My Step-by-Step Guide to Losing 30 Pounds in 30 Days

Zara Kai (@theneptunianbaby) is a diet and weight loss influencer who specializes in helping people transform their body in 30 days using herbs and raw food. In one of her viral videos she relieves a holistic step-by-step guide to losing 30 pounds in 30 days. "Here is my weight loss course 101. I've lost over 60 pounds now, and I was able to keep the weight off, and I'm going to show you guys exactly what I did step by step, and you have to follow it in this order. It's like a domino effect," she says in the clip. The Body Network also asked The Diet Diva, Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD/N, ACSM-CPT, a Board Certified Sports Dietitian, to weigh in on her suggestions. 

Step 1: Change Your Mindset

@theneptunianbaby I know what it feels like to be alone on yoir weight loss journey that is why i created a community for likeminded souls to come together and thrive! JOIN US as I help you transform your mind, body, and soul all 2024 All my Goddess and Gods tap in! My community is launching Feb 8th 2024🎉 I'll be sharing with you all my secrets. My secret herbs, meal ideas, recipes, and step by step on how to achieve your dream body this year. Link in bio #weightloss #100lbsdown #bodypositive #weightlosshelp #weightlosstiktok #weightlosstips #community ♬ original sound – Zara☥☪︎☯︎

The first step to losing weight is changing your mindset, Zara says. "I had to put my mind in the space for losing weight. I had to remove out of my mind, my thick girl habits. I had to drop my thick girl habits. I had to become that girl that I wanted to be before I was her, because how am I going to get there if I'm not going to become her now? So drop those habits, drop those habits, and also make sure you are very disciplined and you're consistent on this journey," she says. 

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RDN Agrees

Mindset is huge, agrees Collingwood. "Thinking about the person you want to be is great, but also think about how you want to feel. Do you feel good when you overeat and don't exercise at all? Or do you feel better when you put the right foods into your body and exercise?"

Step 2: Maintain a Calorie Deficit

"Now number three after you remove the waste, calorie cutting or calorie deficit," says Zara. "This is different for everyone because it's based on your height, your weight, and your age, and how active you are. You can use Life Sum to calculate how much you need for your goal."

RDN Agrees

Caloric needs vary a lot person to person depending on gender, height, weight, age, body composition, "and most importantly how much you are moving throughout the day," says Collingwood. "Increase your burn with exercise and decrease your intake of food. Don't cut too drastically or your body will start to use muscle for energy and reduce your metabolism making it harder to lose weight and hitting a plateau." You can benchmark your progress with this useful Lean Body Mass Calculator.

Related: Fitness Pro Chanel Delisser Flaunts Six-Pack and Fat Loss Tips

Step 3: Amp Up Your Raw Food Intake and Eat When You Are Hungry

Next, Zara recommends eating more raw food "because foods that are not cooked, it's in its natural form, it's full of enzymes, and it's easy on your digestive system," she says. "Your digestive system does not have to work so hard." Also, "you really want to make sure you're eating less calories and burning more. So not eating every hour, not eating every time your stomach is gurgling," she continued. "You want to make sure you're eating when you're actually hungry versus when you are emotionally hungry, and that's how you'll be able to maintain the weight and not put the weight back on." 

RDN Agrees

Eating when you are physically hungry is a good thing, says Collingwood. "You don't want your stomach to growl too long because then it shuts down and reduces metabolism and hangs on to fat. Allow yourself to get hungry, but then eat when it hits. Ask yourself if you are physically hungry or just emotionally hungry. A good way to tell the difference is if you would eat an apple.  If the answer is yes, then you are probably hungry. If the answer is no but you would eat a cookie then you probably aren't really truly physically hungry and just want to eat sweets." 

Step 4: Look Into Your Hormone Health

"Another thing as well is hormone health, if you tried everything on the list that I've just listed and nothing is working, you definitely want to look into your hormonal health," concludes Zara. 

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RDN Agrees

Collingwood agrees. "Of course our hormones change with age and taking hormones (birth control or hormone replacement therapy) can alter appetite and cravings," she says. 

Step 5: Reset

Her second step is to reset. "In order to see change, you need to make the change. So I call this reset like a detox period," says Zara. "A lot of the times when we are trying to lose weight, we are too focused on the number on the scale, instead of focusing on what is in our body that needs to be removed, which is the waste. So that's why I recommend detoxing. Before you focus on any sort of calorie cutting, any sort of meal plan detox, you need to remove the waste that's already in the body, that is trapped in there."

Only Put Healthy Things in Your Body

Collingwood underlines the importance of natural detoxification methods. "Your body has a natural detoxification system that eliminates waste (urine and feces). Toxins are filtered through the liver, and your body is very good at getting rid of them. There is no need to take any detox pills or do any fasting in order to detox. Simply start to only put good things into your body," she recommends. 

💪🔥Body Booster: Before eating anything, think very carefully about why you want to eat. Are you bored or actually hungry? You can shave a lot of calories off your daily total if you do this consistently.