Have you ever needed to lose weight fast for a social event, beach vacation, or something in the near future that you wish you were in better shape for? If this is you, I will show you a way to lose 5-10 pounds in just 7 short days, so that you can at least feel a little bit more confident when that special event comes.
I’ve debated writing this article for a while because I am a true believer that you should not lose weight fast. Most lose weight fast plans are schemes to take your money. There is no such thing as fast and healthy weight loss. However, there are certain tricks you can play on your body that will help you lose weight fast in just 7 short days. Keep in mind that these are not long term strategies to lose weight. A healthy lifestyle change is the only proven way to lose fat and keep it off. The next time you know you need to be in shape for a particular event, plan ahead and check out some of these 65 weight loss tips to help you lose weight the right way. That being said, the following guide will help you drop both water weight and some fat in a short period of time.
Control Your Water Intake
Let’s first start with an easy trick. I’m going to base all of these tips on a Sunday through Saturday schedule, where the event you are working towards is on a Saturday. The first thing you’re going to want to do on Sunday is start drinking water – 1 to 2 gallons of it. You are going to be making many trips to the restroom, but that’s OK. What we are trying to do is get your body thinking that there is plenty of water coming in from outside dietary sources, so it has no need to hang onto what it already has.
Work your way up to 2 gallons of water per day, and then on Friday afternoon, stop drinking water completely. Your body will be so accustomed to the external source of water, that it will continue to shed the water weight it’s holding over the next day. You’ll notice that you’ll still be using the restroom just as frequently even without drinking any water. During this time, your body is excreting all that bloated subcutaneous water weight. On a side note, you should be drinking plenty of water anyways to lose weight. If you’re not sure if you’re drinking enough, I explain how much water you should drink to lose weight here.
Manipulate Electrolytes
Your electrolytes control your water retention – sodium and potassium being the big two. Starting on Sunday, you are going to increase your sodium intake. Put salt on everything. Do this all the way through Thursday. Then on Thursday, start lowering your sodium intake and start increasing your potassium intake. Since sodium causes water retention, dropping it after several days of high intake will cause a large release of water. Potassium will help keep your muscles functioning and contracting properly.
You will also want to make sure that you switch from mineral water to distilled water on Thursday also. Mineral water contains sodium, and since we are trying to reduce its intake, we want to be drinking distilled water. Drink distilled water all the way through Friday when you stop drinking water all together. A sip here or there is OK though.
Drop Your Carbohydrate Intake
One of the easiest ways to lose weight fast is to drop your carbohydrate intake. Anybody who has tried a no carb or low carb diet can attest to the quick weight loss that occurs at the beginning. This happens because carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in the muscle and liver. Every glycogen molecule is made up of 1 part glucose, and about 3 parts water. It stands to reason that the less carbohydrates you intake, the less the potential for your body to store water.
Starting on Sunday, you are going to be eating nothing but protein and fat in all your meals. You are going to continue eating this way all the way through that special event you have planned at the end of the week. Make sure you are eating at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Since we aren’t eating any carbohydrates, we are going to need to get our glucose energy from the protein we eat through a process called gluconeogenesis. Carbohydrates are not necessary for our bodies to function, as long as we are getting in enough protein to both support protein synthesis, and provide glucose for our brain and nervous system. Going no carb is not ideal, but if you want to lose weight fast, this is going to be necessary.
Deplete Glycogen Stores
A typical man can store 500 grams of glycogen. If you remember, each gram of glycogen store approximately 3 grams of water with it. If we do a little math (500 grams of glycogen * 3 grams of water = 1500 grams of water). Add the water grams to the glycogen grams (1500 + 500 = 2000) and we have close to 5 pounds of additional weight from glycogen (2000 total grams / 453 grams in a pound = about 5 pounds). Hopefully that wasn’t too confusing. The point I’m trying to make, is that by depleting those glycogen stores, you have the potential to lose another 5 pounds or so. And yes, this can be done in a week’s time. Here’s how:
It’s important that you understand the difference between aerobic vs anaerobic exercise, because only one of them is going to be useful towards depleting glycogen stores. So if we are wanting to deplete glycogen stores, we are going to need to do high intensity exercise for the week. You should already be incorporating anaerobic exercise into your fitness routine, so this shouldn’t be too difficult. However, there are going to be a few differences.
First, you’re going to be doing high intensity exercise every single day. You are going to want to train every single muscle, every single day. You might think you’ll be over-training, but for the purpose of achieving our goal to lose weight fast, you’ll be OK for the week. Try to choose exercises that are full body and use the most muscles. Exercises like the best exercises to build muscle, or some of these sample HIIT routines. Do this every day for a week, and the exercise coupled with no carbohydrates should have your glycogen stores depleted.
Follow these guidelines to lose weight fast, and in just 7 short days, you could see anywhere from 5-10 pounds or more of weight loss. I want to stress that this does not mean fat loss. While it is very likely you will have lost a good amount of fat in this time period, the majority of weight is going to be water. These are extreme weight loss methods. Proper diet and exercise will always be the preferred method for losing weight. But hey, a little less bloated water weight in the short term makes everyone look better.
About Coach Calorie
I have always enjoyed reading your articles, mainly because I thought your ideas were based on sound, rational ideas. That is up until this article. You now have thrown out one of those quick weight loss ideas that people will use, and probably for more than just the 5-7 days. I was particularly concerned about your advice to increase your intake of salt with no disclaimer to folks the dangers of this. Thanks for turning into just another fitness scammer.
Twitter: doc0c
says:
Amy, there are few negative side effects to consuming more salt. For people that have established health problems (high blood pressure, kidney failure) it is not recommended in high amounts. For regular people, sodium will cause a temporary increase in blood pressure. A temporary increase in sodium intake does not cause chronic high blood pressure.
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“A study from 1991 indicates that people need about one and one-half teaspoons of salt per day,” says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation. “Anything less triggers a cascade of hormones to recuperate sodium from the waste stream, hormones that make people vulnerable to heart disease and kidney problems. This is proven biochemistry. Yet, FDA as well as USDA want to mandate drastically restricted sodium consumption at about one-half teaspoon per day.”
WAPF testimony noted that salt plays a critical role in body physiology and brain function. In the elderly, lack of salt is associated with increased hip fractures and cognitive decline; low salt diets in growing children predisposes to poor neurological development.
Proposals to restrict salt cite benefits to hypertension. But only 30 percent of the population experiences a slight reduction in blood pressure on a salt restricted diet, while 70 percent show no benefit.
I’m sorry you feel that way Amy. I felt I made plenty of disclaimers in the article as well as said that I debated writing it for quite some time. These are real methods that bodybuilders use before their competition. This isn’t a get in shape quick scheme like you say. I continuously say that a healthy lifestyle change is the only way to lose fat and keep it off.
I think this particular article is a great idea. As I do agree with proper dieting and nothing thats a quick fix and rash. However Im going on holiday in two weeks and like most of us have left it till the last minute so I think that its very helpful having all this information in the one place. I know from past experience that the reduction or exclusion of carbs(such as pasta, bread and potato) is a very effective tool to fast weight loss, whilst keeping all the veges, salads, fruits, meats and dairy I still have lost of energy and am not particularly hungry.
This is really not my favorite article. Whenever something seems a little (or more) dangerous to the health of the body, and/or takes a lot of effort and time to keep on top of then I either lose interest or am just wary. I see where the theory of losing the water weight is, however I wonder if it is worth it in the end. We do things to our bodies for fast results, as you were saying:holidays etc, but in the end we all know the body functions best with healthy, consistent diets. It was interesting to read and gave me a little to consider.
Thanks for the feedback Mel. I knew this article would be a little controversial amongst my audience when I wrote it. My goal is to teach people how to take control of their body, and I think this article did a good job of at least explaining the physiology of the human body and how it reacts to particular stimuli. It is up to the reader to decide if they wish to practice the ideas.
Hey Paige, thanks for the comment. As you said, there is no replacement for proper diet and exercise. I don’t think carb depleting or carb reduction is dangerous, and those two ideas will make the biggest difference. Some of the other controversial ideas in the article such as manipulating electrolytes or water intake might be a little extreme for some people, but they work none the less.
Twitter: FFT_UK
says:
Hey Tony – Here are 2 methods I have found that help drop weight fast. I was having a body fat % competition with someone from my work and these are the methods I used in the final week. Unfortunately I still lost the competition but I think I dropped 2kg and 3% body fat over the 3 week period.
1) Do a 24 hour fast on the last day before the event.
2) Every day leading up to the event absolutely nail the cardio. For me this was 1 hour on the stepper close to the top level most of the time which equated to 800 calories in that hour.
Bear in mind that I ate quite healthy before the competition so my regular diet was pretty good and I still lifted weights in the final week (I did weights in the morning and cardio at night).
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this in the long term. It is exhausting doing all that cardio and then eating the same amount of calories that you would eat had you not done the cardio. However,it is sustainable for a week and it does help you drop weight.
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Thanks for the tips Tom. It looks like you focused on glycogen depletion with your fast and extra cardio. I too can’t do 2 workouts a day for long before feeling like I’m not getting in enough recovery time. But for a couple weeks, I can hang in there.
This is a really interesting concept. Would love to try them all but I am going to start with the water and see what happens in a week. Copied of this article and sent it to a couple o f friends
Hey Katherine, the great thing is they can all work independently of each other or together. Let me know how it goes for you.
Does losing this weight also get reflected in dress size? Or just scale? If dress size as well, how many dress sizes? Can I target a full dress size for an event? Thanks
I don’t know much about women’s dress sizes, but I don’t see why the weight you lose wouldn’t reflect in your clothes sizes. Glycogen and water take up space. When you lose it, you’ll be smaller.
Twitter: Dovescry2000
says:
Wow I read this article and to be honest I’m not so sure about it.. I get the losing “water weight” but I’m feeling this method is somewhat drastic..I know there are fools out there that will do it longer than your recommended time period.
It’s definitely drastic Deb, but it also teaches you the effects certain things have on your body. People will no doubt abuse what I wrote. I can’t do much about that other than repeat over and over again that only diet and exercise will lead to long to fat loss.
I’m going to Vegas in May, and although I have changed my lifestyle, I may want to try this on the last week leading up.
You certainly can’t please peole all the time nor some of the people some of the time! But you tried and you were forthcoming with the facts……
Thanks…. I started today.
Any vegetables allowed? Just want to get it right and see what I kind of results I can get… bring on the challenge!!!!!
I like throwing some lemon in my water … good for the liver and taste now and then… is that ok?
I usually do an hour of cardio… interesting what Tom said in his comments above…. might keep doing that too!
D
For the average person, I don’t see any problem adding low-carb veggies into the mix. Glycogen depletion will still happen as long as you keep your carbs very low.
Hi,
I have been doing cardio for the last two months, everyday for an hour. I run at 7 for 2 minutes and walk for one minute- I burn 700 calories in the gym. I also do situps on the weight machine. My diet is pretty healthy , and I eat clean. I do not see a drop on the scale ,but I feel a little smaller. Why do you think this is?
I am 5’8 and weigh 146 – ( my weight on the scale has not dropped)
Please help!
-emi
How many calories are you eating?