10:00 AM CDT on Thursday, May 6, 2004

MEG FARRIS / WWL-TV Medical Reporter

Losing 10-pounds could get you into that suit or cocktail dress, help make gains in your self esteem, or maybe even make your childhood classmates admire you at the reunion. But as medical reporter Meg Farris shows us in this Weight Loss Wednesday, if you want to drop the weight, don't procrastinate. The time to start losing is now.

“What’s the fastest way to lose 10 pounds?”

It's a common question for doctors and fitness trainers

WWL-TV Building muscle tone is vital to wieght loss

“ Patients coming in wanting to lose just a few pounds, say ‘I have a wedding coming up, I have this coming up,’ and they want to lose 10 pounds,” said Dr. Kim Edward Leblanc, the Chief of Family Medicine at the LSU Health Sciences Center.

If you want to lose those cosmetic 10 pounds for a later date, experts say plan ahead because there is danger in the starvation quick fix.

“You can lose a lot of weight in a hurry, but you're starving, you're hungry all the time,” said Leblanc.

According to Leblanc, when your body's hungry all the time, it slows down your metabolism in order to store whatever food it gets. This leads to the formation of more fat cells, the only storage form of energy we have. So when you starve yourself, Leblanc said you’re actually creating more fat cells, “which will never go away unless you suck them out.”

Not only are you creating more permanent fat cells, but also muscle and water weight are the first to go, leaving you "skinny fat," a person who's small but has more cellulite due to the loss of muscle tone.

Losing muscle is bad for another reason: It's the fat burning furnace. The more muscle weight on your body, the more calories you burn all day long, even when you're sleeping.

On top of all those negative effects, experts say even if you manage to quickly drop the 10 pounds, you're just going to explode back up.

Jimmy Gaubert, a 60-year-old weight lifting titleholder and former Mr. Universe, said a mix of aerobic activity and weightlifting has kept he and his wife very fit.

WWL-TV Eating good carbs like fruit must be a key part of your diet

Fitness trainers also added that people should make their aerobic activity fun.

“If you love dancing, go dancing,” said trainer Marc Leblanc. “It's so much better than getting on a treadmill for 30 minutes and staring at the mirror. You're not going to do that for the rest of your life.”

But with the exercise comes the diet. You shouldn’t go super low with the calories; women should stay in the 1500-1800 calorie range. What is important is changing the ratio of food groups. Eat more protein, more good fats (nuts and olive oil), more fiber and good carbs like fruits and veggies. Sugary carbs should be dropped, and your carb intake should go no lower than 150 grams a day.

“You also need 100 carbs a day just to function your brain, so any diet that tells you to go on 50 carbs a day is a dangerous diet,” said Gaubert.

Portion size is also important, but fasting is a big no-no.

“You have to have fuel,” said Guabert. “You can't burn all day on one stick of wood in the fire place.”

A weekly "cheat meal" made up of your favorite foods is suggested, but make it early in the day so you can burn it off.

Finally, 3500 calories is the magic number. It takes burning off that amount or eating that much less to lose just one pound. So do your own math.

Above all else, if you want to lose those 10 pounds and keep it off, don't drop more than a half a pound to two pounds a week.