Not worth it for a thousand bucks (really just a crack at the thousand), not the best for long term results, for overall body composition or health, but a liquid and medically supervised very low calorie diet (VLCD) coupled with aerobic exercise, both steady state cardio and high intensity interval training (not resistance), would get the most weight (not fat, weight) off in the shortest time.
Yeah, better off going for the sure benefit of better health and doing it more rationally with the recognition that just sticking to a rational plan that long will leave with fairly few others, and more likely to have the much more valuable prize of a longer healthier rest of your life.
I weighed 190lbs in August, at 5’9" and decided to try to shed weight. All I did was eat 2 eggs and yogurt for Breakfast every morning and one of those Smart Ones Microwaveable meals for lunch every day (actually taste pretty good) then I ate whatever I wanted for dinner (without gorging myself). Drank nothing but water for hydration and ran 3-5miles a day (I was already in decent shape otherwise). Lost 25lbs without a lot of pain by the end of October. Haven’t had any trouble keeping it off either.
To keep you motivated and make the best decisions quickly - I find that ketone test strips are enormously useful. You just pee on it, and in 30 seconds you’ll see whether you are in fat-burning mode or not.
It really beats finding out at a weekly or monthly weigh-in that all your suffering resulted in a net gain. And it helps immensely during the periods when your muscle build is evening out the weight with your fat loss.
Six months is a long time. This will be a marathon not a sprint.
You should do strengthening exercises. You will gain a small amount of muscle mass but it will help to eat away at the fat. The most successful I have ever been at weight loss, I have done a lot of strengthening exercises.
As for food, Weight Watchers is very good but you need to do what you can keep up for six months. Honestly, if you just stick with it for six months, you are likely to win since most people will give up at some point or another.
I found WW very easy to keep up for 6 months. It’s really just a method to determine what you eat, not a diet plan in itself. The newer WW Points Plus is a little more complex and I’ve never used it.
Wanted to add that I think my “diet” worked in that I didn’t have to think about what I was going to eat for bfast/lunch because it was already decided ahead of time so I didn’t worry about the calories. Took all the guess work out of it. The Smart Ones are also REALLY cheap and come in many flavors that are surprisingly tasty.
I suppose you could lose even more weight than I did if you counted calories at dinner too.
Sorry, I meant that WW is good and it is more than possible to keep up for 6 months but if you can find something that you think would work better, you should try that.
WW is the best thing out there IMHO but everyone’s eating habits are different.
That’s an interesting question. 6 months is a lot of time and you can lose a lot of weight in this period, but - make sure you are not damaging your health trying to lose as much as possible. The best way to lose weight and also the fastest results you will reach if you combine both - dieting and exercising. You wrote you are going to exercise like crazy - well, better don’t. Exercise mindfully or your participation at the competition will end very soon if your body is not used to it! Good luck!
If your goal is simply to win the competition and not making lasting changes that will enable you to keep the weight off, I’d recommend Atkins. You will lose weight, but most people can’t keep up the low carb diet.