How I Lost 6 Pounds In One Day
Is six pounds that big of a deal? For me, it is, and I’ll explain why. I have been recently going through difficulty with my weight. A crisis came up in my life and I started to overeat both junk food and candy. I also started working a less physical job, so all of the calories I would normally burn in a day I was no longer burning. Before I knew it, in a few months I gained around twenty pounds and weighed in at 222.
I’ve read a lot of gymbro articles, fitness books, nutrition books, all of it over the years, and I stopped reading those things because I wasn’t following any of it diligently and I didn’t want to talk about fitness unless I had something to show for it. I’m old enough to remember how much people made fun of the TV personality Dr. Phil when he released his weight loss book.
So how did I lose six pounds?
First
I decided I wanted to “cut weight”. I didn’t want to go on a diet, I didn’t want to join a gym, I didn’t want to blast my fat off, my decision to cut weight was on a whim when I had the thought, “I wonder how fighters cut weight for a weigh-in?”
Second
Then I found my why. Why did I suddenly want to drop a quick few pounds as quickly as possible? The last time I gained weight I had to buy a new belt to be comfortable. But this time as I gained weight I refused to buy a new belt. Every time I wear my pants my belt squeezes my gut most uncomfortably. My goal then became to cut weight so my pants and belt wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable. Pretty simple, right?
Third
After watching a few videos and reading a few articles on how fighters cut weight, I decided that I didn’t want to water load and mess with dehydration because I don’t have a coach or nutritionist or anyone to monitor me. After educating myself I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, though.
Fourth
Taking action. Or in this case, non-action. It was easiest to stop eating, to go on a partial fast. I hadn’t fasted in a long time so I felt I was due for another 24 hour fast. I had made my decision to cut weight in the morning, and I had a day until my next shift where I’d have to wear my belt again. I knew my weight loss would primarily be water weight and I am okay with that. Why? Because sometimes you need a small but immediate win to get started.
- I fasted through breakfast and lunch and didn’t eat until 5pm.
- My 5pm meal was about 500 calories. The only other thing I had the rest of the night was a bag of popcorn.
- I used my stationary bike for two sessions at 15 minutes a session. Burning about 500 calories after I included the walking I did that day. The cardio was to encourage sweat and I took a hot shower to encourage more sweat.
- I made sure to drink 111 ounces of water.
- I avoided as much salt as I could and avoided all simple sugars.
Fifth
My morning weigh-in today had me at 216. This means I lost around 6 pounds of water weight, which again, I am okay with. Now I am having my morning coffee without sugar. My plan for today is:
- Any carbs I eat will be in the morning and they will be complex carbs that take your body longer to digest. This way I will have all day to burn off these carbs.
- My lunch and dinner meals will be fat and protein.
- I am going to continue to avoid as much salt and simple sugars as I can.
- I will continue to make sure I drink enough water. I used to never measure my water intake.
- I will bike twice for a total of 30 mins and my evening work shift will have me burn a total of 1000 calories for the day.
- For today and the next few days I’m going to have as clean of a diet as possible and avoid heavy workouts, only doing light cardio since I will be under calories and likely feel weaker for the next few days as my body flushes more water.
Conclusion and Final Tips
My goal is to keep up a vigorous weight-cut program for a few days until my belt feels comfortably snug again. This crash diet also gives me a boost, a feeling of a win, of making a difference in my health, and my following a very short program I feel much more disciplined in following it. I used to eat okay for breakfast and lunch, but dinner and the evening was where I would eat the most calories and sabotage my early efforts. I also have a candy addiction from a lifetime of eating candy, ever since I was a small child. I know I can’t sustain the clean diet forever, but now I have a headstart and I don’t have any junk in my fridge or cupboards.
Some Tips:
- When you fast and you feel hungry, tell yourself, “It’s only hunger, a little feeling, that’s all, I can handle it, I’ve been hungry before.” It helps that I’ve fasted before and dealt with hunger. If you haven’t fasted before I highly recommend it, you’ll feel hungry but your brain will be high-energy. You also only feel hunger for the first few hours, the hunger feeling eventually passes and the rest of the fast becomes easy.
- Having a very specific and very small goal is helpful to get started. I am a very lazy procrastinator on a typical day, but by making a personalized plan and knowing it was possible to see results right away, I gained the confidence to “just do it.” Then, once I started I became stubborn about it and stuck with my choice.
I have the ultimate goal to lose a lot more than a few pounds so I can fit into my belt again, but I believe in microsteps, babysteps, teeny tiny little improvements. If I started my crash diet with the goal of losing enough bodyfat to see definition in my muscles, I would never get started. After I lose enough weight to feel comfortable in my clothes again, I will figure out my next program, my next motivation. But until then, I am happy with my results, the plan is working and my biggest concern will be not losing hope after I gain back some of that water weight.
