OK, assume for the sake of the question that you have someone that is, say, 50 pounds overweight and they set off to lose as much weight as possible in three days. They’re going to drink plenty of water, take multivitamins, get 6-8 hours of sleep per night, and eat between 500-800 calories per day. Now, if they exercise like there’s no tomorrow for pretty much every waking hour during those three days (taking short breaks if need be), how much weight could he reasonably expect to lose?
I know, this isn’t anywhere close to being a healthy way to lose weight, and the first 10-15 pounds will be water weight (even while drinking copious amounts of water…?) but still, just humor me here…
I started Weight Watchers last Wednesday. I had my weekly weigh-in tonight.
In 7 days, I lost 15 pounds.
I have absolutely NO expectations of maintaining that rate of loss for even another week, let alone down to my goal weight, but it was interesting, unexpected, and not really all that difficult. Surprised the hell out of me, actually.
If they’re just starting, a person can drop a significant amount of water in three days. There’s a lot of room for individual variation, though, so it’s tough to give a very accurate estimate. There’s also the issue of normal weight fluctuations–folks in the normal weight range can gain/lose up to 5% of their bodyweight in one day.
That said, dropping down to 500-800 calories per day and exercising intensely will cause your body to hoard fat like you won’t believe. Other more metabolically active tissues (i.e., muscle mass) will be first to go.
Tough to say. The bottom line is that unless you’ve got a chainsaw and the will to use it*, you’re just not going to lose that much weight in such a short time period.
*[sup][sub]N.B., this approach carries its own problems.[/sub][/sup]
I’m currently on the Hacker’s Diet, and have been following a 1000-1200 calorie deficit every day. That works out to about 2.5 pounds a week (1 pound = 3500 calories), which is a pretty fast clip – a 500 calorie deficit is mild, a 1000 calorie deficit is nothing to sneeze at. (I was originally planning to do 500/day myself, but found that doing 1000/day wasn’t too hard and went with that instead)
The book (free on the internet) notes NASA studies which show that the typical human being will eat and drink about 13 points of stuff every day, and excrete/exhale almost exactly the same amount. So in theory, if you were to starve yourself for a day but continued to void your bladder and bowels as usual, you could drop 13 pounds in one day. Needless to say, that’s very unhealthy, and is only sustainable for the very short term.
I do not believe in a healthy way to drop weight quickly. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, a steady and gradual decline is the way to go.
I also highly recommend “The Hacker’s Diet” if you’re interested in a fact-based analysis of how weight gain/weight loss/weight control works.
Also note that exercise, while good for you physically, is usually not a significant contributor to weight loss. A nonstop hour of walking only burns 300 calories, and a nonstop hour of jogging burns 700. Which means that you’d have to jog nonstop for five hours just to burn one pound off – and if you’re fit enough to jog for five hours, I doubt you’d need to lose 50 pounds to begin with.
An Atkins-style diet hinges upon carbohydrate starvation.
Putting all of your variables together, my WAG would be about six pounds of actual tissue. An individual 50lbs overweight will have a heigher metabolism and therefore a faster burn (for the first 12 hours or so, at least) and a vigorous walk 10 hours a day would knock off a lot of weight.
It’d be pretty traumatic to the body, though. Definitely not suggested.
On episode three of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV Bobby Southworth had to lose around 25 pounds in 24 hours to make the 205 light heavyweight weight limit for the first fight on the show.
His team mater and his coach Chuck Liddell forced him to sweat it all out, he made it just barely (you’re allowed one pound over and he made it to 206). He did this by sitting in a sauna at 210 degrees in a wetsuit and with sweatpants and sweater for hours.
He was monitored by professional fighters and doctors though, so it was less dangerous than if you were to try this by yourself, where you’d probably die.
How are your bowels moving? Many overwieght dudes don’t get enough fiber and are thus constipated. If you started a high fiber regime (those various fiber powders are fine for this), with lots of fluids, you’d evacuate quite a few pounds the first couple of days.
I’d say 5 pounds+ from that, 6 pounds of water, and maybe 6 pounds of fat- the last if you are really lucky. The 6 pounds of water assumes you don’t dehydrate yourself, but do lose some excess water weight (which at 50 pounds++ you have- I’d guess- at least 10 pounds of).
So- 18 pounds in 3 days? If you sweated like a pigdog, maybe another 3?
IANArealD.
Do add fiber (with lots of fluids) to your diet if you are a typical overwieght American. Sometimes those are called “bulk forming laxatives”- which are safe (as long as you drink lots of fluids- read the label!). Other laxatives are not safe on a long term basis, but I guess a days worth of senna-based laxatives wouldn’t hurt if you are healthy.
Losing 6 pounds of fat through diet alone requires a 21,000 calorie deficit, which is the amount of energy you’d burn running 4-7 marathons. Not happening in three days.
I once lost 8 lbs to make weight in wrestling - in one day! I wore a sweat suit and a lot of heavy clothes. I also ran everywhere (well as much running is allowed in the halls), and drank a good amount of water. All my meals were liquid, and I drank some type of shake every couple of hours or show (mostly water). After the weigh in, I ate like a fiend. It was for a wrestling tournament. One of our team’s star wrestlers was in-between weight classes. Rather than have him drop weight, they elevated him to my class, and I had to drop or sit out the tournament. I won my weight class, and got a concussion doing it along with dehydration. I was out for the next week or so. Needless to say, I quit the team and joined basketball the next yeawr.
After having my stomach stapled, I lost 70 pounds in four months. Initially, without exercise, I dropped a pound a day. Had I been able to move around more, I suspect I could have burned an extra 400 or so calories a day, so in three days, another half a pound or so. Please note: This is after having my stomach stapled to the size of a walnut and my intestinal system rearranged.
Eventually, weight loss on 700-900 calories a day (which I still consume approximately) slowed to three pounds a week. That’s with a great deal of exercise.
You CAN get all the nutrition you need on 700-900 calories a day if you take supplements, by the way. This is what I currently live on. But I did so while working VERY closely with a nutritionist, taking a multi-vitamin, plus extra B12, Biotin, Calcium, and Iron. My blood was checked routinely for levels of these nutrients, and my diet and/or supplements adjusted if there was even a minor deficiency.
It’s my personal opinion that you shouldn’t bother with a “three day diet” of any type, since you will simply re-gain anything you lost and more when the three days are over.
It’s also my opinion that peoples’ bodies differ so much that there is no way to tell how much any one person might lose on a three day fast/exercise binge. You might eliminate salt from your diet and lose ten pounds. You might shut your metabolism down and lose nothing. No one can tell.
