How to lose 15lbs in one month

First of all I am not a proponent of quick loss diets. I have done them in the past with varied success and have found the only successful diet is no diet but a change of lifestyle. That being said my wife and I went on a crash diet one time to lose 10lbs in two weeks and it worked. This is it, you can eat chicken breast and raw vegetables. That is it. No sauce, no dressing, no butter, no anything but chicken breast and veggies. We got a George Forman Grill because you should use minimum oil when cooking. We ate broccoli, peppers, carrots, celery, and we cheated with steamed asparagus. Warning do not eat to many red peppers as you will turn orange. No kidding it starts out as a heathy glow but before you know it is creepy. You can only drink water. (with lemon if you want). Eat whenever you want as much as you need. It gets tough around day 10 when you are staring at that grilled chicken breast and dreaming of Special K. Good Luck. 

im curious about cheating with asparagus? can you explain more?

that's funny about turning orange from eating too many peppers!

Almost forgot NO SALT.

You were supposed to eat all the vegetables raw, raw asparagus are not so tasty. Yea, it was funny at first people were telling us how healthy we looked and then they were asking if we had been on vacation (it was in the winter). Then I noticed my palms were orange and put two and two together.   

The first thing you should do is consider that losing 15 lbs in a month is probably too much weight, unless you're starting out kind of water bloated in which losing that will benefit your appearance, but trying to lose that much weight in that little amount of time is typically the recipe for a) failure, and b) a serious rebound afterwards. 


10 lbs is more realistic and will be easier to keep off. 

ah, gotcha....i can only imagine what raw asparagus might taste like......a branch of wood? haha!

If you were eating all meat and cheese then you were not on an Atkins diet.  I would suggest Atkins but only if you read the book and follow it.  Meat and some cheeses, 2-4 oz per day, are allowed but also and more importantly lots of vegetables are required. 

What percentage of your weight is 15 lbs?
How many hours a week do you exercise?
How much water do you drink a day?

To start answering questions: I do have the Atkins book and did follow it to a T.  The meat and cheese comment was not meant to be taken literally.  I also understand that it is generally healthy to lose about 2.5 lbs a week which would put me at the ten pounds everyone is suggesting.  I guess I should have just asked for some good diet tips.  But you can't tell me you don't push it a little harder knowing that you are gonna be on a beach for an entire week. 
I am about 5'9" to 5'10" and am currently between 195 to 200 lbs.  I have a fairly muscular build, but really want to be down to about 175 by next summer.  I have talked to my family doctor and he said that was a good weight to be at.  As far as water intake, I drink as much as I need.  Some days more, some days less.

Run

You can drop that weight w/o a crash diet if you eat a fairly restricted but healthy diet and really ramp up the exercise. If your doing an hour a day now try 3+... That should get you probably about 1500 calories of burn if the exercise is intense enough. You need to eat enough calories though that you'll have energy for the exercise so no crazy-low intake. 1800 is bare bones for men.

1500 calories deficit (via exercise) is 3 pounds per week if your getting another 500 deficit (from food) that's enough for 4/week which might get you close to 15 in a month. It might not be THAT easy given your SO close to goal weight, but if I were you that would be my attack plan.

Some quick calculations, I figure a female, 5'10" 195# you need about 2300 calories a day with no exercise to maintain your weight.  To lose the weight you need to reduce your calories by 500 per day per pound.  I'm not sure what you eat, but going from 2300 to 800 is probably not a very healthy plan.

If you reduce your current caloric intake to 1800 calories per day you will lose one pound per week without exercise.

I suggest using a food log: count your calories and increase your exercise time.


I've lost over 75# since Mar 2009 and have done it the hard and slow way.  Exercise, exercise and diet.

Edited by laundryking 2009-12-04 7:39 PM

back in the day i used to weigh 215 lbs of fat out of shape teenager. i was 5'5. through playing lacrosse for my highschool( high running milage and many sprints)  i went down to 150 lbs. now keep in mind this was over a year and a half of constant training.

in your situation 15 lbs could be hard to do, more time would be deffinately helpful. but it is possible.

if it were me i would workout ATLEAST 6 days a week. but thats less than half the battle.

DIET IS SOOOO IMPORTANT.  you need to stay away from all bread, pasta, carb, sugar, and salt.

sugar is obvs bad. salt makes you retian water and look more bloated. bodybuildrs will cut sodium completly to make their skin tighter and lose excess water.

stick to chicken. tuna. water. minimal fruits. and ALLLLL the vegies you can eat.water ALL DAY ALL THE TIME.

hope i was helpful.

So, now Christmas is upon us and you have had all this great advice, how did you do?  I'm sure you did great and I hope you have a great Honeymooon.  Just a reminder to just have fun on your honeymoon. 

I have noticed that when I lift weights a few times a week (especially if I have not been) helps me drop weight quicker than almost anything.  watching what I eat is a part of it too but the weight lifting has hepled a ton.  after a while you hit a plateau for weight loss but you should not hit it within the 1st month.  worth a try.

very true. i believe its because resistance training builds more "active" muscle fibers than cardio. keeping your metabolism elevated and in the fat burning mode much longer than a cardio workout.

This.... IdealMuse is right on the money.