GOT a wedding next weekend or a beach to be on in the next few days?
Meant to tone up and get fit months ago but left it until now to panic?
1
Well, join the club. Loads of us want to slim down in next-to-no time.
And it is actually possible to shift as much as 10lbs in just seven days.
Obviously, a lot of that will be water weight - any diet plan that says it can help you lose 10lbs of body fat in a week is either lying or is grossly irresponsible.
But if all you're after is a quick fix for a day or so, or you want to kick start a healthy weight loss journey, then you can see a dramatic drop on the scales in seven steps:
The key to any kind of weight loss is in reducing your calorie load.
A good way of keeping track is using a calorie tracker like MyFitnessPal, which will help you to set goals (1,500-1,650kcals a day should be manageable for a short space of time).
But if calorie reduction was really that easy, we'd already be doing it.
So on top of using a tracker, you might want to try intermittent fasting.
By reducing your eating window, you're naturally going to consume fewer calories.
Dr Michael Mosley is the guy who came up with the 5:2 diet and he recommendssetting yourself a 10-hour window - which is more generous than some IF programmes.
All that means is that if you have your breakfast at 10am, you finish your last meal at 8pm.
While diet is crucial for losing body fat, you can't get away from the fact that exercise plays a huge role.
And weight training in particular is key when it comes to transforming body shape.
When you lift heavy weights, you're breaking down the muscle - causing it to repair itself and get stronger.
That process needs energy and your body turns to its own fat supply to keep those muscles fed.
PT Laura Hoggins writes in her upcoming book, Lift Yourself:"If you're wearing a calorie-tracker while you pound the treadmill, it may well tell you that you're burning more calories during that 30 minutes on the treadmill that when you do 30 minutes resistance training.
"However that's not the whole story. Strength training gives you a higher percentage of lean muscle mass.
"If you have more muscle mass, you'll also have a higher metabolism so you'll burn more calories just staying alive - not just in that half an hour when you're training, but every single hour of the day and night."
That means that if you want to keep on burning fat even after you've finished working out, lifting heavy might be the solution.
You don't need to be wearing lycra and you don't have to carve out time in the day to workout.
Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT, is where we burn calories while doing anything that's not eating, sleeping or actual exercise.
Try balancing on one foot or squatting while you brush your teeth, walking to the shops, playing with your kids more and using a basket down the supermarket.
Even going for a 20-minute stroll at lunchtime can help.
You can still jot up around 2,000 steps - and that's before you even factor in the walking you do during the rest of the day.
So plug into your favourite playlist or podcast and get out for a break. You'll be at your 10,000 step goal before you know it.
OK so as we say, 10lbs in seven days is going to be largely water weight - but dropping that can make you look a lot leaner.
When you see bodybuilders and bikini models, one reason they look so tiny is that they're no longer holding onto any water weight (some go extreme lengths to dehydrate themselves which is really not a good idea).
Water retention happens when you get excess fluid building up inside your body.
To stop it from happening, try to eat less salt and consume more magnesium and B6.
Those are found in things like leafy greens, beans, bananas and walnuts.
You can also reduce it with regular exercise and moving around more.
Note that we don't say bin the carbs altogether.
If you're looking to dramatically reduce your weight fast then you're probably going to have to limit the number of carbs you eat.
But that doesn't mean cutting them out altogether.
Just go for whole food options (half a sweet potato, a small cup of wholegrain rice) and then load up on lean proteins.
Plenty of research has found that protein can help to reduce your appetite and boost metabolism.
Replace starchy carbs with colourful veg instead.
It's a no-brainer but if you're trying to reduce body fat, the first thing you might want to do is quit the junk.
Base your diet around whole foods, using mostly single-ingredient foods.
That means buying, say, a chicken, some peppers, tomatoes and some rice - instead of opting for a ready-made stew.
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As we say, don't kid yourself that these quick fixes are sustainable or necessarily mean that you've burned any fat.
And if you have any history of disordered eating then it's really not a good idea to set yourself these sorts of goals.
But if you are getting ready for something soon and you do want to change the way you look or feel, then there are options.
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How to lose weight fast and shed 10lbs in one week in 6 ...
