The answer to the question of whether or not it is possible to lose weight in a week is "Yes." More important than whether or not you can lose weight in a week are the matters of how much weight you can lose in a week in a healthy way and how you go about doing it. And perhaps most important of all is the matter of how to lose weight in such a way that you keep that weight off.
Lose it Forever
Let's presume that if you lose a certain amount of weight in a week, and then within a week or two or three the weight comes back, it doesn't count. To really lose weight, you must lose it and keep it off. The occasions where you need to lose weight just for a couple of days, say for a high school reunion or an Oscar appearance, don't come up too often. While some athletes, such as wrestlers, drop pounds to get into a particular weight class, most people aim to lose weight for good and not just for one event.
Change Your Life
To lose weight and keep it off, you need to change your lifestyle. Don't simply go on a crash diet. Change the way you live. Weight loss comes down to decreasing the number of calories you consume, increasing the number of calories you burn or both. Whatever changes you make for this week of weight loss, you will need to continue for the rest of your life if you want to keep the weight off.
Recommended Weekly Weight Loss
To lose 1 lb. of weight, you need to excise 3,500 calories by decreasing how much and what you eat and by increasing your activity. If you want to lose 2 lbs. in a week, then you must eliminate 7,000 calories. The National Institutes of Health advises that you lose no more than 1 to 2 lbs. per week. This rate of weight loss is sustainable, but also challenging. You need to eliminate 500 calories per day to lose 1 lb. per week, or 1,000 calories per day to lose 2 lbs. per week.
Exercise and Diet for Keeping Weight Off
Eating better and exercising more will help keep weight off for good. Eliminate or minimize processed, fast, fatty and fried foods. Minimize alcohol, sweetened drinks and juices. Cover at least a third of your plate with fibrous, low-calorie greens and vegetables. Replace fatty meats with lean meats such as skinless turkey and chicken breast.
Aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, running or biking, burns calories and raises your metabolism, so you continue to burn extra calories, even hours after you've finished exercising. For optimal weight loss, do 60 to 90 minutes of moderately intense physical activity every day.
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