How to Lose 10 Pounds for Women

Women store fat in their hips, thighs and lower stomach, unlike men who store fat in their bellies. To lose 10 lbs. you will have to reduce your body fat by eating healthy foods and making regular exercise a part of your lifestyle. Cutting out too many calories and restricting entire food groups will trigger your body's famine alert and make it retain fat instead of getting rid of it. To successfully lose weight and to keep it of, you have to do it gradually.

Instructions

• 1

  Give yourself five weeks to lose 10 lbs. Lose approximately 1 to 2 lbs. weekly by reducing your caloric intake by 500 to 1,000 calories. Don't consume less than 1,200 calories per day. The Medline Plus website reports that if a woman takes in less than 1,200 calories daily, it should be medically supervised.

• 2

  Keep your metabolism working by eating a small meal every three hours of the day. Prepare up to six small meals that contain complex carbohydrates, such as vegetables and brown rice; lean protein including turkey and tuna; and unsaturated fats such as avocados and raw nuts. Avoid fried foods, fattening foods, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and processed foods.

• 3

  Ride a bicycle, go for a jog or train on an elliptical machine to increase the heart rate and metabolism. Exercise for 45 minutes, three days per week. Keep your exercise challenging by switching the kind of cardiovascular exercise you do.

• 4

  Don't fear working out with weights because you will not get bulky due to lack of testosterone. Work out with weights because it tones your body and increases your muscle tissue which stimulates your metabolism to stay activated all day long. Incorporate weight training two to three days of the week.

• 5

  Target problem areas by doing reverse crunches for the lower tummy and lunges and squats for the hips and thighs. Targeted exercises don't burn fat, but will tone the muscles so that when the fat has been reduced, tight muscles will appear.

• 6

  Reserve a minimum of seven hours and a maximum of nine hours per night for sleep. According to the Public Library of Science, ghrelin hormone levels increase if you don't sleep enough and leptin hormone levels decrease. Ghrelin increases your appetite and leptin suppresses it.