2 Weeks to lose your belly... possible?

[UltimateDJuan]

I have about 2 weeks before i'm going to be traveling somewhere hot with lots of beaches and of course hb's.

If enough effort is put in on my side, is 2 weeks enough to lose my gut?

If i consume about 1000 calories per day for 14 days, based on my calculations, I will only lose 4.8 pounds. Add on about 500 calories lost from my daily bike exercise, thats another 2 pounds lost.

After putting all this effort in (constraining food intake severely and putting in a moderate amount of exercise, losing 6.8 pounds after 2 weeks simply isnt good enough.

Can anyone suggest how i can increase the amount of fat lost during this 2 week window that i have?

 

[Mr. Latte]

If you consume 1000 calories per day, you'll GAIN weight. When the body doesn't get the nutrients it needs, it automatically begins storing everything it can as fat, and rather than burning fat, it burns muscle for fuel. You should NEVER eat less than 2000 calories a day. These need to be split into 40% protein, 30% fat, and 30% carbs. Eating less than 2000 calories a day is just gonna make you lost muscle and gain fat...I suggest you join the "belly off" forum @ menshealth.com Search for a post entitled "Clean Eating" by Karoka.

 

[Lt dan]

in diesals cutting guide doesnt it say something about eating 1600 calories

 

[Lt dan]

4. NEVER GO BELOW 1600 calories.

That's what cardio is for. Start at your baseline, then progressive cut 200 calories each week til you hit somewhere close to 1600. Once in that 1600 range you start to add cardio.

 

[UltimateDJuan]

Yea, but the cutting guide is more of a long-term approach.

I was searching for a shorter approach to the goal.

As for the muscle being used for energy instead of fat when low calories are being consumed; I dont think this applies to when the muscles remain in use during the low-calorie times.

Wouldn't light lifting + heavy cycling lead the body to rely on fat during low daily calorie intake?

 

[DIESEL]

In 2 weeks?

bring your calories up to 1600 - no carbs after 7p.m. - drink a gallon - gallon and a half of H2O per day.

Do cardio 2x a day 30-40 minutes at moderate-medium high intensity 6 days a week. (stairmaster interval level 7-8)

No more than 150g of carbs, but no less than 100g of carbs

You can't do HIIT cardio because you won't be eating enough...

You're going to lose a lot of muscle mass along with that gut. But whatever, when you fail to plan.. that's kind of what happens.

 

[PiNkMaGGiT]

Originally posted by DIESEL
In 2 weeks?

bring your calories up to 1600 - no carbs after 7p.m. - drink a gallon - gallon and a half of H2O per day.

Do cardio 2x a day 30-40 minutes at moderate-medium high intensity 6 days a week. (stairmaster interval level 7-8)

You can't do HIIT cardio because you won't be eating enough...

You're going to lose a lot of muscle mass along with that gut. But whatever, when you fail to plan.. that's kind of what happens.

Good advice. This DIESEL fella knows what he's on about .

You will lose fat but you're also going to be soft and floppy.

 

[bigforearms]

You won't lose your gut in 2 weeks. You can lose quite a bit more than ten pounds in that time, but it won't make your body look better, which is what you're going for. Rather, you'll feel like **** the entire time you're on vacation, and you'll look like you just got over a case of the SARS. Your body will maintain generally the same shape, but will be smaller and more sickly looking.


Two weeks is too short a time for anything except nit-picky cutting (getting that last percentage point of body fat off). I'd suggest just eating normally and doing a little more cardio. You won't see much results, but you're gonna have that belly either way. You can always cut down on the size of your meals while you're on vacation so your stomach doesn't stick out quite as far.

And saying 1600 (or 2000) calories is the absolute minimum for everyone is ridiculous. This guy hasn't even said what he weighs, and you can't have any idea where he'd bottom out unless you know something about how much he weighs. If you drop to 1000 calories for 2 weeks and continue to do exercise, you will NOT gain weight. Yes, your body goes into starvation mode, but it's simply a matter of a little math: calories in - calories out = net weight gain/loss. When you're that low on calories, you still lose weight, you just don't lose the weight you want to lose.

No matter how you lose weight, you're going to lose muscle. If you try to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time, you'll lose a lot of muscle. Lifting weights won't help you preserve on an intense starvation diet.

 

[DIESEL]

I would make an educated guess that dropping below 1600 calories is detrimental to most weight training males that weigh over 140 lbs.

Nit picking about correct levels of calories for bulking or cutting is utter bullshyt if you ask me.. I never say you HAVE TO BE AT X CALORIE LEVEL as if it were set in stone.. I merely suggest a ballpark point of departure where you then, using your body's feedback, can adjust calories and macronutrient balances to your particular metabolism.

And yes, I totally agree this kid is asking the impossible. But hey, if he wants to drop weight, I think I answered his question. I do think 2 weeks is more than enough time where you don't have to be so pessimistic. Judging from the tone of his request, I highly doubt he's a serious trainer..... for if he was, he wouldn't be asking this question in the first place.

anyway, given his request, I do think the "eating normally" part is bad advice. He can go on a carb-restricted diet for 2 weeks, hit the cardio and weights hard, and effectively put a small dent in his waist size.

D

 

[Hannibal]

atkins diet old chap, thats when you eat no carbs and only protein and vegetables, no carbs, no sugar, no flour, no salt, but all the friggin meat and cheese you could ever want, practically a pure protein and pure fat (butter,oliveoil, mayonnaise) diet, this puts you in ketosis making you lose alotta weight after two weeks, so if your fat is on the outside of your stomach you will lose it lickidy split (cheesy but appealing term isn't it?) may be a little slower if its on the inner wall of your abs (you can if your stomachs got a big gut but its still rock hard) you slowly ease yourself back into carbs say 20 g daily during the time you want to get into ketosis through salads and vegetables most people lose about 5-10 pounds in the first two weeks of induction, so if you want to lose alot of weight anways you can simply stay in it longer, then as you get close to your main goal start adding 5 grams of carbs a week(for example week one you have 20g of carbs a day, then week 2 you'll have 25 carbs a day and so on) until your satisfied, this keeps you in ketosis since its a slow and steady re-entry into the wonderful world of carbs, so since your body is so used to it, you will keep the weight off and be able to eat anything you want, this is a warning though; dont go any higher than 5 grams a week as your closing in because then you will start to gain weight, this is when you find your critical carb maintenance level which for most people is between 40-100 carbs daily, so dont ever over do it! if your gf dumps you (which she shouldn't there lean don juan) dont eat three buckets of ice cream, this is will ultimately lead to all this hard work all over again. Thats it man, throw some excerise in there if you want, even walking, and you'll do fine. Hope this was helpful

 

[D'Anconia]

I'd stay away from a ketogenic diet if I were you. You're not going to have time to make the slow transition into having carbs as a part of your diet. I'm assuming when you're on vacation the carbs and alcohols are going to be a part of the fun. If you're in ketosis, and then all of a sudden start eating carbs, you're going to hold a lot of water. In essence, you will ending up looking worse than you do now, even though your total mass might be down a little.

 

[DIESEL]

I didn't recommend a ketogenic diet.

I recommended 100-150g of carbs a day. Far from ketogenic.

However, your reasoning is correct, assuming I had told him to go ketogenic.

 

[UltimateDJuan]

I will follow through with diesel's 100-150g carb idea until the start of the vacation.

But once I get back i want to try out Atkins and see how substantially that will be able to help me.

The only problem is that nearly everything has carbs in it; fruits, vegetables, everything.

Im fine with eating protein, etc at lunch or dinner, but realistically how can i survive for a couple of weeks on beef/chicken for everything that will be eaten throughout the day?

 

[DIESEL]

Originally posted by UltimateDJuan
I will follow through with diesel's 100-150g carb idea until the start of the vacation.

But once I get back i want to try out Atkins and see how substantially that will be able to help me.

The only problem is that nearly everything has carbs in it; fruits, vegetables, everything.

Im fine with eating protein, etc at lunch or dinner, but realistically how can i survive for a couple of weeks on beef/chicken for everything that will be eaten throughout the day?

If you're exercising, don't do Atkins. Just stick with the moderate carbs and you'll see how much weight you drop!

 

[MOLATO]

Atkins!!!!

I got stupid and fell into this girl a little too hard and got a little to comfortable. Then we broke up and all I had to show for myself was a broken heart and a fat belly ( She was a great cook).

I started the atkins diet and after the first month I had multiple dates again and my body was looking better and better every day. It was hard at the begining but know it's a way of life. I drink wine or straight booze when I'm out at the bar and when my boy' go to Mcdonalds after the bar I by 8 Burgers and don't eat the bun. I get stir fry or steak without the rice or potato and when I wake up the next morning with a girl we go out for as much bacon and eggs as I can eat, just no toast or homefries!

I have started to eat healthier than just burgers and bacon, but it isn't even a concious effort to keep losing weight. i went from a size 40 pants to a 36 in 2 months and no muscle loss. I can't even date girls in the same league as my ex anymore because the girls I attract now are 9's and 10's.

Atkins all the way...3 of my boy's did it aswell and now all my roomates are carb free and are picking up alot more women than before partially to looking better but mostly because of the confidence booster.

Good luck and if anyone wants a two week crash course emailed to them write to ajtune@yahoo.ca

 

[mahon83050]

Originally posted by DIESEL
In 2 weeks?

bring your calories up to 1600 - no carbs after 7p.m. - drink a gallon - gallon and a half of H2O per day.

Do cardio 2x a day 30-40 minutes at moderate-medium high intensity 6 days a week. (stairmaster interval level 7-8)

No more than 150g of carbs, but no less than 100g of carbs

You can't do HIIT cardio because you won't be eating enough...

You're going to lose a lot of muscle mass along with that gut. But whatever, when you fail to plan.. that's kind of what happens.

Diesel,

I am trying to get more cut (and I have) but my stomach and small love handles are bothering me. You are saying if I do cardio 6x a week for 2 weeks and No abs exercises....i can significantly decrease my belly. I hope you are right, but the only thing I did not understand was............why would I lose alot of muscle mass.

 

[DIESEL]

Originally posted by mahon83050
Diesel,

I am trying to get more cut (and I have) but my stomach and small love handles are bothering me. You are saying if I do cardio 6x a week for 2 weeks and No abs exercises....i can significantly decrease my belly. I hope you are right, but the only thing I did not understand was............why would I lose alot of muscle mass.

because you'd be burning up way more calories than you'd put in.. it's much easier for your body to synthesize muscle cells into energy than it is fat cells. Whenever you try to cut without anabolics YOU WILL LOSE MUSCLE... my suggestions just limit that muscle loss as much as possible.

My suggestion was only for that dude and for his specific situation: he didn't plan ahead so now he's fukked. You should just disregard this thread entirely.... if you want to lose your lovehandles just keep dieting as per the GUIDE...they'll come off.. remember I said cutting is a 3-4 month journey and that's if you're followin the system to the letter.

always remember mid-section fat is the first to come on and one of the last to leave.

D

 

[Eternal]

One of my friends is doing the Atkins diet with his brother. He's lost 15 lbs. in 2 weeks and his brother is at the 13.5 lb. mark now. Seems like a decent diet to try (I need to gain weight, so no way I would try this...)

 

[mahon83050]

Originally posted by DIESEL
because you'd be burning up way more calories than you'd put in.. it's much easier for your body to synthesize muscle cells into energy than it is fat cells. Whenever you try to cut without anabolics YOU WILL LOSE MUSCLE... my suggestions just limit that muscle loss as much as possible.

My suggestion was only for that dude and for his specific situation: he didn't plan ahead so now he's fukked. You should just disregard this thread entirely.... if you want to lose your lovehandles just keep dieting as per the GUIDE...they'll come off.. remember I said cutting is a 3-4 month journey and that's if you're followin the system to the letter.

always remember mid-section fat is the first to come on and one of the last to leave.

Thanks Diesel...are you a personal trainer? What do you mean by the guide? I suppose you are talking about the cutting up thread?

D

 

[DIESEL]

yup.