Hugo L
Do you want to lose weight fast? But you want to do it in a healthy and safe way without “magic pills” or extreme starvation?
Look no further. Jonathan is one of our readers that set out to lose weight in 2 weeks. Yes, that’s right, in just 2 weeks! Although he did it when he was just a kid, the principle and method can be used by anyone seeking to lose weight in a short period of time. Here’s Jonathan’s story in his own words:
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My Weight Loss Story: How To Lose Weight in 2 Weeks
My name is Jonathan, and I used to be overweight. It might be hard to believe that a kid who just turned 13 could be overweight, but it can happen, trust me. I realized how overweight I was on my 13th birthday.
I was having my favorite meal: fried chicken wings with french fries and onion rings. I ate so much that I felt sick to my stomach, but somehow I still kept eating when we got around to the cake and ice cream. My family was taking pictures.
At the end of the night, after everyone had gone to sleep, I was flipping through the pictures on my computer. I was mad about what I saw. In every picture I was eating. I looked at my face and hands and how chubby they were.
By that time of the night, my stomach was hurting, because I had eaten so much, and I became really mad at myself. I knew it was time to change, so right then and there, I told myself it was time to lose the weight.
As I was an impatient young kid, I wanted to see results fast. I am happy to say that I actually managed to lose weight in 2 weeks.
I am writing this article to help other people who may be feeling how I was on my birthday. I am here to tell you that it can be done! Read on to learn how you can lose weight in just two weeks like I did.
Starting Out
I started my weight loss journey by doing some research online and talking to my doctor. I learned that to lose weight for good, you have to do it the healthy way. Only eating carrot sticks for a week is not the way to go. You shouldn’t exercise until you’re exhausted either. I have school, and I have to be able to live my normal life as a school kid. I figured out that there are three areas you need to focus on if you want to know how to lose weight in 2 weeks:
- Keeping track of calories
- Eating healthy foods
- Exercising
1. Keeping Track of Calories
This was sort of hard for me, but I did it. I bought two books – a blank notebook and a book that contained the calories for every food to help me. I dated each page in the notebook, and on that day, every time I ate something (even if it was as small as a handful of pretzels from my friend at lunch!) I wrote it down. This wasn’t easy. Sometimes I would forget, but if that happened, I would just go back and fill in what I had missed.
The reason tracking is important is that every person has a certain number of calories (calories are the energy in food) that they should eat each day to stay the same weight. I called this my target. When I looked at the number of calories I was eating before I started to lose weight, I saw that I was eating more than my target. That meant I was gaining weight! To stop gaining and start losing, I had to make the calories I ate less than my target. I called this my calorie goal, and I set it at 1300 calories per day. Each person has a different calorie goal, but you can find your calorie goal by looking up the formula online or talking to your doctor.
2. Eating Healthy Foods
The thing about eating less calories is that you have to know what foods to avoid (because they have a lot of calories in them). These are the foods I used to love: candy, ice cream, donuts, cookies, fried foods (like onion rings and fries), hamburgers and pizza. I had to learn to replace these foods with healthy foods. Healthy foods have low amounts of calories, so that means I can eat more of them and don’t get hungry. I also learned that it’s better to eat healthy foods, because they will help my body.
For example, dark greens and low-fat milk will help my bones grow, because both they have a lot of calcium. Chicken, salmon and eggs are great sources of protein, which will help me grow my muscles. Vegetables and fruit contain lots of vitamins, fibre and dietary minerals. The benefits are endless.
With the help of my parents, I made up menus for each day of the two weeks. Below is a sample menu from a Monday that can help get you started!
Monday Menu for Jonathan – Calorie Goal 1300:
Breakfast
- 2 scrambled eggs (200 calories)
- 1/2 apple, sliced (20 calories)
- 1 piece toasted wheat bread with 1 Tbsp. jam (120)
Lunch
- Turkey wrap with bell peppers, lettuce and tomato (200 calories)
- Celery sticks with 1 Tbsp. peanut butter (90 calories)
- 2 squares dark chocolate (110)
Snack
- Banana (100 calories)
Dinner
- Grilled chicken breast (100 calories)
- Steamed broccoli with cheddar cheese (80 calories)
- 1/2 cup steamed brown rice (100)
- 1 cup fresh fruit salad (100 calories)
Snack
- 2 cups air-popped popcorn (80 calories)
3. Exercising
Once you have started to keep track of your daily calories and are eating healthier foods, it’s time to start exercising. There are a ton of different things you can do to exercise. I used to love playing basketball at the school gym with my friends, and I also loved running around with my dog, Max. We played fetch in the park, or I took him to the park and ran around with him.
But if you want to keep it really simple, long walks at a fast pace are great (now aged 20 I walk three miles almost every day). If you want to know which workout that burns the most fat.
At the beginning of my first 2 weeks, I didn’t want to exercise. I asked my doctor why I had to do it. He told me that exercising gets your heart pumping. That’s why after you’ve run around for a while, you can get sweaty, red in the face and out of breath! Your heart is pumping the blood hard throughout your body. All of this burns up the energy that you have stored. Where does that energy come from? The calories in the food we eat! All of this means that when you exercise, you burn calories.
For example, if my calorie goal for the day was 1300 calories, and I exercised with my dog, Max, for an hour, I would have burned probably about 150 calories of that 1300. That’s great, because it means that I have actually only taken in 1150 calories for the day (1300-150=1150). I get to subtract the calories I burned through exercise. My calorie goal of 1300 is already cut down from my target (the amount of calories I can eat every day to stay the same weight), but cutting it down even more with exercise means I will lose weight even faster!
I used exercise a lot to help me lose weight in two weeks. The key to remember is to not make your daily calorie intake too low, because then you won’t have enough energy and it could even harm your body.
Begin Your Weight Loss Journey Today
I hope that I have helped you get started with your weight loss journey. I want to let you know that using the three things I talked about in this article I was able to lose 11 pounds (7 in the first week, and 4 in the second week).
The key is to keep track of your calories, eating healthy foods and exercising. It’s perhaps not the fastest way to lose weight in 2 weeks, but it’s safe, healthy and sustainable. And that is more important than anything else.
Today I’m a healthy twenty year old who is proud of how I tackled my weight problem. Rather mature for a thirteen year old kid I guess. I’m happy to say that nowadays I have a normal body weight with a BMI of 22.5, which is great. Be inspired. Start today. Good luck!
