Slim Down Fast: 7 Key Tips To Achieve Major Results in Just 10 Days

If you ever ask yourself, how to slim down in 10 days… you’re not alone. The desire to lose weight quickly is at an all-time high thanks to being constantly exposed to global beauty standards via Instagram and even ads promising to help you drop fat at rapid speeds.

Imagine losing 5-10 pounds by hitting the sauna for an hour a day or starving yourself for ten days straight, just to gain it back in 2 days after you stop the madness. If you won’t lose weight in a healthy manner, you’ll be trapped in a loop of frustration which is why our tips are designed to set you up for lasting success.

Although these tips may sound like tiny changes, they will provide big results in a mere 10 days and for longevity’s sake, they’ll also help you keep those pounds off.

Why You Should Focus on Sustainable Weight Loss

You want fast weight loss solutions, and that’s understandable. But you should try to use the next ten days to kickstart lifelong changes to your lifestyle that can help you manage the weight loss long-term.

If you focus just on losing weight for the next ten days and then go back to your old habits, you will most likely gain the weight back. Possibly, you’ll gain more weight than you initially lost, which will be bad for both your physical and mental health.¹

Using the right methods, you might be able to lose up to 10 pounds in 10 days, depending on your starting weight. But for the best results, you’ll want to try to pick up sustainable healthy habits. It’s okay if you want to shed fat fast, but remember to look ahead beyond the next ten days, too. For best results, expect this to be a permanent shift toward healthy living.

Here are 7 pro tips on slimming down in ten days:

1. Plan Beyond Short-Term Weight Loss

Set goals for yourself for the next ten days as well as beyond this short time. Decide how much weight you want to lose in the next week and a half. Then decide if you want to lose more weight after that, or if you will want to just maintain that weight loss.

Setting realistic goals and visualizing how you will feel when you achieve them can help motivate you to work harder toward your goal.

Other ways to plan for slimming down include:

• Understand your “why’s”. If you know exactly why slimming down is so important to you, you’ll be more likely to stick with it. Deeper reasons like wanting to be healthy tend to be more motivating than superficial reasons like wanting to look good.¹ Both goals are valid but think carefully about the deeper reasons for wanting to drop pounds.
• Talk to your doctor. Before starting any new meal or exercise plan, it’s important to get a clean bill of health from your healthcare provider. They can answer any questions you have about losing weight and give recommendations for healthy diet pills or supplements if you want to try them.
• Create a meal plan. One big key to weight loss success is planning your meals.2 Track your meals in a food journal and try to prepare all of your meals on one day each week so you don’t have to think about what you’re going to eat every time you get hungry.
• Stock your house with healthy foods and get rid of unhealthy foods. This goes along with creating a meal plan to set yourself up for success in your weight loss journey. By only giving yourself healthy options at home, you’ll have to go out of your way to eat something unhealthy and you’ll be more likely to stick to your meal plan.

By checking these things off your list, you’ll be heading into the next ten days prepared and ready to crush your weight loss goals. Keep these habits after the week and a half are up so you can maintain and continue losing weight if that’s your goal.

2. Know What To Eat To Lose Weight In 10 Days

When you’re trying to figure out the answer what’s the best way to slim down in 10 days, one of the first things you might want to consider is what you should and shouldn’t be eating.

To lose fat, you’ll want to put yourself in a caloric deficit. This means you will want to count how many calories you normally eat in a day, then subtract 500 to 1000 calories from that.² This will be your new calorie goal. The more you subtract, the more weight you will lose, but be careful not to eat below 1200 calories a day as a woman, or 1500 calories a day as a man.

Dropping below these numbers can cause negative health effects and even make it harder for you to shed weight. Instead of focusing purely on calorie intake, focus on eating healthy foods. Healthy food will have fewer calories by nature, so you can eat more of them and still feel full while losing weight.

Try prioritizing foods that contain lots of:

• Protein. Lean meats like chicken and fish will fill you up and provide your body with essential amino acids that it needs for most of its natural functions. Protein takes a long time to break down in your stomach, so filling up on this macronutrient will help you not want to snack in between meals.
• Fiber. This nutrient helps you feel full and has been linked to preventing certain cancers. You can fill up on fiber by eating lots of fruits and vegetables. If you’re concerned about not getting enough fiber, you can buy a supplement and take it with your breakfast and a cup of water.
• Healthy fat. Unsaturated fats are satiating and good for your heart. You can get these fats from olives, avocados, and fish.

Avoid these foods when possible:

• Sugar. There is very little nutritional value in sugar, and this is what your body turns into fat when you have too much of it in your body. When you crave something sweet, try to eat a healthy alternative like dark chocolate, which is full of antioxidants.
• Sodium. Sodium is important for maintaining blood pressure, but too much of it can lead to health problems like heart disease and high blood pressure.³ Having too much salt in your body will also cause you to hold onto water weight and feel bloated. When available, try to buy low-sodium foods.
• Processed foods that are full of added sugar, sodium, and artificial ingredients. Cook at home or buy foods that have fewer than three ingredients when you can.
• Dairy. Dairy can cause bloating, so you might want to avoid it in the next week and a half.⁴ If you do eat dairy, avoid low-fat diet versions that tend to be full of added sugar.
• White carbs and starch. These foods are converted to sugar by your body. To get nutritional value from your carbs, switch these foods out with complex carbs like whole-grain bread and brown rice that have lots of vitamins and minerals.³.
• Red meat. Red meat is bad for your heart and can raise your risk of diabetes. Try to avoid it or cut down on your consumption while trying to drop pounds for better health overall.

It might be hard to make these dietary changes if you’re used to eating a lot of processed or junk foods. Cheat meals and accidentally going over your calorie budget are not a huge deal, but try to avoid it if you want to lose as much weight as possible in the next ten days.

If you slip up, forgive yourself and jump right back on track working toward your weight loss goals.

3. What to Drink to Lose Weight Fast

Certain drinks can be full of calories, so it’s important to be aware of what you’re drinking. To help keep hidden calories from sneaking up on you, try to drink mostly water over the next ten days. Water is filling and has zero calories. And with all the fiber you’re adding to your diet, water is essential for moving it through your digestive tract.³

Try to aim for 64 ounces of water a day for the best weight loss results. If you don’t like the taste of plain water, feel free to add a squeeze of lemon for a burst of flavor and a vitamin C boost.

Plain green tea and black coffee are also great choices for beverages for the next week and a half. They have no calories and boost your metabolism.⁵

If you want to make a healthy meal out of your beverages, you can try protein shakes or green smoothies as a 10 days weight loss drink. These types of drinks are full of important nutrients that will fill you up without taking in too many calories. They’re also a great choice for a quick breakfast if you are often rushed in the morning.

During the next week and a half and beyond, try to avoid drinks that have sugar and artificial ingredients. This includes regular and diet sodas, juice, and loaded coffee and tea drinks that are full of sugar.¹ These empty calories won’t fill you up and your body will turn the sugar in these drinks into fat.

4. Exercise During Your 10 Day Weight Loss

Exercise isn’t crucial for weight loss. But if you want to know how to slim down in 10 days, the truth is that working out will make reaching your goals much easier.

If you hate working out, the good news is that you don’t have to kill yourself with hours in the gym every day. By just walking a half hour each day, you can be successful in losing weight and keeping it off.¹

If you want to add more exercise into your lifestyle, you can try some of the following activities:

• Cardio. Cardiovascular exercise not only burns tons of calories, but it improves your overall endurance and boosts heart and lung health.⁶ Swimming, running, bicycling, and walking are all examples of cardio that will help you lose pounds. Try to do this type of exercise in the morning for 30 minutes at least three times a week.
• High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). This is a more intense type of cardio that you can try if you want a more rigorous fat-burning workout. HIIT combines a brief burst of high-intensity cardio with a longer period of rest. An example would be ten rounds of doing a 30-second sprint followed by two minutes of slow jogging.
• Strength training. Building muscle increases the number of calories your body burns at rest. To build muscle, try incorporating beginner’s strength training exercises for weight loss into your routine three times a week. You can do movements like weighted squats, bench presses, and lunges in the gym. If you’re working out at home, try doing body-weight exercises like crunches, pushups, lunges, and squats although they may not be as beneficial as weighted lifts. Before starting a push-up challenge or wondering if doing push-ups daily is overtraining, ensure you give your body at least one day of rest between workouts.

Working out regularly not only helps you shed fat faster, but it also helps with mental health and promotes a feeling of happiness and relaxation.⁶ This is one of the most beneficial habits to keep after your ten days are over if you want to live a healthy life.

5. Be Nice & Don’t Be Your Own Drill Sergeant

Losing weight can be challenging, and many people struggle to succeed when trying to naturally slim down quickly. You need to take care of yourself during your weight loss journey and not beat yourself up if you slip up. In fact, not treating yourself well might hinder your weight loss even more.¹

If you were supporting a friend in their weight loss journey and they slipped up, you wouldn’t criticize them for eating sweets or missing a workout. There’s no reason to treat yourself differently.

Be nice to yourself and if you slip up, approach it as if you were helping a friend. Reflect on what actions you can take to help yourself.

Furthermore, being kind to yourself goes even further than mental framing, try to do the following too:

• Avoid stress. Stress causes cortisol levels to rise in the body. Cortisol is a hormone that, among other things, signals for your body to hold onto fat.⁷ So if you’re trying to shed pounds, having high cortisol levels will hinder your efforts. Practice stress-relieving exercises like yoga and meditation to lower your cortisol levels.
• Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation has been linked to slower weight loss.⁷ Try to get at least eight hours of sleep every night to increase your energy and help your body burn fat.
• Do active activities you enjoy. Exercise is important, and doing exercises you enjoy makes it more likely that you’ll continue showing up for your workouts every day. Doing activities you enjoy also boosts overall happiness, so find an active hobby that you love doing, like hiking, biking, or tennis.
• Practice positive self-talk. It’s easy to beat yourself up when you make mistakes on your weight loss journey. But negative-self talk can lead to negative mental health effects, and it might make you want to give up on your goals completely. Show yourself compassion for your mistakes. Practice positive daily affirmations to improve your relationship with yourself and boost your confidence.
• Don’t weigh yourself daily. You might be tempted to track your weight every day for accountability, but doing so can lead to disappointment and negative self-talk. Your weight will vary day-to-day, hour-to-hour. If you gain three pounds in a day, it’s probably just water weight. But you might see the number on the scale and be discouraged. For more accurate, and less stressful tracking, try to weigh yourself once a week on the same day of the week.

6. Avoid Extremes & Try Healthy Diet Techniques

10 days may seem like a short timeframe to learn how to slim down, but we promise you won’t get there with a fad diet! The temptation to cut calories to an extreme number, or to heavily restrict the types of food you eat is common when trying to lose fat quickly.

However, practicing this type of unhealthy dieting can be harmful to your health and can end up making it harder to lose weight. Here’s why you should think twice about fad diets:

• Extreme diets can cause muscle loss and water weight loss instead of fat loss.⁸ This weight loss is temporary and doesn’t target the fat that you want to lose.
• Cutting too many calories can decrease your resting metabolic rate (RMR). This means you will burn fewer calories at rest because your body has gone into “starvation mode” and is trying to be as efficient as possible.⁸ When this happens, you’ll have to cut even more calories to see more results, which is unhealthy.
• Crash dieting can lead to an unhealthy cycle of yo-yo dieting. This is a process of repeatedly losing and regaining weight. It’s bad for your physical and mental health and can lead to diseases such as eating disorders, diabetes, and heart disease.

Try these healthy dieting tricks instead:

• Try intermittent fasting. This type of fast allows you a short window to eat each day, usually between four to six hours. For the rest of the day, you can drink water, tea, or coffee. This technique might be good for you if you have the urge to graze throughout the day and would benefit from having stricter rules.

Don’t do intermittent fasting if you struggle with an eating disorder or have diabetes or other hypoglycemic health issues. When using this method, it’s important to still reach your daily calorie goals each day.

• Use the 2:1:1 plate ratio. With this technique, you will divide your plate into four quadrants for each meal. Half of the plate should be filled with veggies, one-fourth with lean protein, and the last portion with carbs. This ensures that you’re getting the right amount of fiber, carbs, and protein at each meal.
• Try new healthy recipes. This is a great way to make weight loss interesting and curb any boredom you might get from your healthy diet. Learning new recipes will also add a list of healthy meals you can add to your rotation after the next week and a half are up. This will help you stick to your new healthy lifestyle for the long term.

7. Practice Mindful Eating

One major component of weight loss that you might not have considered is mindful eating. In today’s busy world, it’s common for people to eat on the go or multitask when eating their meals. But this can lead to unhealthy habits like overeating and snacking too much without even realizing it.

To decrease unintentional overeating, try implementing mindfulness when you eat with the following tricks:

• Eat slowly and chew thoroughly. This gives your stomach enough time to signal to your brain that you’re full before you overeat.
• Think before you eat. To determine if you’re truly hungry or just bored, consider if you’re hungry enough to eat an apple. If the answer is no, then it’s likely you’re not really hungry. If yes, then have an apple or another healthy snack.
• Avoid temptation through preparation. Cook at home instead of going out to eat where a menu might tempt you into ordering an unhealthy meal. Carry healthy snacks like carrots or almonds when you leave the house to avoid the temptation to stop at a fast-food restaurant or vending machine when you’re hungry.
• Eat at the table and turn off all devices. This will make you pay attention to what you’re eating.⁹ When you do this, you’re more likely to eat only what you need to feel satisfied instead of eating mindlessly.

Example 10 Day Meal Plan

Slimming down in ten days is doable with the right mindset and meal plan. But even with the guidelines laid out in this article, it can be hard to know what you should be eating to lose fat fast. Below is a sample meal plan that incorporates intermittent fasting and using bone broth for weight loss.

Here is a sample lose weight in 10 days diet plan:

After ten days of following this meal plan, you will be sure to have lost weight and slimmed down but you can always cut the yogurt or nuts out if you need even less calories too.

If this meal plan leaves you feeling too hungry, incorporate a healthy snack like vegetables or a handful of nuts as needed. But try not to eat more than one or two healthy snacks a day, or you might go over your calorie limit.

Bottom Line

Losing weight in ten days can be difficult, but not impossible. It’s important to approach slimming down with a healthy mindset and expect to continue working toward getting BIG results. It’s important to make changes that will last long after the ten days so you can maintain the weight loss too. Remember to be kind to yourself and allow for the occasional slip-up during this journey.

If you need more guidance don’t hesitate to explore even more, we have beginner weight loss tips and exercise guides across the entire site.

Now that you know how you can slim down in 10 days, you will be able to go forward with healthy lifestyle choices that will also help you maintain it in the long term.

Frequently Asked Questions