nervous now about doing this 10 miles a day. The
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more research I'm doing on this, 10 miles a day for 10 days, it's not a long-term
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thing. And so it's not going to be super detrimental to me. But it might actually
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lower my metabolism. Now, to counteract that, I'm doing some strength training
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and I'm doing micro workouts through the day. My micro workouts are just 1 to 3
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minutes of just short sets of something. Today, I did sit-ups. So I've done 10
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different sets. Actually, I've only done 8 sets so far. So I have 2 more to do
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tonight. But I've done 8 sets of 25 sit-ups. And by doing that throughout the
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day, that's keeping my metabolism up. Okay, so that's another thing that you can do
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to counteract that. Now, the most important thing, if you're going to lose
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weight fast, is making sure that you're doing it with the right diet. As I
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mentioned earlier, water weight can be a major thing in losing weight quickly. And
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so, if you want to not hold on to the water weight through bad carbs, what you
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can do is eat better carbs which are low calorie carbs, vegetables primarily. And
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then transitioning over into more lean proteins. And then there's of course other
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foods that help with bloating and stuff like that. Like asparagus or avocados
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dandelion tea, stuff like that. And so, you can use those to help with the
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bloating. But if you transition out of highly processed sugary foods and add in
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more low carb vegetables, then that's going to help you lose the bad water
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weight. Continue drinking a lot to make sure that you don't want to do damage
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to your body. You actually want to have higher water weight. You want your total
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body water weight to be around 60%. And most obese people have it closer down to
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40% because they're holding on to that water but it's not circulating through
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their body. So, they're not drinking enough and they're dehydrated. And so, what you want to do in losing weight quickly is making sure you're drinking a
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lot of water. Don't drink your calories, just drink water. And if you're drinking
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a lot, my goal is 120 ounces a day for the next 10 days. And that means you're
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going to the bathroom a lot because it's cycling through you especially as you get rid of some of that junk that's in your body. But as you do that, that's
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going to help your body work more efficiently and that's going to help with the water weight. And so, drink a lot of water but be eating the right things
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with it. Now, finally, one last thing that's going to help you to lose weight
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safely and smartly is make sure you get enough sleep. And I didn't realize this
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was as important and as big a deal as it is until I started doing the research
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But your body is going to maintain its metabolism better. It's going to maintain
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those hormone levels better if you get adequate sleep. So, be shooting for at
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least 7 hours a night. If you can get up to 8, 8 and a half hours a night
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Especially if you're doing a lot of exercise, a lot of strength training. Try
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to get more sleep and that's going to help your body to regulate and to be
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more efficient with what it's doing as far as burning calories and maintaining
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your insulin levels, your hormone levels, and your metabolism. So, make sure you get
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enough sleep. So, just to recap, can you lose weight quickly? Yes. Now, what we
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didn't talk about was, is this going to be different for people? Yeah. If you're
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morbidly obese, you can lose a lot weight quicker than people who
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aren't morbidly obese. If you're a taller, bigger person, you're going to be
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able to lose more weight. Now, I'm a big guy and so 10 pounds in 10 days was a
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reasonable goal for me. It's a stretch goal, especially if I want to do it in a
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healthy way. But it's absolutely possible. If you're a 120 pound woman, probably
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half of that would be more reasonable. So, looking at 5 pounds of weight loss. And
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then, just know that this is something that you can't sustain. It works because
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you're getting rid of bad water weight. And so, doing it during the holiday seasons, doing it to jumpstart a new diet or exercise regimen, it can work for a
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week or two. But long-term, you have to be smarter and look at the losing weight
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slowly method of 1 to 2 pounds a week. That's really what's going to help you
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more in the long run. Well, I hope that this episode was helpful for you. If you
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want to comment on it, go ahead and head over to the blog AfterTheRun.com and
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we'll have this episode posted up there. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this
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especially if you're an expert or if you've tried this before. Alright, have a
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great day and let's lose that weight. Bye-bye
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