Lose 20 pounds in 3 to 4 weeks?

the concepts are good..but I am not a green tea fan
I also exercise 6 days a week
I'll try most of it..no green tea though..

4 meals a day consisting of 300 calories of less, PLUS 45 minutes of exercise... That doesn't sound healthy, unless you're really short and/or your metabolism is extra slow!

I'm all for raw fruits and veggies, though. For whatever reason, eating raw citrus fruits seems to really help me lose weight, compared to when I'm consuming the same amount of calories (without eating citrus fruits regularly) and exercising the same. Of course, this is just a casual observation, not a scientific study, so I'm not going to say citrus fruits are magical weight loss helpers... But I will heartily advocate daily consumption of raw fruits!

Did this work for you?

The plan you listed is from nowloss.com. The 1200 calories allowed does not include the calories you get from the fruits and vegetables. And I did the plan for 4 weeks. At the same time I cut out meat. My exercise consisted of 3 days of high interval training plus 2 days of 30-40 min slow running (about 13MPH pace). I ate pizza and snack cakes every Friday (I know I don't know why I did that, but it was good) at the end of the 4 weeks I was down 15 lbs. But I did go up a little from my Friday meals and some days I didn't drop. I've been off the plan the week and will start back on it Monday. For me it was good, not only because I lost weight but it forced me to get in my fruits and vegetables. I didn't do the green tea or anything like that. My meals were breakfast: 2 apples or 1 grapefruit followed by protein shake, lunch was salad followed by soup, snack was almonds, dinner was 1/2 c of beans and 1/2 c of brown rice with cheese. snack was 220 cal of frozen greek yogurt. I only ate between 10 am-8 pm. My water intake was at least 10-13 cups a day.

I have come across this before and it sounds like a good diet to me, although I can't exercise everyday.

I might use this plan later in the year when I have more time on my hands to plans meals. I would be very interested to hear of other's results using this.

I have 22lb to lose AND WOULD LOVE TO LOSE IT BY CHRISTMAS!

This sounds silly to me. What have "ice cold water" and green tea got to do with losing weight? Yes, drink to be hydrated, but the temperature of the water and green tea are not special. And I love raw veggies/fruit (heck, I'm eating them right now as I type!), but they have nothing special about them that will make you lose weight.

It all sounds very, well, dull and un-fun. My guess is unless you like to eat like this anyway, you'll get bored fast and then be beating yourself up because you gave up.

I lost 19 pounds in 4 weeks, wasn't hard. I didn't follow these rules per se, but I made sure to eat whole grains, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables every day. For most days, at least one fresh fruit was a grapefruit and at least some of the fresh vegetables were leafy greens. I did drink green tea most days, just because I heard it's good for you.

Of course, it was the first month and I was 120 pounds overweight, so at the end of the day, I think THAT is why I dropped so much.

If I were only 20 pounds overweight? I would think this an unhealthy goal and close to unattainable. There is the school of thought that says that setting a high goal that you don't meet is still a good thing because you will have made a lot of progress trying, but then there are people like me who don't feel a lot of difference between failing by a little and failing by a lot, so might as well have cake.

ilovelucy711 wrote: »

Lose 20 pounds in 3 to 4 weeks? This is the "diet" and to me it seems healthy. Here are the 7 steps: 1. Get motivated. Believe that you can do this. 2. Eat 4 meals a day at least every 3 to 4 hours apart.3. Eat at least 2 raw fruits or vegetables before each meal. Raw fruits and veggies help burn fat and are better for you. 4. After the raw fruit and veggies, eat a meal that is between 0-300 calories. Eat healthy! 5. Drink at least one liter of iced cold water a day. 6. Exercise 45 minutes, 3-4 times a week. 7. Drink green tea. I'm going to try this. Would love to lose the 20 pounds by Christmas. Anyone want to try with me? We may not lose 20 pounds in 4 weeks but it would be fun to try it and see what we do lose?

My gut feeling is that your ability to judge a healthy diet needs working on (have a look at the thread below, it has educated me and hundreds if no thousands of people). A lot of the weight you will shed by following the proposed diet will be water and lean body mass. I'm guessing after 4 weeks you will have burned no more that 6 or 7 lb of fat with 6-7 lb of lean body mass (muscle) and the rest water. Although we want quick fixes our bodies are complete bi*ches in that they stick to the basic laws of biochemistry no martter what we do. Have a look for the sexypants thread (do a search for MFP sexypants in google and it will fetch you back here).


Good luck, my advice is don't do this though.

If your not a fan of green tea, a great alternative is earl grey tea. It has a citrus taste to it and I absoultly love it. I have about 32 ounces of it a day. 16 ounces in the morning before breakfast and 16 ounces before bedtime:)