Three Day Diet

If you lose that much weight in that short a time, it's just going to be water weight and you will gain it right back. Sorry, but the only way to truly lose and lose forever is with a lifestyle change. Eat less, Move more! It's not safe to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week. You can do some serious damage to your body.

It's a complete waste of time.

most likely it's just super low calorie + low sodium so you drop a bunch of water weight which will come straight back once you start eating normally again and you will look exactly the same.

I'm hoping to lose 30ish pounds in three weeks and maintain that weight as well as tone up and just feel and look amazing

sorry but that's just not happening. Takes time.

Good Luck

I've seen guys in the military try it in order to make weight but then they always fail their PT test because they are dehydrated and they are tearing apart muscles in order to provide the energy they are lacking. It's hard on your kidneys and slows your metabolism down to the point where when you start to eat again, you will have reset your BMR and it will be even harder if not impossible to keep the weight off. There is no good way to lose that much weight that fast unless you're in a car accident and they have to cut off your leg. Then you can lose a lot of weight real fast. I know it discouraging and I know it's tedious. Stay the course. Move more. In the long run you will be healthier and lighter. And when you get to be my age, you won't need to drag that oxygen bottle around because you didn't exercise your lungs enough. :-) Be patient. It will come (off).

Hello Forum Readers.

Has anyone ever heard of the three day military diet where you eat a strict schedule of foods and apparently lose 10 pounds in three days? Does anyone have an opinion on this... or have a success story? I'm on day one, and I'm just hoping for the best. Really. If all works the way it's supposed to, I'm hoping to lose 30ish pounds in three weeks and maintain that weight as well as tone up and just feel and look amazing. I've struggled with weight gain/loss for the abundance of my teen years and now my twenties. I've fluctuated a lot and I REALLY want to get to my goal and keep it there as long as possible.

So Suggestions?

Quit trying to do it so fast then. You will NOT get long term results with a quick fix or ANY term results for that matter: as soon as you rehydrate you'll be right back where you started.

You are in the right place to do it right. Start doing it right. Start today. You will be glad you did. Read this and follow along. This is what works:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

I'm pretty sure no one in the history of the world has ever lost 30 lbs in 3 weeks except by amputation. Not even remotely possible for you.

Suggestions?

Well, since you asked:
1. don't trust the initial setup that MFP provides. If you put in the wrong/inaccurate information, it'll tell you to eat an amount that may not be applicable.
2. Make sure you eat enough.
3. Figure out what works for you and is sustainable/healthy/long term.
4. avoid fads. don't buy in to any "Hey, try the twinkie and vodka diet"
5. Don't cut out anything now that you don't plan on literally giving up forever.
6. GET A FOOD SCALE. Weigh everything. No, seriously.
7. Get an HRM with a chest strap. You'll at least have a better idea of what you're burning. It'll be more accurate than the generic info in the exercise database.. and even more than the cardio machines. This is great for steady state cardio (run/walk/etc)
8. Don't go balls out. You'll burn out. I see 300 lb people show up here, instantly start working out and cutting their intake SEVERELY... trying to cut out all of their carbs at once.. whatever. Take it slow. Figure out how much you need to eat FIRST in order to lose.. then incorporate exercise.
9. Don't cardio yourself to death.
10. Take the information on the forums with a grain of salt. A lot of people that have been here for a while.. and have been successful, may seem jaded. They give out GREAT advice day after day, only to be met with people that refuse to listen.
11. Eat real food. Not diet food. Not "low fat, sugar free, now without X." It's easier to get/find/count.
12. don't set time restrictions.
13. measure yourself weekly. Don't just weigh. Measure and take pictures.
14 BE PATIENT.
15. Avoid forum topics that have "1200" in the title. It's just full of butthurt. Lots of it.
16. This isn't a game, it's about changing your lifestyle. Do that.

pretty much that.

...and don't fall into the "1200 calorie" vertigo of suck because of:

the typical MFP users does this:
1. I wanna lose weight, let's try MFP.
2. OH! Wow, it tells me I can lose 2 lbs a WEEK? AWESOME!
3. I just sit at a desk when I'm not working out, I guess I'm sedentary.
4. MFP tells them 1200 calories, and they don't even eat that.. then they work out on top of it.. creating an even bigger deficit.
5. Lose a lot, fast, brag about 1200 calorie success.
6. Come back in a few months trying to figure out why they're dizzy, tired, not losing weight.
7. Get on the forums, ask why they aren't losing.
8. Get two responses (I eat 1200 and lose) (I eat 2200 and lose)
9. Argument ensues about who is right.

Now. That being said. These threads happen hundreds of times per day. Most times, and I mean really.. seriously.. 95% of the time.. people get the 1200 number because they don't put the right information in when they set up the account. There are a great number of people that are trying to help. I'm one of 'em.

I'm a hardcore advocate of actually finding out what works for the individual.. by means of other calculators, averages, time, practice, and patience.

Blanket prescriptions of 1200 calories "because it worked for me" is more harmful to the generic new user than the "figure out what you need to eat." Unfortunately, one is a LOT easier to type.

Find out what you need: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/
Take the tips, links, and info above and make the whole thing easier to deal with.

No.....just.....no.

30 lbs in 3 weeks?? That's impossible. It took me over 3 months to lose 30 myself.

Not impossible. I did it...


...but I was waaay over 300 lbs when I did. Yeah, it was a ton of water weight, but I lost close to that. Not impossible, just not likely, and certainly not what the OP needs.

I feel like the only people who can lose 10 pounds in 3 days are people who are extremely overweight and just stop eating, or get sick and stop eating. Neither of which is good. The weight didn't all get gained in 3 days so it won't come off in 3 days. Realistically it may take months.

I'm still going to give it a shot because I already started and I'm not a quitter..

No really, this is one that's really worth quitting. What's the point in keeping it up?

THIS!

Why even ask if you aren't really going to listen to what people have to say? Yes, it's ultimately your decision, but if you've already started it and aren't going to stop - despite the fact that it WILL all come back because it is just water weight...Why did you even ask?

ETA: Oh yeah, good luck with that.

No offense, but doing this is just plain stupid. And stopping doing something stupid doesn't make you a quitter.

High five.

Thoughts on this: "Quick fixes don't work" and "the first weigh in on any diet where you greatly reduce sodium will result in a fairly massive (although not real since it's all water weight) weight loss."

Basically they're exploiting water weight loss and touting it as real weight loss, which it isn't.

3500 calories to a lb.

If you're not short 3500 calories, you've not lost a pound.

Michael Phelps eats 12k calories a day while actively training... he would have to eat NOTHING for 3 days solid while still doing all the training to lose that level of weight. Do you really think you're training as hard as an Olympic class swimmer?

Lets math.

30 lbs, 21 days... 30 lbs * 3500 calories / 21 days = 5000 calorie deficit a day.

So assuming you're 5'6" and 160 lbs, 24 years old... that would put your sedentary tdee around 1800 calories a day. So if you ate NOTHING for 21 days and did no exercise you would lose ~10.8lbs... that's no where near what you're talking. You would need to burn an additional 3200 calories *per day* through exercise, which is to say, roughly every mile you run burns 110 calories... so would need to run ~30 miles per day, while starving. Good luck... you'll be dead before the end of the first week and I mean that in the 'dirt nap' sense of dead.

TL;DR - 30 lbs in 21 days is silly and terminally unhealthy.

Thoughts on this: "Quick fixes don't work" and "the first weigh in on any diet where you greatly reduce sodium will result in a fairly massive (although not real since it's all water weight) weight loss."

Basically they're exploiting water weight loss and touting it as real weight loss, which it isn't.

3500 calories to a lb.

If you're not short 3500 calories, you've not lost a pound.

Michael Phelps eats 12k calories a day while actively training... he would have to eat NOTHING for 3 days solid while still doing all the training to lose that level of weight. Do you really think you're training as hard as an Olympic class swimmer?

Lets math.

30 lbs, 21 days... 30 lbs * 3500 calories / 21 days = 5000 calorie deficit a day.

So assuming you're 5'6" and 160 lbs, 24 years old... that would put your sedentary tdee around 1800 calories a day. So if you ate NOTHING for 21 days and did no exercise you would lose ~10.8lbs... that's no where near what you're talking. You would need to burn an additional 3200 calories *per day* through exercise, which is to say, roughly every mile you run burns 110 calories... so would need to run ~30 miles per day, while starving. Good luck... you'll be dead before the end of the first week and I mean that in the 'dirt nap' sense of dead.

TL;DR - 30 lbs in 21 days is silly and terminally unhealthy.

Oh why are you trying to bring logic into this???

Oh why are you trying to bring logic into this???

I once did fasting (not intermittent) to try to fix my weight-- 25 days of pure starvation 5 days of not, repeat, I lost over a hundred pounds pretty rapidly... and it (shy water weight, eg: excluding first week) was ~nowhere near~ 30lbs in 21 days... and my metabolism basically went to **** (30% tdee reduction to maintain weight for almost a year and a half.)

Frankly, I have 128lbs left to lose and I wish it were as easy as just starving myself for 4 months, what a cake walk instead of the year+ I'm looking at in the face... what a nice cute little fantasy... especially when you're as close to your target weight as the OP is.

I've lost around 850lbs since I was 16... this is just absurd.