So you need to lose weight and fast? I hear ya, I do. Maybe it’s your wedding day or summers and you’re thinking “there’s no way this ass is beach ready.”
So how did I lose 13 pounds in 24 hours?
A better question is, is it worth it?
Leading up to your event your nutrition better be in order. I’m talking you better have been eating really “clean!”
I needed to lose weight for a Jiu Jitsu tournament. Think wrestling with choke holds and joint manipulations.
A WEEK OUT: I weighed 186 pounds. Five days out, I increased my water intake to 2 gallons a day, while slightly increasing my sodium intake. The increase in water helps trigger the body to excrete more urine. This will come into play soon.
TWO DAYS OUT: I cut the water to one gallon a day, and removed all sodium from my diet.
DAY BEFORE WEIGH IN: (Thursday) Around 8AM I ate a small breakfast smoothie consisting of greek yogurt and berries. That’s all I ate or drank that day, including water. Between fasting and voiding my bladder, I was four pounds lighter. I weighed 182 pounds at 8PM when I went to bed.
THE DAY OF WEIGH INS: Friday at 6AM I weighed 179. Due to respiration and perspiration I lost 3 more pounds while sleeping. This is why people like weighing themselves in the morning when their lightest.
By 6:30 AM I was in a steam room sweating out the last 4 pounds to make the 175 pound weight limit. After a miserable 80 minutes, (four 20 minute sessions with five-minute breaks) I had sweat out the four pounds I needed, plus an additional 2 thanks to a scale malfunction (AKA operator error).
WEIGHING IN: At 9 AM I weighed in for my tournament at 173 pounds. A 13 pound weight loss!
If you’re thinking this sounds like a great idea and you’re ready to hit the steam room think again…..
First things first. Why did I do this? Competition. In sports like Jiu Jitsu, MMA, boxing, and wrestling this act of “cutting weight” is common practice.
I know professional fighters who cut 15-25 pounds in 1 day! This allows them to compete at a lower weight class with a weight and strength advantage. In reality, it levels the playing field since the competition is doing the same.
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What’s The Point Anyway???
Here’s two reasons you SHOULDN’T use this strategy. (What a hypocrite, right?)
- It’s hard on your body
- The results are meaningless.
What I’ve yet to mention is that by the time I competed, I had put ALL that weight back on! I competed at 186 pounds in a 175 pound weight class with a bunch of other competitors weighing around 185.
Oh, and did I mention leading up to the weigh-in I felt terrible? I was hungry, irritable, light-headed, and dizzy from dehydration. I felt like shit!
I asked you if you needed to lose some weight fast. I didn’t ask you what kind of weight you wanted to lose?
I assume you want to lose fat, not muscle, bone, hair, or water weight?
Unfortunately there’s NO secret formula to lose fat fast. If you’re exercising properly and your nutrition is order, your body will use that stored fat as energy. You can’t sweat, jiggle, or melt that fat off. No matter what that pill, potion, or fitness program promises.
We live in a NOW world with answers a click away and marketers know this. Manufactures of diet pills, supplements, and exercise gadgets claim huge amounts of weight lost with little or sometimes ZERO EFFORT! Come on…you know better. They excite us with taglines like “90 percent of weight loss was pure body fat” or “the fat will literally melt away.”
Last time I checked, we weren’t ice cream cones.
We’ve all seen the photo-shopped before and after pics. Fitness models promote exercise gadgets they’ve never used until the day of the infomercial. Claiming “it’s really helped me get the body I’ve always wanted”.
Maybe there’s some guy out there blogging about “How to lose 13 pounds in 24 hours“.
Big claims come with fine print flashed quickly across the bottom of the screen. It tells you, “results aren’t typical and that “miracle pill” worked when combined with diet and exercise! (Well I hope so!)
Here the fine print on “How to Lose 13 Pounds in 24 hours.” You’ll notice it’s not so small and blurry.
Sure by “cutting weight” you can look a bit skinnier on your wedding day or when you hit the beach. (Sickly might be a better word) Good luck walking down the aisle, enjoying your first dance, or going for a swim. Your dehydrated, starved, angry, and dizzy. Not the magical wedding or relaxing day at the beach you were hoping for. Oh and did I mention this could get dangerous?
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Fuel The Change Fire!
Remember you want to lose fat not water. Instead of two days of feeling terrible, take that motivation, drive, focus, time, energy and channel it towards implementing systems of change!
Take 2 Days and Implement Your Systems of Change
1. Define And Structure Your Fitness System:
- Create an exercise routine.
- Where will you exercise?
- How many days?
- What equipment do you need?
- Find a workout partner.
- Get a gym membership.
2. Define And Structure Your Nutritional System:
- What will you eat?
- Create food lists: Acceptable/Not Acceptable.
- Get rid of food that’s not on your acceptable list.
- Create weekly food menus and corresponding grocery lists.
- Research restaurant menus close to work if you plan on eating out.
- Not sure whats healthy? Take a look at the Paleo Part 1 Article.
3. Define What’s Driving Change: Change is tough you need to prepare yourself for battle. Define what’s driving you and write it down: Health? Competition? A Wedding? A new job? Are you taking a trip? To be a more active parent?
- Keep a reminder close.
- Place a picture of your kids on the dash where you can see it every time you go to the gym.
- Tape a picture of your wedding dress on your mirror so you see it first thing in the morning. Here’s an article that can help you get mentally prepared.
4. Implement Systems To Overcome Problem Areas:
- Limited time to cook? Grab a crock pot. Check out this article How to Make Eating Healthy Convenient.
- Work travel coming up? Create travel workouts that require minimal to no equipment that you can do in your hotel room.
- Google restaurants near your hotel that fit your nutritional system.
Preparation Is The Key To Victory!
Any systems you implement to create change?
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