# Could you lose five pounds in one week for a million $? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 20, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853 "2010-08-20T09:37:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/1 "2010-08-20T09:37:22Z")
And how would you do it? An old Archie comic book made me think about this…yep, I’m weird like that. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/2 "2010-08-20T09:42:35Z")
Um…I’ve lost more than that overnight. Simple case of bad potato salad… ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/3 "2010-08-20T09:50:28Z")
Ah, yes. The overlooked Bad Potato Salad Diet. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/4 "2010-08-20T09:51:00Z")
I lost about 3pounds last night. It was all water weight lost through sweat while running 7 miles. A couple of weeks ago I lost about 7 pounds in a day during an 80mile ride. Needless to say I’m not particularly good at staying hydrated. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/5 "2010-08-20T10:22:14Z")
I could lose 5 pounds in 12 hours for way less money than that. That’d be mostly water weight, but it’d be quite easy. If you want to talk about real, honest to goodness fat loss in a week, it’s still be pretty simple. For most guys you could skip lunch every day and hit the gym and lose that and then some. Might be a little tougher if you’re already a small girl or something, but it’d be a piece of cake. For a million dollars I could probably lose 25 pounds in a week in a reckless manner that probably wouldn’t be permanently damaging. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/6 "2010-08-20T10:23:20Z")
Only if it’s the week my period is due. Takes about 24h. Otherwise, nope. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/7 "2010-08-20T10:30:29Z")
I guess I’m a small girl (5’2", 113) and I don’t think there’s any way that I could pull it off. I figure you’d either need to be a guy, an obese person or a dancer/runner/biker who sweats it off. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/8 "2010-08-20T10:34:17Z")
Hell, yeah. I’ve lost 13 pounds in a week without even being physically ill. It wasn’t pleasant, but I’d do it again for a million dollars. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/9 "2010-08-20T10:41:59Z")
My record is 20 pounds. I went from 290 to 270 in one week and lost another 15 pounds the second week. I lost a total of 70 pounds during that summer between my Junior and Senior year in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/10 "2010-08-20T10:50:56Z")
Mega and Joel: WTF? How on earth? ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/11 "2010-08-20T10:58:11Z")
Double post. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/12 "2010-08-20T10:59:03Z")
I’ve always been thin, though now I’m slightly chunky just from getting older (I think that’s what it was, anyway). I’d definitely give it a red hot go for a guaranteed million dollar pay packet. Having said that, I haven’t ever paid much attention to my weight, and estimating weights has always been difficult for me to picture. Plus I don’t exercise. I’m not sure what I’d have to endure to achieve it. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/13 "2010-08-20T11:26:46Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > And how would you do it? An old Archie comic book made me think about this…yep, I’m weird like that. If only it were that easy. I’ll go up or down 3 or 4 pounds in a day without any effort. Walking, jogging, or working outside on a hot day does the job nicely. I’d do it over a week for just $20. Easy $20, and I need to lose it anyway. Course, I’m a large, overweight man. To hear about drastic, quick weight loss, you need to talk to a wrestler. I wouldn’t recommend you follow their advice necessarily, but they’d have a story for you. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/14 "2010-08-20T11:56:00Z")
Spring Break 1985, I had my purse stolen at the beginning of the week and survived on Girls Drink for Free nights at local clubs and occasional handouts from my friends (though even in my state of semi-starvation, I demurred on the Spam and Saltines that my friend, Alphonso, offered up. I do have some standards.). I lost 20 pounds in one week. So, yeah, I could do it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/15 "2010-08-20T12:11:49Z")
It’s actually remarkably easy to do. Lots of exercise, very moderate eating and going a bit dehydrated. The first few weeks I was on Weight Watchers I lost an average of 7 lbs per week. Sustaining the loss is the hard part, losing the weight is easy. ---
**Author:** ![MegaBee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f0a364/32.png) [@MegaBee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaBee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/16 "2010-08-20T12:22:50Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Mega and Joel: WTF? How on earth? I lost all desire to eat. During that week, I’d have some M&Ms occasionally because I knew I had to eat something, but I ate nothing substantial. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/17 "2010-08-20T12:25:20Z")
I’ve lost five pounds in one day going through a colonoscopy prep. And no, the weight loss wasn’t what you think it was. It was all because of dehydration and came right back the next day. It’s kind of hard to believe that with all of that liquid you’re drinking you’re dehydrating, but apparently that’s the case. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/18 "2010-08-20T12:26:01Z")
For $1 million, I’ll lose 5 lbs by the end of the day. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/19 "2010-08-20T12:33:20Z")
I could lose 5 lbs in 24 hours, mostly through dehydration and not intaking any more food (the stuff in my system should be gone by then). Hell, getting food poisoning was good enough to drop three times this in a week. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853/20 "2010-08-20T12:33:46Z")
Yes. I do it a few times a year by fasting two non-consecutive days during the the week and eating in moderation the other five. Even fasting just one day before a big weigh-in, I usually lose 3 to 6 pounds, most of it water I’m sure. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-lose-five-pounds-in-one-week-for-a-million/550853.md?page=2)