10 Useful Ways to Lose 5 Pounds Quickly

Five pounds equals roughly 17,500 calories. Cut those calories out of your diet or do activities that burn those calories up, and you should lose about 5 pounds. That may sound like a lot of calories, but you can melt them away in a month of smart eating and simple exercises.

It’s not like we’re obsessed with being something we’re not, but a flatter belly or looser jeans asap would definitely come in handy for an impromptu beach weekend or party where we expect to see an ex. The thing is, most of us don’t think it’s possible to look 5 pounds thinner that fast. But here’s a shocker: It’s do-able. And you don’t need to go on some long-term, healthy foods diet to lose weight that quickly.

10 Best Ways to Lose 5 Pounds Fast

So, losing 5 pounds fast with either one of these plans will get you started and increase your motivation for the long haul of healthy living at a healthy weight.

1. Use skim milk and artificial sweeteners in your coffee every day and you will burn 3,600 calories in a month.
2. When you order a sandwich or a hamburger every day tell them to hold the cheese and mayo. This will result in a monthly loss of 3000 calories.
3. If you drink four less alcoholic drinks per month you will lose an incredible 2000 calories by the end of the month.
4. Drink 16 ounces of skim milk each day instead of 2% milk.
5. Walk the dog for 15 extra minutes each day, or take a 15-minute walk during your lunch break.
6. Get your chocolate fix: Eat half a cup of chocolate pudding made with 2% milk, instead of, say, two chocolate sandwich cookies with an 8-ounce glass of whole milk every day.
7. It’s no joke! A study from Vanderbilt University showed that you can burn up to that many calories by laughing genuinely for 10 to 15 minutes. (Watch Groundhog Day to giggle off even more weight.)
8. Conventional wisdom says eight 8-ounce glasses of water but 100 ounces (that’s 12 eight-ounce glasses plus 4 ounces more) is sure to flush out all the fat you are trying to lose. Minimize salt in your diet, too, since it can cause your body to retain water. If you want to lose 5 pounds fast, drink your water!
9. Any kind of activity will get your heart rate pumping and increase caloric burn. Exercise also improves muscle tone, which helps to stoke your body’s calorie-torching furnace. Exercises such as running and spinning can burn as many as 600 calories an hour, which means you’ll shed fat in no time.
10. If you dilute your juice every day so that you are drinking ¼ cup juice to water or mineral water then you might be saving as much as 3000 calories in a month; although juice is good for you it can be quite unhealthy if it is laden with sugar.

These figures are loosely based on someone who weighs around 150 pounds. If you weight more than your total calories burned will be more over the course of one month’s time. This is to make sure you are not putting yourself in danger of muscle wasting or any other type of health problem.