How to Lose 10 Pounds Fast

I am not a fan of diets! In general, diets don’t work because you just can keep doing what you did to lose weight.

However, I did do a diet with the purpose to lose some weight fast. It will make sense as the post goes on, because I chose a way to do it, that was aligned with how I already eat.

With a photo shoot coming up, I needed to lose 10 pounds fast. Here’s what I tried and how it turned out.

I coach women on how to lose weight after 50. I take the confusion and frustration out of weight loss and I do that primarily by teaching women what to do and then coaching them on everything that comes up along the way.

In general, I believe in incremental and doable changes over a period of time to create a sustainable way of eating.

Yet, at times, don’t we all want something that will get a few pounds off fast that won’t hurt our bodies and is actually beneficial to us?

That’s why I wanted to share my story of how I lost some weight fast and how the results have lasted for another year and a half.

As a weight loss and life coach for women over 50, I’m at expert at helping you use your MIND to get the results you want in your body and in your life!

I’ve written over 40 posts on how to lose weight after 50! I’m excited to share a new page, where I’ve pulled my favorite posts and put them into an order that you can use to get started. Check out my GUIDE TO LOSING WEIGHT AFTER 50.

My Experience with Losing Weight Fast

Here’s exactly how I lost 7 pounds by following the 10-Day Belly Slimdown by Dr. Kellyann.

By following the maintenance plan, I was able to lose another 16 pounds for a total of 23 pounds. I’ve kept the weight off for a year and a half.

This diet was a game-changer for me. I lost weight fast and after 10 days I went on the maintenance plan where I lost an additional 16 pounds over a period of months.

Even if you have been unable to lose weight despite your best efforts to eat healthy and exercise, this diet can help you lose 10 pounds within a month or less and set you up to lose more weight gradually.

After reading tons of research on eating, dieting (the good and bad), and intermittent fasting, I decided to go all in on losing some weight fast.

I’ve maintained that loss since. So, I’ve been doing this type of intermittent fast for a year now. (Still maintaining as of 12-17-20)

It turns out that when we eat is just as important as what we eat. And it also turns out that losing some weight fast, can also be very beneficial.

I still believe that the best way to lose weight is slow and steady, and by making incremental changes.

By doing it that way, you change how you eat permanently and keep the weight off for good.

In general, slow and steady is what you want for long-term, since the real goal is to have a healthy body and eat in a way that is sustainable.

So, a short-term protocol to get things started is fine. But remember, diets always end. You want to find a way to eat that you can stick to forever!

Why I Decided to Try a Diet to Lose Weight Fast

I tried this in the summer of 2019. I had been traveling a lot and had gained an extra 10 pounds. Plus prior to that summer, I had gradually over a period of years had already gained ten pounds.

So I was 20 pounds heavier than I wanted to be.

At that time, I was having my web site redesigned and I wanted to have new pictures.

You can disguise your body in pictures but not your face. And my face was puffy and not looking so good. My weight gain was because I wasn’t eating foods that were reacting well with my body!

My clothes didn’t fit and I didn’t feel good, inside or out.

Why Diets Don’t Work

My real experience with diets, one in my 30’s and one in my 40’s was not positive. The problem was, that they were diets and I felt restricted all the time.

I especially remember with Weight Watchers, with the points and tracking, I did lose weight. But I was white-knuckling it. I felt so hungry all the time. At the same time, I was eating all these 0 and 1 point snacks.

I lost weight but immediately gained it back in a few months. What got me to my lowest weight was not sustainable for me.

So, I really don’t promote dieting. However, in this case, my experience was so positive that I wanted to share it. I didn’t gain the weight back and I eventually got back to a comfortable weight.

That being said, if I had gone back to eating like I did to gain 20 pounds, I would have gained the weight back.

The Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Then, in my early 50’s I inadvertently discovered intermittent fasting and lost quite a bit of weight really fast. I was going through a break up and really didn’t have much appetite for a few weeks.

I lost about 15 pounds without trying.

Because I was so curious about what caused that quick weight loss, I really looked at how I ate and pinpointed that I wasn’t eating at night or in the morning. This allowed me to maintain my weight loss for years!

Eventually, I got careless with my eating and workouts and I gained some of the weight back. But it took several years as opposed to months. This past summer, a long trip to Argentina did me in.

Eating breads and drinking wine every day not only caused me to gain weight, it left my face puffy. I could feel myself getting bigger by the day! Not a good feeling.

In a wonderful twist of fate, I needed to have a photo shoot for my blog. It was time to have professional pictures and I had an actual deadline to get them done and turned in.

I needed to lose 10 pounds fast!

Yet, I have never looked worse than I did. No way was I going to do a photo shoot feeling as bad as I did. But I had a tight deadline.

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What I Did to Lose 10 Pounds Fast

I knew that I was going to have to eliminate the booze and bread and eat clean. I thought about simply fasting on bone broth and that led me to go look at my old bone broth books.

Bone broth has been a staple of my diet for years as a daily supplement that I drink for the health of my gut and my skin.

This post has affiliate links, read my full disclosure here.

While reading up on it, I came across a book called the 10-Day Belly Slimdown that promises you can lose up to 10 pounds in 10 days.

I decided to commit to the 10 days and give it a try.

My results? I lost 7 pounds in 10 days and another16 pounds in the following weeks. My cheek and collar bones reappeared and I could once again button up my jeans.

It was a total success! The best part was I was able to re-establish my good eating habits and kick the inflammatory foods to the curb.

For me, it’s very rare to be able to lose 7 to 10 pounds in 10 days. Because of the addition of bone broth during the fast, I never really got hungry.

Since the afternoon smoothie and dinner meal both had plenty of fat, my hunger stayed in check.

After the 10-Day Belly Slimdown

By day 11 or so, my entire body felt like it was humming with energy.

I woke up one morning and it seemed like all my cells were energized. With this newfound energy, I was able to resume daily exercise.

For the next few weeks, I continued with the clean eating and extra bone broth. I lost another four pounds.

The best part was that I could see the weight loss in my face and I could see it as my belly shrank. Not only could I button pants I hadn’t been able to but they were loose.

It seemed like the weight came off in all the right places.

What Do You Have to Give Up to Lose Weight Fast

I’m not a huge fan of diets in general because most are just too restrictive and of the wrong things.

Not going to lie—this diet restricts a lot of things! For me, this was okay because they were things I generally restrict too.

Wheat and sugar are horrible to my body.

As a woman over 50, I know that my only hope of having beautiful skin and a fit body are by nutrition and exercise.

If you are used to eating a lot of processed food, sugar, and wheat products, then the first few days of this are going to be rough.

Most people will experience flu-like symptoms as the body gets used to eating real food instead of junk.

In general, here is what you give up during your 10-Day Belly Slimdown Diet

• Alcohol
• Sugar
• All grains
• All Dairy
• Breakfast
• Eating after 7PM
• Most fruit
• Starchy vegetables

Getting Support During the 10-Day Belly Slimdown

Along with reading the book and following the diet, I joined the Facebook group. I’m glad I did because it’s been fun reading about other’s success with this diet.

It seems that most people that made it through the 10 days, lost a similar weight as me, about 6 or 7 pounds though some lose the full 10 pounds.

The other surprising thing is that most people decide to do another round or two of the 10 days.

It’s not meant to be a forever-way of eating but doing two or three rounds is fine. After that, you can either do another version of the bone broth diet or switch to a maintenance program.

Fasting as a Way to Lose Weight Fast

Fasting is now being considered one the best ways to reverse insulin intolerance and resistance.

Years of damaging foods and eating patterns leave many people unable to lose weight despite their best efforts to eat healthy and exercise.

What I’ve discovered for myself at this time of my life, is that eating “healthy” isn’t quite enough. I’ve had to add periods of fasting to keep my body operating optimally.

Optimal operation of my body, means for me, having the feeling that my food is nourishing me and that my body is digesting the food, using it for energy, and not storing extra fat.

When you eat truly is as important as what you eat. This is a revolutionary finding that is transforming the way experts think about weight loss, health, and food.

Kellyann Petrucci, MS, ND

Our bodies are designed to store and use fat—not just store it!

The Benefits of Fasting

Fasting seems like a really scary thing at first. Not feed my body! No way!

Yet, the research on fasting is very clear. It is truly beneficial for your body. Your body was designed to have periods of time where it doesn’t eat.

These periods of fasting allow the body to do several things:

• Clean out toxins
• Keep your brain healthy
• Give cells time to repair
• Use up extra energy instead of storing it as fat

Fasting is also the only way to reverse insulin resistance. Eating low carb does reduce insulin released in the body, but it doesn’t heal the damage to the blood sugar system.

Fasting is the most efficient and consistent strategy to decrease insulin levels, a fact first noted decades ago and widely accepted as true.

Dr. Jason Fung, The Obesity Code

Fasting allows the body to heal and become sensitive once again to insulin which allows it to do its job properly.

Now that I’m at my ideal weight, I stick to at least a 12-hour fast. When I need to lose a pound or two, I increase it to 15-16 hours. Remember, part of that is after dinner and sleeping, so it’s not that big of a deal.

FAQ’s about the 10-Day Belly Slimdown

In case you are curious, here are a few things to know about this diet.

What do You Eat During the 10-Day Belly Slimdown

Morning: black coffee, tea, or water. Up to 6 cups of bone broth.

1PM: A green smoothie with collagen powder, spinach or other greens, and healthy fats.

Between 1 and 6: More bone broth with added vegetables

Dinner: A protein, vegetables, and healthy fat

Do You Get Hungry During the Diet?

Surprisingly, I didn’t get hungry. Once in a while, I would feel a little hungry but it would pass. I made sure to eat as much as the diet allowed! Sometimes I would have extra fat to make sure I wouldn’t get hungry.

During the morning and afternoon, you can always have bone broth and that is really satisfying.

Where do You Get Bone Broth?

I make my own from beef or chicken bones. I’ve written two posts about why I drink bone broth and both have recipes in them.

How to Make Bone Broth in the Instant Pot

The Health Benefits of Bone Broth

Bone broth is very healing to your gut, your skins, and your joints. My skin is virtually wrinkle-free and is firm and soft. Besides helping me lose weight, it definitely helped me look my best.

The author of the book, Dr. Kellyann Petrucci also sells Bone Broth on her website and there are other good sources where you can purchase it.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon:

10-Day Belly Slimdown

Here is a link to Dr. Kellyann’s website for more information or to order products.

Can You Lose 10 Pounds Fast?

Probably! That’s exciting to me since for so long we’ve been told it’s hard to lose weight after 50.

I honestly think the reason most people have trouble losing weight is because of the types of foods they eat and that they eat around the clock.

Honestly, I’d rather set back the clock on my body and face rather than eat around the clock!

Sara Garska @ My Think Big Life

Instead of seeing this way of eating as deprivation, see it as a way to keep your vitality and health.

I’m not going to ever look 20 again, but I am so happy with how I do look, that it keeps me motivated to make nutritious choices in my eating.

Recently I had another photo shoot in October 2020. It’s now about a year and a half since I originally did the bone broth diet. I have maintained the weight loss since.

Instead of black coffee in the morning, I have mine with half and half. Then I usually have a cup of bone broth later in the morning. For lunch and dinner I have real food and avoid snacking.

This way of eating has been a total game-changer for me! It’s been sustainable and helps me feel and look great.

Get one-on-one coaching with me. I’ve been where you are and I know how to get results for you. I’m a certified life and weight loss coach and I am interested in the whole person–not just the number of pounds you weigh. Sign up for a free 50-minute strategy call. Learn not just what to do but how to do it. It’s time to quit struggling and start changing! You can change more in a few weeks or months with coaching, things you’ve spent years trying to change.