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Crash dieting question?

FailWhale

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Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained? Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
 
Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained? Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Just out of curiosity.. why do you have to lose a lot of weight in a short time? I ask only because it's unsafe to lose a lot of weight quickly and if it's not a necessary thing - steady weight loss would ideally be better and more effective in the long run.

Anyway.. not trying to be preachy or anything; merely curious.
 
Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained? Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

If you go on a severe calorie-restricted diet, the fact that you're weight training will not necessarily protect muscle mass, but it would make you lose weight even faster than if you didn't weight train. Your body will begin to digest your muscle mass for energy if you get carried away. There are no shortcuts. If you want to lose weight that fast (more than 3# a week), you might consider amputation. ;-)
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'd rather not go into personal details, but I have to lose 10-15 pounds in 2 weeks. And don't worry, you're not coming off as preachy :peace

What I'm planning on doing is eating 2 light meals a day, 1 in the morning, 1 at night. Probably ~600-800 calories in total. Not a huge nutritional deficit I think.

What I understand about losing weight solely on minimum calorie intake is that most of the weight lost is muscle mass. Also, your metabolic rate would decrease, so once you start eating again, the weight gained would be tremendous.

So my logic is that if I weight train while I eat so little, I not only maintain my muscle mass, but I would also maintain my metabolic rate (- rate from little food, + rate from weight training). I would also be taking multivitamins to fill in any nutritional deficiency gaps.

So is this plan solid? I'm sure there are plenty of mis-assumptions. A
 
And when you come off your crash diet, and stop exercising, then what?

Cut your carbs out. Won't do much in two weeks, nothing healthy will.

But I shed 35 lbs in three months simply by drinking only water and tea, and limiting my carb intake at meals to roughly 40 grams or less. At the end of the next three months, I've lost an additional 10 lbs as my body adjusts to it's new equilibrium. Don't forget the half-hour walk or workout each day. Nothing strenuous, mind, just enough to use the major muscles some.

As far as I can figure out, I've moved my diet to those items that were pretty basic for humans before the agricultural revolution and our species reliance on grain and cereal crops.

Limiting the carb intakes encourages the body to make up it's energy deficit by converting fat to glucose. Maintaining protein intake prevents muscle atrophy, eating those awful green things keeps the vitamins up.
 
I was going to give you advice, but I can't in good conscience.

Crash dieting is really detrimental to your health. It messes up your blood sugar, affects hormone balance, and can raise blood pressure. Whatever it is you feel you need to lose so much weight for in such a short period of time, it isn't worth it.
 
A good plan for you would be to do 45 minutes of cardio in your fat loss range 6 days a week in the morning before you eat, weight train 3 times a week (any days except Sunday which is your rest day) with progressive weight increases each time you work out and create and maintain a diet consisting of lean protein and healthy fats with no carbs.

If you do this you will lose fat pretty much as fast as is possible. The ability to reach your goal, though, really depends on what body fat percentage you are currently at.

Your diet plan should consist of 5-6 small meals a day. You should not be too hungry outside of these meals, and any food consumed outside of them should be non-starchy vegetables. In an extreme situation - for example when I'm so hungry I can't sleep at night - I'll drink a glass or two of water and consume some natural peanut butter. At any rate, you should not be going hungry; being hungry is your body telling you that it needs food. Listen to your body, don't ignore it.
 
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Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.
Thats...incredibly unhealthy. Dramatic weight gain or loss is not a sign of health.

To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.
Crash dieting is in-effective because it causes your body to go into starvation mode and suck every calorie out of everything you eat.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained?
Ummm, you'd probably seriously injure yourself at best.

Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?
Actually you'd end up in a vicious cycle. Any muscle mass you gained would be quickly cannibalized (and I mean that quite literally) for calories to fuel an intense workout. I'd be stunned if you were able to maintain muscle mass. On top of that, your body requires energy to run the various processes that repair damaged muscle tissue after workouts. Your risk of serious (and permanent) injury goes up when you dont eat. Also, you wont be able to work out as long or as hard because your body will go into starvation mode which means it will try to spend as little energy as possible.

Crash dieting would probably be counter-productive, extremely unpleasant, and possibly dangerous.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Talk to a doctor or qualified nutritionist. Crash dieting is university-level stupid.
 
Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained? Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Is it for surgery?
You might try a medically-supervised fast.
 
Alright, what you're doing this for is kind of important.

Is it you need to lose 10-15 pounds and keep it off for good or a very long time? Or are you needing to lose that in 2 weeks for some specific event you simply want to be trimmer for.

If its the second, then I'd suggest doing a no/low carb thing ala South Beach or Atkins. The first two weeks on South Beach I tend to lose 10-15 pounds since it tends to be a mix of severe carb cutting and very low calorie intake.

If its the first, then its going to be more of a lifestyle change at least for a time. Low carb, low fat, etc are all good and all but really the most direct relation to fat burning is going to go Low Cal. For me personally since May i've been doing the two week phase 1 of South Beach followed by a low calorie diet after taht point that tries not to over do the carbs and fat and tries to avoid processed grains. I just did my second round of phase 1 south beach the past two weeks. I lost 10 pounds during both of those, and another 15 in between the time which meant I actually managed to keep that initial 10 pounds off.

I think the low carb thing helps wonderfully with "crash" dieting for a short amount of time to lose some poundage in the short term, but if you want any lasting results with it you've got to slowly allow yourself to reintroduce them back into your diet and keep it low calorie after that point. Its seriously a change in how you eat. If you don't do that then you're going to put it all back on quick and it'll have little real effect for any kind of long term success
 
Alright so I need to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time. To my understanding crash dieting is ineffective because it slows down your metabolic rate, and therefore any weight lost will be quickly regained, and then some.

My question is, what would happen if I crash dieted while I weight trained? Weight training (to my understanding) increases your metabolic rate, and therefore if I combine crash dieting with weight training, would I lose weight fast, while still maintaining my muscle mass?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

don't do it. trust me, it doesn't work, your body still shuts down.
 
And when you come off your crash diet, and stop exercising, then what?

Cut your carbs out. Won't do much in two weeks, nothing healthy will.

But I shed 35 lbs in three months simply by drinking only water and tea, and limiting my carb intake at meals to roughly 40 grams or less. At the end of the next three months, I've lost an additional 10 lbs as my body adjusts to it's new equilibrium. Don't forget the half-hour walk or workout each day. Nothing strenuous, mind, just enough to use the major muscles some.

As far as I can figure out, I've moved my diet to those items that were pretty basic for humans before the agricultural revolution and our species reliance on grain and cereal crops.

Limiting the carb intakes encourages the body to make up it's energy deficit by converting fat to glucose. Maintaining protein intake prevents muscle atrophy, eating those awful green things keeps the vitamins up.

Risking keto is a no no if you wish to maintain gains (weight is meaningless). Carb intake should be adjusted to ones activity; metabolism's function in a most interesting fashion during periods of extreme activity/lethargy.
 
Risking keto is a no no if you wish to maintain gains (weight is meaningless). Carb intake should be adjusted to ones activity; metabolism's function in a most interesting fashion during periods of extreme activity/lethargy.

I think its very strange that people will actually do that, induce an illness, ketosis, and think they have found a great diet.
 
I think its very strange that people will actually do that, induce an illness, ketosis, and think they have found a great diet.
People used to (and in many places still do) sell tapeworm eggs as a dietary supplement.
 
I think its very strange that people will actually do that, induce an illness, ketosis, and think they have found a great diet.

I used to think that, but it was because I was confusing ketosis (a natural physiological condition or state, albeit not a terribly healthy one) with ketoacidosis (a dangerous and potentially life-threatening state of unwellness).
While the latter could be considered an "illness" and it would be hard to justify inducing it, the former is probably not terribly dangerous, at least in the short term.
That said, as a vegaterian I am not a fan of high protein/low carb diets; in fact I'm a huge fan of carbs and get 70-80% of my daily calories from them, and about the only thing I get any protein from is nuts and nut butter, and occasionally legumes and I also eat cheese, which I guess has a small amount of protein.
To me, carbs are fuel, and anything else you eat is just that: something else. Something extra.
 
I used to think that, but it was because I was confusing ketosis (a natural physiological condition or state, albeit not a terribly healthy one) with ketoacidosis (a dangerous and potentially life-threatening state of unwellness).
While the latter could be considered an "illness" and it would be hard to justify inducing it, the former is probably not terribly dangerous, at least in the short term.
That said, as a vegaterian I am not a fan of high protein/low carb diets; in fact I'm a huge fan of carbs and get 70-80% of my daily calories from them, and about the only thing I get any protein from is nuts and nut butter, and occasionally legumes and I also eat cheese, which I guess has a small amount of protein.
To me, carbs are fuel, and anything else you eat is just that: something else. Something extra.

Its really pretty bad:

Unhealthy metabolic state (ketosis).

Low-carb diets can cause your body to go into a dangerous metabolic state called ketosis since your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy. During ketosis, the body forms substances known as ketones, which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis can be prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.

http://women.webmd.com/guide/high-protein-low-carbohydrate-diets



Also, your diet is the way to go. And you can get all the protein you need without any meat/chicken/fish/dairy, but you already know that.
 
People used to (and in many places still do) sell tapeworm eggs as a dietary supplement.

Yummmm!

I don't get the things people eat that are thought to help with dieting and be healthy, like yogurt and cottage cheese, for example. All we need is vegetables, fruit, grains, and lots of clean water. Most other things should be considered a treat.
 
Here watch this informercial. It will provide you with the correct solution for your problem
 
Also, your diet is the way to go. And you can get all the protein you need without any meat/chicken/fish/dairy, but you already know that.

Not if you desire to be good at...... moving around ;)
 
Good luck trying to lift with such little fuel. You're better off eating at a very slight deficit and maximizing your workout.

Unless you're massiely obese, you're not going to lose 15 pounds in 2 weeks. Ain't gonna happen.
 
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