How to Lose 30 Pounds Safely

Whether you want to lose 5 pounds or 30, making a few dietary changes is essential.

Decrease your calorie intake

Eating fewer calories than you burn each day is key when it comes to weight loss.

Some foods like potato chips, frozen meals, and baked goods pack a high number of calories but lack important nutrients like protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Loading your plate with low calorie, nutrient-dense foods can help keep you feeling full between meals while reducing your daily calorie intake to promote weight loss.

Fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, and lean cuts of meat, fish, and poultry are all great additions to a low calorie diet.

On the other hand, processed foods like chips, crackers, cookies, and convenience meals are typically high in calories and should be limited on a balanced, low calorie diet.

However, be sure to avoid cutting calories too low. Though calorie needs vary based on a number of factors, such as weight, height, gender, and activity level, decreasing your intake too drastically can slow your metabolism and make weight loss more difficult (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).

For long-lasting, sustainable weight loss, try reducing your intake by 500–750 calories below your baseline to lose around 1–2 pounds (0.45–0.9 kg) per week (3Trusted Source).

Still, it’s generally recommended that women and men consume at least 1,200 and 1,500 calories, respectively (4Trusted Source).

Cut back on processed foods

Processed foods, such as instant noodles, fast food, potato chips, crackers, and pretzels are all high in calories and low in important nutrients.

According to a study in nearly 16,000 adults, consuming higher amounts of processed foods was tied to a higher risk of excess body weight, especially among women (5Trusted Source).

Other processed ingredients like soft drinks are high in added sugar, which can also contribute to weight gain.

In fact, multiple studies have found that an increased intake of sugar-sweetened beverages may be linked to weight gain and obesity (6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).

For best results, cut back on beverages like soda, sweetened tea, fruit juice, and sports drinks and opt for water or unsweetened coffee or tea instead.

Eat more protein

Adding more protein to your diet is a simple strategy to help speed up weight loss.

According to one small study in 15 people, eating a high protein breakfast reduced levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates feelings of hunger, more effectively than eating a high carb breakfast (8Trusted Source).

Another study in 19 people showed that doubling daily protein intake significantly reduced calorie intake, body weight, and fat mass over 12 weeks (9Trusted Source).

Meat, fish, and poultry are a few high protein foods that can be easily incorporated into a healthy weight loss diet.

Other nutritious sources of protein include eggs, dairy, legumes, tofu, and tempeh.

Fill up on fiber

Fiber, a nutrient almost exclusively found in plant foods, cannot be digested by your body (10Trusted Source).

Soluble fiber, in particular, is a type of fiber found in plant foods that absorbs water and can slow the emptying of the stomach to help keep you feeling full for longer (11Trusted Source).

Soluble fiber can also stabilize your blood sugar levels to prevent spikes and crashes, which could lead to increased hunger (12Trusted Source).

One study in 252 women found that each gram of fiber consumed was associated with 0.5 pounds (0.25 kg) of weight loss and 0.25% less body fat over 20-months (13Trusted Source).

Another recent study in 50 people showed that drinking a high protein, high fiber beverage before meals reduced hunger, the desire to eat, and food intake — all of which could be beneficial for weight loss (14Trusted Source).

Fruits, veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds are a few healthy examples of foods that are high in soluble fiber.

Drink plenty of water

Drinking more water is a quick and convenient way to boost weight loss.

In fact, some research suggests that drinking a cup of water before each meal can reduce your calorie intake to increase weight loss.

For instance, one study in 24 adults showed that drinking 17 ounces (500 ml) of water 30 minutes before breakfast decreased total calorie intake by about 13% (15Trusted Source).

What’s more, another study found that drinking 17 ounces (500 ml) of water temporarily increased the number of calories burned by 24% within an hour (16Trusted Source).