How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly: Fat Loss Psychology

You clicked on this article because you want to learn how to lose 10 pounds quickly.

I’m gonna break down all the secrets, tips, and tricks in order to help you lose weight as quickly as possible without ever gaining it back.

Sound good? Cool…

Here’s what I need from you…

Read every single syllable. Don’t skip a sentence, and think about how you can apply these principles to your life right now.

Let’s get started.

How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

If there is one thing I can tell you that I’ve learned over the last 6+ years in the fitness industry working with dozens of online coaching clients and helping them reach their goals, it’s that fat loss is a marathon, not a sprint.

It’s a long, frustrating, and even boring process.

How you make it work is sustainability.

If you couldn’t see yourself doing what you’re doing now for the rest of your life, then it’s not sustainable and you WILL quit.

This is why you see people every year doing fad diets like keto, claiming that they lost 50+ pounds in 3 months, only to gain it back plus some a year later.

Why? Because it’s not sustainable.

If you want to be successful, you need to set up your first 12 weeks correctly.

When you can do that, you will be able to be successful in your first year.

However, if you can do that, you can sustain it for years and end up being in shape for the rest of your life.

So here’s the secret to losing fat and keeping it off for good:

Stop trying to lose body fat quickly.

We all want to be lean and finally be able to easily and comfortably lose fat. If you stick around, you will learn exactly how to do this step by step and I am not going to leave anything out.

Let’s get into it.

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How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

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How fat loss works in the body

Okay, so you wanna lose 10 pounds of fat. That is a LOT of fat. Specifically, the volume of that much body fat and how much space it takes up in your body is a lot more than you think.

This is what a pound of fat actually looks like in your body.

So when you say you want to lose 10 of those, this is not going to happen easily and it sure as hell is not going to happen quickly.

Now let’s talk about where you will specifically lose fat from. A lot of people will lose that 10 lbs of fat and still not be happy with their bodies.

Why? Because people are specifically looking to lose fat from “problem areas” like the belly, love handles, hip-dips, and the back of the arms.

The issue is this: You cannot spot-reduce fat. 

In other words, your body chooses where it loses that fat from on its own, and there is little that you can do to influence it.

I actually have a theory that a lot of people lose fat in their legs first, and since the legs are such a big area that you don’t commonly examine, it’s easy to feel like you’re not making progress with fat loss even after losing 10+ pounds of fat.

Not to mention if you are also strength training, your body will change drastically, but you may not notice many differences on the scale.

In reality, your body actually loses a little bit of fat from ALL over your body in small layers. 

Your genetics actually influence where you store fat, and where you will lose most of your fat from first.

This is pretty frustrating if you store fat in your belly, as this is the case for many. 

So what’s the solution? Maintain a moderate calorie deficit long enough to lose fat from those stubborn areas of your body.

It’s going to take some time, so relax and get comfortable with the journey.

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How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

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Instant gratification is killing your goals

The reality is this: most people only want to lose fat when they have A LOT of fat to lose.

I understand why you don’t want to waste any time and get straight to losing fat.

BUT that is the EXACT reason why this won’t work for you. Because you want it RIGHT NOW.

We live in an instant gratification-based society. Everything is immediate from Amazon to Instacart, to Door Dash to Netflix….everything is right at the click of a button.

This is not the mindset for someone who wants to successfully make lifestyle changes though. 

If you want actual lifestyle changes, it has to come from a long-term mindset. If what you’re doing doesn’t feel like you could do it forever…it’s not worth doing now.

I recommend tracking calories and tracking your nutrition for a period of time. However, this is not something you should be doing forever. It’s just a tool to recalibrate your internal scale.

The truth is you’ve been overeating for a long time. Recalibrating your hunger cues takes a long time.

If you walk 20 miles into the woods, you are going to have to walk 20 miles back out. 

You didn’t put on the fat that you want to lose in 6 weeks. It’s going to take longer than 6 weeks to lose it.

It’s going to take several months. Maybe even years.

That’s the harsh truth. Get comfy doing the consistent boring shit on a daily basis. Tracking calories, eating more protein, more fruits, and veg, going on walks, strength training, etc…

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How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

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How to actually be happy with your progress right now

You actually don’t deserve to have it right now. And if you did have it, you would not appreciate it because you didn’t work for it.

Let’s use this analogy:

Jimmy is 17 years old and wants to buy his first car. For his 17th birthday, his dad buys him a brand new Porsche. He doesn’t clean it, lets his friends smoke in it, and eventually, he gets so many tickets that he loses his license and can’t drive it.

Matt is 17. He wants a car. Instead of his dad buying him one, he was told to get a job and save up. He saves for a whole year until he has $1400 and buys his first car. It’s a beat-up old Honda. But he cleans it every day, changes the oil regularly, and treats it with respect and honor. 

Jimmy got his car instantly, and even got a much nicer car than most people so why didn’t he appreciate it? Because he didn’t work for it. 

Matt worked hard for his car and because he put in the blood, sweat, and tears, he appreciated it and took care of it. 

So, right now, you are a Jimmy. You want it right now and want to put in as little work as possible to get it. 

We need you to be a Matt. Being a Matt means that you are willing to show up, put in the blood sweat, and tears and eventually get your own vehicle (in this case the vehicle is your body) that you respect and want to take care of.

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How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

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How to make habits stick

When it comes to making habits stick, we will use the acronym REF.

Realistic, Enjoyable, and Flexible.

Realistic

Let’s start with realistic. If what you are doing is not realistic, it’s not worth doing.

You want to make sure that you are making lifestyle changes that you plan on sticking with for the rest of your life.

This means ditching the all-or-nothing mentality, the quick fixes, the fad diets, the crazy HIIT workouts that leave you feeling so drained you can’t even think straight.

Get rid of them. Now.

If what you’re doing right now doesn’t feel like something you could do for the rest of your life, it’s not worth wasting your time doing it now.

This is why people lost all their weight, but end up gaining it right back. It’s because they are way too focused on the rate at which their weight loss happens.

Stop putting a time limit on your progress. If you are making slow progress, look at that as a victory. This means that what you are doing IS working, and is much more likely to stick. Therefore, much less of a chance of gaining it back.

Realistic Training

If you want to go to the gym 6 times per week, but you also work 40 hours, have a family at home, and the gym is a 30-minute drive away, that is not realistic.

Do you think it’s realistic for you to get home around 5:30, change and eat a meal then head out of the door by 6 pm, get to the gym at 6:30 pm, train for an hour then get home at 8 pm 6 nights per week?

Probably not. This is not a realistic habit. You’d be much better off starting out with going to the gym 2 or 3 times per week on your days off and then one workday in order to build consistency.

Once you’ve built up the habit of going for an extended length of time, now you have found a realistic program that you can stick with.

Another factor to point out here is training at home. This has become more popular over the last few years, and can definitely be convenient and realistic for a lot of people.

Many of my online coaching clients actually train from home. All you need is a pair of adjustable dumbbells, a bench, and some good resistance bands, and you can create a very effective strength training program. Not only that, but not having to leave the house makes this much more realistic for busy moms and dads.

Realistic Nutrition

We can apply this to nutrition as well.

Let’s say you want to start eating in a calorie deficit, and you follow a meal plan that you found online.

It’s extremely simple and lays out EXACTLY what to eat and when to eat it.

You are making tremendous progress, but 3 weeks in, you realize that you can’t have Chinese food with your family on Sundays anymore, you can’t have your favorite ice cream cone at night.

It’s an obligation to have to eat this EXACT food at this exact time, in these exact portions.

That’s not realistic. You may be able to stick with it for a month or two, but eventually, your meal plan is going to fail.

I see this happen time and time again, which is why I never recommend meal plans. They are too restrictive, and unrealistic for 99% of people.

This is why I recommend flexible dieting, and it’s the approach that I use with all of my clients.

Enjoyable

This one can be a little more nuanced because what’s 100% enjoyable is not what your mind actually believes is enjoyable. 

So right now, your mind probably thinks that addictive things are enjoyable. Potato chips, Netflix, Nicotine, Sugar, Social Media, maybe even porn, cigarettes, alcohol, whatever your vice is.

The problem is that your mind is actually wired to look for the easy shortcuts due to dopamine spikes.

This can create an addictive tendency to do things that don’t actually provide us with joy.

So at first, the gym is not going to be enjoyable if you’re not used to going.

Tracking calories is not going to be enjoyable.

Eating fruits and vegetables and plenty of protein is not enjoyable. 

At first.

This means that eventually, your taste in what is enjoyable will change. This all may seem like a big shift in your normal lifestyle, but it’s because what you have been doing is not working, and the only way to shift this is to do hard things, especially when you don’t want to.

Pretty soon your mindset will change, and you will enjoy going to the gym and pushing so hard during your sets that you felt like your eyes were going to burst outta your head. Why? Because you know that when you train hard, you are going to see results.

You will enjoy eating a kale salad with tons of protein and healthy fats. Why? Because you know that not only does this keep you full, you are going to feel amazing all day and have tons of energy. PS: I used to hate kale, and now I actually love it, I guess taste buds can change over time.

You will enjoy going to bed early and getting a FULL night of rest. Why? Because you are going to feel absolutely incredible and getting tons of sleep and rest makes you a better human being. 

You aren’t going to enjoy everything at first, so it’s best to go slow. If what you are doing feels too hard and NONE of it feels enjoyable, then you will quit. So there is even a balance with this as well.

You should be doing things that are challenging your old way of thinking 80% of the time, and then 20% of the time you can still do things that give you instant gratification like eating sweets or watching Netflix, or whatever. You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to be making progress. 

This isn’t supposed to be a prison. You should still be able to enjoy the foods you love, take your time and enjoy the process.

Flexible

Instead of eating nutrient-dense or “whole foods” 100% of the time, you can still have some flexibility with your nutrition.

You can apply the 80/20 principle here.

For example, if you are eating 2000 calories per day, around 400 calories (20%) can come from foods that you actually enjoy—tacos, pizza, ice cream, etc…

I would recommend tracking your calories if using this approach, just to make sure that you are actually in a calorie deficit, and still making progress.

The last thing I will point out here is that flexibility and rigidity go hand-in-hand.

In other words, if you want flexibility, but you still want to see results, you need to be flexible sometimes, and rigid others.

For example, if you want to have a flexible dieting approach, this means you need to be rigid about making sure you still get plenty of fruits, vegetables, and protein before you allow yourself to have those potato chips that you love.

You still need to have non-negotiables like making sure you are hitting your steps, your strength training sessions, and getting plenty of rest. This will allow you to actually EARN the flexibility instead of just letting flexibility turn into falling off track completely.

Remember you cannot mess this up. Be your own science experiment. Play around with different ways of eating and different ways of training to find what works for you.

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How To Lose 10 Pounds Quickly

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Conclusion

Alright, so you made it to the end.

How do you lose 10 pounds of fat quickly?

You stop trying to lose 10 pounds of fat quickly.

This is honestly the best advice I can give you. If I can have you second-guessing your instant gratification and short-term mindset that has only led you to frustration, then I have done my job.

I want you to win and to get the most out of your fitness journey. I want you to be in the best shape of your life, but more importantly, I want you to be happy. Let’s face it—if you have to eat 1200 calories per day, cut out all of your favorite foods, and be doing 2 hours of cardio per day just to get to your goal weight, is it really worth it?

Is getting to that goal weight REALLY going to make you as happy as you think it is? Or are you just going to celebrate for 2 seconds, then obsess over the next thing that isn’t exactly how you want it to be.

The key to all of this is to enjoy the journey. Realize that no one is perfect and that as long as you are making progress and becoming the strongest version of yourself—mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally, then you are already winning.

If any of this resonated with you, and you feel like you are ready to take your health and fitness to the next level, and you want me to take all of the guesswork out of your journey to make it realistic, enjoyable, and flexible, then you can apply for coaching with me here.

Hope this helps!

-JP