Lose 5 pounds in 5 days

Summer is finally here, and you’ve been a slacker in getting your beach body into gear. Now, the gang has a trip to the beach or the pool this coming weekend. What are you going to do?

Here are 12 tips that professional models and body builders use to lose that extra bit of body fat before a competition. Follow these tips and you’ll be sure to drop that extra 5 pounds before you show off your stuff in the new swim suit!

Keep in mind that these methods alone are not meant to be part of a sustainable nutrition plan. However, the weekend is coming up fast, and you need to lose 5 pounds in 5 days. You’ve got no time to waste!

1. Drink plenty of water.

Drinking water helps you to feel full and eat less. A year-long study, for example, found that younger dieters who drank more than a liter of water a day lost more weight than dieters who drank less water. Water also plays a role in boosting your body’s metabolism which allows you to burn more calories.

2. Avoid sweetened drinks.

The empty calories found in soft drinks and beverages advertised as juice have been one of the major causes of America’s expanding waist lines. Consuming sweetened beverages increases your daily caloric intake significantly making it even more difficult to shed unwanted pounds.

3. No Fast Food.

This should go without saying. If you’re going through the drive-through then you’re not serious about losing any weight. In fact, why don’t you just pack on another 10 pounds?

4. Schedule 5 meals a day for the entire week and stick to it.

To succeed at anything in life, you need a good plan. Eating healthy is no different. Plan your meals for the entire week, go and buy the ingredients you need for your planned meals, and then stick to your plan! Do not skip meals. Skipping meals will result in getting really hungry and then making poor decisions.

5. Eat salad for lunch.

One of the best ways to reduce excess refined carbohydrate consumption is to have a nice healthy salad for lunch. Choose vinaigrette-based dressing and add plenty of fresh goodness from your favorite grocer, or even better, your local farmers market! Spinach lasts longer in the fridge than lettuce and contains a lot more vitamins and minerals. Add red, yellow, or orange peppers, cucumbers and even raisins to liven things up!

6. Eat lean protein.

Protein foods stay in the stomach longer because they take longer to digest. This means you stay fuller longer. A study at the University of Washington found that people who eat 30 percent of their daily calories from lean proteins reduced their daily food intake by 441 calories.

7. Eat fewer high-starch foods.

Foods high in starch increase insulin levels which in turn increases the rate at which your body stores fat. People often have the most difficulty with this part of a healthy-eating program. Western diets are full of high-starch foods. Some examples include: white bread and rice, pasta, crackers, and potatoes. Instead, try eating more lean meats, seeds, nuts, and leafy greens!

8. Get a good night’s sleep.

Research shows that a good night’s sleep affects hormone production. Certain hormones that make you feel hungry are produced when your body does not get enough rest. Another benefit of sleeping is having more energy to power through your workouts and burn even more calories!

9. Avoid alcohol.

Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, adds no nutritional value to your diet, inhibits deep sleep, and causes poor decision making, particularly when it comes to making healthy food choices.

10. Turn your workouts up a notch.

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It is hands down the best, most efficient, and quickest way to get a great cardio workout and burn a lot of calories! You ramp up your heart rate really high in short bursts followed by brief periods of rest. HIIT results in increased HGH hormone levels that burn fat while preserving muscle. Also, HIIT results in an after-burn effect which causes you to burn calories for hours after your workout is completed. My favorite HIIT type workouts involve calisthenic exercises that work your core and abs while increasing your heart rate.

11. Get a hobby (besides TV).

Enrich your life with something meaningful and important to you. There is a direct correlation between TV watching and waist size. Take up yoga, or running a health and fitness website.

12. Read JohnnyFit.com everyday!

Or, any of your health and fitness related websites. I find that reading about health and fitness helps me to stay motivated. Whenever I feel like skipping a workout, going to one of my favorite sites and reading articles about fitness always encourages me to get moving!

What healthy ways do you use to drop a little weight quickly?

If you like this post or want to stay up on the latest in health and fitness, sign up to my newsletter!