Soooo, you’ve left it late? Real late. The big date, wedding, vacation or whatever has crept up on you and you need to know how to lose belly fat in 1 week. Or maybe you’re already pretty lean but want to take it to the next level for when you’re letting it all hang out on the beach? (This article is aimed more for you peeps who sit at around 10-12% bodyfat or less)
With summer having arrived (Unless you live in the U.K like I do) and vacation time draws near, my Facebook is full to the max with status’ of people trying to use “emergency” measures to get their beach body. Sometimes giving themselves only a month, a fortnight or even a week to lose belly fat.
Well, I’m going to show you how you can see a fairly drastic change in only a single week if you’re carrying a bit of extra belly fat. Keyword here is a “bit” – The results are obviously less noticeable, the higher in fat you are. It took you longer than a week to get that spare tire so don’t expect to torch all of your fat in a single week either! First things first, though. This routine will burn fat all over..but if you’re carrying that last bit of fat in the belly, you’ll see a satisfying difference.
I really am not trying to enable or point this article in the direction of those people who never train but then suddenly decide to get serious with 1 week to go until their vacation!
But hey, I know it will be mostly you guys who use this article so hopefully when you see the results that this intense week brings, you’ll be motivated to pick up exercise as more of a lifestyle choice! And that would be my good deed for the day..Just be wary though, that these drastic steps aren’t to be used all year round to burn fat – This is what you would call a “peaking” method to get your body looking it’s absolute best. Quite similar to preparing for a photoshoot or competition but with vacation in mind. Using these steps week in and week out will burn you out, FAST. You’ve been warned.
Finally, before I stop blabbing on and get to the meat of this post, you need to know that the great thing about this intense week is that during your vacation you’ll have a window of a few days to be totally lax with your diet (Cause’ who want’s to worry about that on vacation??).
Now, this window is pretty awesome because it means that you’ll actually LOOK BETTER as the holiday goes on..by eating junk! The week before your holiday, you’ll be depleting your body and as soon as you start refueling, all of that good stuff you’ll be eating at the all-inclusive will be directed straight to your muscles! So your muscles will be looking PUMPED if you’re a guy and if you’re a girl? That muscular definition will have you looking HOT in your bikini!
So, let’s get to it..Here are 10 simple steps on how to lose belly fat in 1 week!
How to Lose Belly Fat in 1 Week – Step 1 – Reduce Calories
Let’s keep things real – If you want to burn fat, you need to have a negative energy balance. Sure, there are some other factors involved but bottom line – Get yourself in a calorie deficiet..Meaning that you need to burn more calories than you are consuming.
Use this calculator on my site to figure out a basic number of calories to eat for this week..and be strict! Be honest about your activity levels when inputting your statistics into the calculator. Follow the calorie amount it tells you that you need to eat to “lose fat”. If you’re very high in bodyfat, this calculator will overestimate your calorie requirements so you’ll need to reduce further…but then again, if you’re too high in bodyfat don’t expect drastic visual changes in a week.
Count calories and weigh your food if you need to. You’re not doing this forever..If you’ve been disciplined at eating crap for most of the year, then a week of being disciplined at this won’t kill you, will it?
Step 2 – Reduce Carbs
Reduce your carbs to the point you’re ONLY getting them in from fibrous vegetables and greens. Things like Asparagus, broccoli, kale etc.
This reduction in carbs will automatically allow you to drop water weight from your body. It’s estimated that for every gram of carbohydrate we consume, 2.7 grams of water is pulled into the muscle. So by reducing your carbs, 7-9lbs of water lost in a week isn’t that uncommon! The great thing about when you finally go on holiday and, I’m assuming you’ll be rather
The fibre from the veg will keep your digestive system and colon running smoothly in the presence of the high protein and essential fats you’ll be replacing your carbs with.
By reducing our carbs, we’re also trying to deplete our glycogen levels (“muscle energy”, in simple terms) over the course of the week to allow the food that we do eat on vacation to be driven straight into our starving muscles.
Step 3 – Increase Protein
Increase your consumption of protein to at least 1.5 grams per lb of your bodyweight per day. I.E. if you weigh 150lbs, then take in 225 grams of protein per day.
You’re trying to maintain your muscle mass and lose from the place it matters the most – FAT!
Increasing your protein will allow you to do this while you’re in a calorie deficit – Use sources like whey protein isolate (or hemp protein powder), chicken, turkey, lean beef, eggs, tuna, oily fish etc.
Step 4 – Remove Allergens
This step is optional – Remove food allergens from your diet. I’d take away gluten, wheat and dairy. These are the usual suspects. So things like milk, cheese, whey protein shakes, bread, pasta etc will need to go for this week.
Now, this is a controversial topic. I know for a FACT, and I have people who can verify, that I was eating bread and lots of it when I was the most lean I’d ever been in my life. So already, this means I was getting a lot of wheat and a lot of gluten..
You know what, though? I still had a negative energy balance at the end of the day and I burnt fat..a LOAD of it too.
There are some “guru’s” that will have you believe that you’ll see instant changes in your belly fat as soon as these allergens are removed from your diet..
I personally tried this for a good 3 weeks when I was preparing for my fitness model contest in April 2012 and I didn’t see any increase in fat loss what so ever or any drastic changes in my physique. I guess I’m not allergic to any of these things?
Now, if you are allergic, and you might not even know you are, then you will see a reduction in your belly fat. Or at least you’ll see the “appearance” of drastically reduced belly fat because of the bloating that may have been caused by these foods and your allergy to them.
Test it out for a week. Remove these allergens – It won’t kill ya and you might even discover some foods that don’t agree with your stomach!
Step 5 – Drink Tons of Water
You should be getting in 2 liters a day anyhow but if you’re in training that should easily increase to at least 3-4 liters a day.
70% of our body is made up of water so it only makes sense that we need to nourish it with what it’s made from!
Drinking plenty of water has been shown to help burn fat more efficiently, gets rid of more water from beneath your skin to make your skin tighter (ironic eh? – Drink more to lose more) and increase your performance in the gym, which will of course lead to more fat loss. This is a no-brainer when it comes to losing your belly fat – Drink plenty of water.
Step 6 – Metabolic Workouts
There’s a simple training routine I want you to follow here. A resistance routine with minimal rest periods and select exercises that are big, compound movements to burn maximal calories. (an example is below)
I’d recommend either an all over body workout each session. Or you could split your body in two. Upper Body and Lower Body/Abs.
Hit this example routine 4-5 times in the final week before your vacation or 3 times if you’re not as experienced.
Perform each exercise in a circuit fashion, using approximately 70% of your 1 rep max (if you’re not sure what these means, just pick a weight that challenges you for 12-15 reps. Your muscles should be close to failure, but not quite, at the end of each exercise). The only rest you’ll take between exercises is the time it takes you to walk to the next exercise. Here’s an example all over body routine :
Exercise 1 – Squats | 12-15 reps
Exercise 2 – Pullups/Lat Pulldown | 12-15 reps
Exercises 3 – Deadlifts | 12-15 reps
Exercise 4 – Bench Press | 12-15 reps
Exercise 5 – Dumbell Lunges | 12-15 each side
Exercise 6 – Military Press | 12-15 each side
Take 2 minutes rest and repeat the circuit X 3
This routine serves three purposes
1) It will help to deplete your muscles of glycogen, turning them into a sponge ready to soak up all of your holiday food/drink
2) You’ll be burning tons of fat during and after the workout with the “afterburn” effect you’ll cause. Which means you’ll be melting fat way after the workout is over and all throughout the week.
3) You will be retaining muscle with this routine. If you lose muscle, then you lose definition and also slow down your metabolism. Something nobody wants. FORGET about “weight loss” for the sake of weight loss. That’s old thinking. If I said You could either LOOK the way you wanted or see a particular number on the scales, which would you choose?…Thought so.
Step 7 – Get Your Cardio in Everyday
Burn even more calories by doing either high intensity interval training cardio or just a steady-pace form of cardio for 40-60 minutes (hill walking at a steady pace has worked well for me).
Do your cardio after your metabolic workouts for even more calorie burn.
On your days off from the weight training, perform a short intense ab workout after your cardio. Three exercises emphasizing upper, lower and obliques in a circuit fashion will be fine.
Ab crunches (slowly and hold contraction at the top) | 3 x 20
Laying leg raises | 3 x 20
Oblique V-Twists | 3 x 20 each side.
Step 8 – Supplements
Optionally, take the following supplements to help with lipolysis (fat burn) – Click for more information on each supplement :
Green Tea Extract
Caffeine
L-Carnitine
CLA
Yohimbine (as long as you’re not sensitive to it)
Step 9 – Fast
Admittedly, this isn’t something I have tried for myself just yet but after reading a few pieces of research, I’m certainly giving this a go before my next vacation and experimental fat loss phase.
On the final day before your vacation, depending on when your flight is, try to abstain from food for around 16-24 hours. This has many reported benefits such as burning even more fat and calories as well as increasing your fat burning hormones.
Some people even use this method once weekly to burn fat or control their bodyfat levels!
You want the end of the 16-24 hour fast to coincide with your first meal on vacation.
Step 10 – Enjoy pigging out on holiday and look EVEN better
You made it! You should now be looking a lot leaner and meaner after that intense 7 days of work and the fun is just about to start.
You’ve earned your vacation and the best part? You can pretty much go wild, totally guilt free because you’ve just set your body up in such a way that everything you eat (to a certain point) will go straight to your muscle and energy stores, rather than turn into unsightly belly fat!
So you’ll actually look BETTER as the holiday goes on (you’ll probably peak around day 3 or 4)! Be sure to bring your swagger to the beach on days 3-4 where you can put that new torso on display!
While everybody comes back from their vacation moaning and depressed about the new “holiday weight” they are carrying, you’ll be back having not suffered very much damage at all! Perfect, right?
It’s a tough week to put yourself through but nobody said it would be easy … just totally worth it when you’re on that beach being hated on because of your washboard abs!
Well, now you know how to lose belly fat in 1 week. You’ll lose a fair amount of fat for a 7 day period but this routine is far better to peak a physique that is in pretty good shape already and minimize holiday damage.
If you’ve been working towards a health and fitness weight loss goal it’s important not to let all that hard work go to waste. Don’t stop your fitness training once you reach your target weight. Instead consider complementing it with some muscle building workouts that will build up your physique as well as keep it trim.
