Trying to lose noticeable weight in three days is not a realistic goal. You'll need to burn 3,500 calories more than you eat during those three days just to lose 1 lb. of weight. If you need 2,000 calories per day to maintain your weight, you'll need to burn almost 1,200 calories each day through exercise, for three days to lose 1 lb. -- that's about two hours of high-impact aerobics per day for a 140 lb. person. If you cut your calories to 1,500 calories per day, you'll still need to burn about 650 calories per day. To burn the most calories, try aerobic exercises. You will exercise at a pace that will have you sweating and breathing hard, but you should be able to talk while you're working out. If you can't talk, you are working too hard and may have to stop after a few minutes.
Aerobic Dancing
Aerobic dancing raises your heart rate to your aerobic level and uses your full body, depending on what type of dancing you perform. If you have knee, back or join problems, try step aerobics, which keeps one foot on the ground at all times. Gliding on a slick piece of material keeps both feet on the ground during your aerobic workout, and may be a better option for you.
Exercise Machine Exercises
If you have access to an elliptical, exercise bike, rowing machine or home gym, use them to create aerobic exercises. Use less weight or resistance and work at a vigorously intense pace for 30 minutes or more. Add sprints to your workouts by working very hard for 30 to 90 seconds, then slowing down or resting for two minutes. Stand on your exercise bike and vary the gear settings to raise your heart rate. If you have a rowing machine or a home gym with a bench and cables, use only your body's weight as the resistance to let you work at a pace that creates a cardio workout.
Exercise Band Exercises
Resistance bands or cords let you burn calories while building muscle strength. Wrap the cords fewer times to allow you to continue to work for 30 minutes or more. Perform the recommended exercises that come with the cords, such as biceps curls, triceps extensions, which start behind your back, moving your arms upward, squats, lunges and flyes, which have you moving your arms across your chest and back out. Use exercise bands standing, sitting and lying down to create a full body workout.
Dumbbell Exercises
You can perform most, if not all, of the exercises you can do with resistance bands with dumbbells. Use lighter dumbbells that will let you work at your aerobic heart rate for 30 minutes or more. Create a circuit training workout, performing 10 repetitions of each exercise, taking only a 60-second break between sets of exercises.
Body Weight Exercises
You can burn calories without equipment using push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, chair dips, squats, lunges, sit-ups and crunches. Use an exercise ball to add instability, forcing you to use your abdominals to balance you while you do sit-ups or crunches. Keep your heart rate high with jumping jacks, jogging in place, high-knees skipping, going up and down stairs, butt kicks and skipping rope.
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