Need to lose 10 pounds in three weeks

[kentgraham10]

I'll give all the info I think is relevant hopefully I can get a good idea of what I need to do.

GOAL: Go down from 165 to 155 pounds by July 16th, in the process making all my ab muscles clearly visible, right now, only two can be seen.

I work out 4 days a week (since my school gym is only open Mon-Th in the summer, otherwise I'd be in there 5 days a week) and have kept to my strength training routine for over a year now, rarely missing any days, on average 1 per month. In terms of physical appearance, I was really happy where I was at at the end of last summer. At that time, I was 5' 8'' (still am) and weighed 150-155 pounds (can't remember exactly). Once the school year started, I decided to cut out cardio in an attempt to gain more muscle. Across the board I went up in most of my lifts, gaining 50 pounds on the bench press, 70 on deadlifts, and 90 on squats to give you an idea. During this time, my diet went away from looking to get good protein to just downing anything that would get me up to my goal of 150 grams of protein a day. By March of this year, I weighed in at 170 pounds.

Since then I have started regular cardio training at least 3 times a week, and have gone down to 165. I would really like to cut down to clock in at 155 by the start of my vacation on July 16th. Right now, I can see my top two ab muscles are regularly visible, two below that are rarely visible, and below that is a nice juicy layer of stomach fat.

My question is what do I need to do to drop the 10 pounds in time? I anticipate my diet will look something like Tuna fish, turkey, protein shakes w/water, vegetables, a lot of water, and not much else. For cardio, I think I am going to continue doing 3 days a week at 30 minutes and possibly sacrifice my leg workouts during this time to add a 4th day of pure cardio @ 1 hr long. (My gym is only open 4 days a week Mon-Th). Any suggestions, tips, or ideas would be appreciated. I'm not even sure if my plan is a good one

 

[Jariel]

I have to echo what Espi said here. It's quite common for people to give themselves weight targets, but the target should be to look and feel better.

You can lose 10lbs on the scales, but if it's lean mass you've lost you'll actually look fatter/flabbier as a result of the weightloss.

Personally, I swear by low carb/high protein dieting. I find it allows me to drop fat and maintain muscle. I usually allow myself some complex carbs (oatmeal) in the morning, then stick to protein shakes, meat, cheese and eggs for the rest of the day. It's not easy to keep up, but it gets results.

 

[kentgraham10]

I never aim for a certain number of pounds lost or gain...i let the mirror dictate my goals. 'I want my calfs to look wider and muscular and more pronounced...and I would like my lower abs to be developed."

Notice how specific my goals are?

Thanks for the concerns about this short term, perhaps shortsighted goal of mine. I am not someone who is going out on a whim and choosing a goal out of the blue. Since I started working out, I have "used the mirror" as you say to target different areas I wanted to work on. I'm just trying to keep it real though. The 155 pounds I want to get to, this was the weight I was at during the final days of summer in 2010. I have made fitness a big part of my life since I started taking my body seriously over a year ago. The only numbers I was concerned about during this time was how many pounds I was doing on various exercises. I am mostly happy with where I am physically, but when I really examine where I want to be by the time of my vacation, its how I looked at the end of last summer. Throw on about 10 months of non-stop exercising since, and I anticipate once I start burning the fat off I will be even happier with how much more ab muscle I have gained. I am aware the 10 pounds in 3 weeks is a big goal, but one that I can achieve with dedication. I am usually a big drinker of sugary drinks like soda, lemonade, and Gatorade. A lot of dairy products, such as putting cheese on sandwiches and drinking milk, find ways into my diet on a daily basis. I also used to use a sizable portion of mayo on my sandwiches every day as well. Alone, those all don't seem to be like they affected me that much, but when I added it all up, I was getting a huge amount of useless fats and sugars every day. Those have all been cut out. The last two days, I have been able to get in most of the protein I need without bring in too much fat:

- 4 eggs - 28 g protein 20g fat
- Turkey Sandwhich - 25 g protein ~4 g fat
- Protein Shake - 52 g Protein 8 g fat
- Tuna straight from the can - 35g Protein >1 g fat

The rest of my diet has been vegetables that I have eaten plain, and I have had no sugars except for the 6g that is found in my protein shake.

 

[Furyguy]

This is doable for you. I just got done dropping 15 pounds in 27 days, so more or less on par with what you want.

I ate carbs twice daily: once for breakfast, and once after I trained. Breakfast was either 1 or 2 bananas and/or 1 or 2 oranges, depending on what mood I was in and how hungry I felt.

After workout meal was always a single bowl of white rice, flavored with hot sauce.

The rest of the day I ate eggs (yolk included), pre-cooked sausage, and a chili-eqsue mix of broccoli, 95% lean ground beef, onions, corn, and beans. I ate based on how hungry I was, usually one meal of 5 eggs + 1 sausage and one meal of a bowl full of that chili stuff was enough to keep me going all day long.

These were essentially the only things I ate because I hate making tuna, chicken, and other veggies. I don't count calories or macros because I hate it and am not a bodybuilder.

Once a week I would a do a Pulse-fast as described by T-Nation here: http://www.t-nation.com/store/supplements/mag-10-pulse-fast.jsp
Note: You do not need to buy the supplement, you can copy the ingredients and make your own for about 25% of the cost, if you buy them elsewhere online, and it will be roughly as effective. After you make it, just follow the process as described.

I also took a supplement called Leviathan ReLoaded, which was helpful but probably did not make or break the cut.

Lifting: One heavy, compound movement day per week. Usually I would max out either Dead, Bench, or Squat, depending on what I felt like doing, then do a few 5x5 of the other two or maybe a 5x5 of one and a 3x13 of the other. Or, just kill myself with a single set of 20 Deadlifts at 60% of my Max. The goal is to destroy yourself and up your BMR for a while as your body tried to build muscle.

Three days of complexes as described here:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...g_performance/rebuild_yourself_with_complexes
My two favorites are
6/5/4/3/2/1 reps of 135 pounds of
Power Clean
Push Press
Good Morning
Squat
Bentover Row
Deadlift


And the same movement pattern, but with Reps x Weight of
8x45
7x65
6x85
5x105
4x125
3x145
2x165
1x185

90 seconds between sets on both of them. Brutal.

One day of 10x3 squats, bench, dead lift at 60% max, 30 seconds rest.

Many days of doing whatever I felt like I needed improvement on at the time based on how my body felt.

Usually a Tabata front squat thrown in there somewhere as a finisher.

I did ZERO cardio and basically lifted every day. Also typically had one cheat day where I would party and drink and stuff my face after not eating all morning. Called a Pulse Feast as described here: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_pulse_feast


The pulse fast was an amazing tool I'm going to continue using. It feels awesome to go to sleep and wake up visibly leaner the next day, and actually see visible day to day progress of your efforts.


If you use any of this stuff I'm sure it will help you.

Also, you probably need to lose more weight than you think, so don't be too surprised if you drop 10 pounds and don't notice much visible change.

 

[kentgraham10]

Thanks for the encouragement Epsi, almonds have done the trick when I needed a snack during the day. Already lost 3 pounds in 4 days, good stuff!

And thanks for the tips Furyguy, I might be including that supplement in my last week if things slow down in terms of weight loss but so far, so good.

 

[Adriann]

Losing ten pounds in three weeks is not a tough task.
Just stay regular with your exercise and try to take a strict diet with no holiday exemption.
st kilda personal training