How To Lose 18 Pounds In 4 Weeks

 

Introduction

I've been lifting weights and bodybuilding for the past 5 to 6 years, and after my last bulk I decided to cut down some weight. I will tell you how I lost 18 pounds in four weeks, and hopefully it will help you to get motivated and achieve your goals!

What this article is not?

It's important to notice that I am not trying to prove that my weight loss way is the best way to lose weight, or that it is some kind of a revolution in a fat loss industry. I am not here trying to convince you what is right or wrong. Moreover, I understand that you do not have to believe anything I say, as I do not have any proof of when the photos were taken, nor do I have any photos of the actual weigh-ins. You will have to believe me on this one (or not).

First Week

The way I started my diet is really funny. I was planning to start cutting down on Sunday, March 24, 2013. It was Saturday, March 16. I went to Costco, and got a pack of my favorite pastries, since it was a week to my cut, and I wanted to enjoy my last week. But instead, I eat the whole pack, which was around 1500kcal itself, on that day then I said to myself - that's it, tomorrow I'm cutting!
Therefore, I started my diet on Sunday the 17th instead of the 16th. I weighed in at 208.5, and my waist was ~35 inches. Unfortunately, I did not measure my body fat percentage. I did that on purpose, because I hate measuring it when it comes up to over 13%, it makes me feel even worse about myself...

The Diet

The diet my first week is the basis for my whole transformation. Pretty much, I ate ~1500 kcal every day split into 5 meals a day. The reason I do 1500kcal is because it splits nicely into around 300 calories per meal. I feel that's sufficient enough for me to last for the next 2-3 hours. That being said, this is not optimal weight loss plan if you want to preserve as much muscle as possible. For that you should aim for about 500 calories less than your daily caloric needs (the link to calculate your daily caloric needs is provided on the right). Moreover, even the caloric needs calculator is not necessarily 100% accurate. The best way to measure your daily caloric needs if tracking your weight loss weekly. If you're eating 500kcal below your maintenance caloric needs, then you should be losing around 1lb of fat a week.
Anyway, I ate about 1500kcal a day because I am very inpatient and, honestly, dieting is the worst thing that could happen to me. I love my carbs - cereal, pastries, and gingerbread cookies; so I wanted to lose as much weight as quickly as possible. I did not know my daily caloric needs (the calculator says my maintenance at 208lb is ~3200kcal/per day), but I suspected that I should be losing around 3lb of fat per week and the rest would be muscle loss, water weight, and cleansing of the body. However, I believe that the supplements might have increased my metabolic rate a bit and make me burn around 4lb of fat per week. That is only a guess though.

Intermittent Fasting

It is also important to consider that I was doing intermittent fasting as my diet plan. My first week would be around 10 AM (or 11 AM, depending on my class schedule), and my last meal would never exceed past 6 PM. Intermittent fasting is a pretty new technique for weight loss, and there are many ways to do it. Most popular, and the one which I did, is 16 hours non-eating and 8 hours eating windows. Some people go as low as 20 non-eating/4 eating hours, but I do think the muscle loss would increase significantly in such diet.

Macro-nutrients

When dieting, it is important to understand the differences of macro-nutrients. In my previous articles, I have covered the different types of them, and the various specifics, and need for it. I will provide the links to those articles below, so you can use them as reference.
During this diet, my most important macro-nutrients were protein. To preserve as much muscle mass as possible, I aimed to eat around 1 gram of protein per lean body mass. Therefore, my protein intake would be anywhere from 170 grams to 200 grams. My second most important macro-nutrients were carbohydrates. From my past experience, I noticed that if I go below 100 grams of carbs a day, the cravings begin to appear and the diet becomes a real mental struggle. So, I decided to never cut carbs below 100grams. Fats would fill the rest of the diet, but it wouldn't be much of them - around 30-40 grams of fats per day. Now that did have some side effects, but my protein and carbs were more important. I will talk about the side effects later.

Supplements

My first week I would not use many weight loss supplements. The reason for that is that body will naturally shed tons of weight because of the shock that it will get after the severe decrease in daily caloric intake. However, I did take one pill of a fat burner. My fat burner supplement of choice is Nutrex Lipo 6 Black Ultra Concentrate. I feel that it does give me an edge, plus the caffeine in the morning does give me a boost for my workouts because I workout soon after waking up on an empty stomach. I took one pill of it, instead of the recommended two pills, because I wanted to leave that extra pill to shock the body when I would really need a fat loss boost. However, Lipo 6 Black is not the only good supplements. I have used USP Labs OxyElite before and I got good results. I included a list of my recommended fat burners on the side.
The second supplement I used is Chromium Picolinate. I would take one pill of it daily, and would continue taking it all throughout the 4 weeks. What it essentially does is prevent insulin levels from spiking. I don't know how much of it is true, but I would feel that it would decrease the cravings after a higher-carb meal. However, it could have been a placebo. Nevertheless, I had some bottles of it left previously, and it is not the most expensive supplement, so it didn't hurt.
The third supplement, which I would use always, no matter cutting or bulking is protein powder. To me, protein powder is a must, and I would take it every day, about 50 grams of protein in my diet would come from the protein powder, because it is very hard to find a lean protein source that requires such light effort to prepare.
The other supplements I would use are to enhance my workouts and keep my strength levels. They have nothing to do with weight loss: creatine, l-arginine, l-citrulline, beta-alanine.

Workouts

My workouts the first week were very simple. No cardio, only lifting weights. I did weight lifting 6 times the first week, with Wednesday being a rest day (last rest day of the whole transformation). To increase weight loss, cardio could help significantly, BUT I hate cardio! Also, I figured the caloric shock should be a good start, so I would save the extra boost for later.

The Results

So after my first week I weighed in at 201.8 lbs and my waist was 34 inches. Obviously, the whole 7 pounds weren't all fat loss. Again, I would suspect that around 3lbs out of those 7 pounds were water weight loss and the cleansing out of the body

Second Week

The Diet

The goal of this week's diet was similar - to continue eating ~1500 calories a day. However, I failed! Every day I would eat some peanut butter (yes, a big fan of peanut butter!!!)... I thought I would eat around 500kcal of it, which would bring me to around ~1600-1700kcal per day, but I guess it ended up being much more than that. Once I looked at it, I went through a big bottle of peanut butter in a week. The total would be around 7000kcal, therefore - 1000kcal of peanut butter per day.... All I have to say is OOPS!

Supplements

My second week, I added a yohimbe supplement. Yohimbe supposedly have effects on helping body to use body fat more easily, and, since I had a bottle of yohimbe left from before, I decided to add it to my regime. However, the problem with yohimbe is that it gives you this weird feeling the first 2-3 times you take it. I don't know how to describe it but you start sweating, feel nauseous, and you feel like throwing up, but you can't. That's why I was reluctant to take it, but for the sake of fat loss I did. Two days after no more of that feeling, because, I guess, body adapts to it, so it's all good.
Also, I added fish oil supplements. I would take 2 pills of fish oil a day. Fish oil does, supposedly, help with fat loss but I find those claims bogus, and even if it does help, I do think that the effect fish oil has on weight loss is very insignificant. However, I took fish oil purely for health reasons. I wouldn't get much fat in my diet, and fish oil, being a healthy fat, would help me with the hormone production.
Another supplement I added was Vitamin D. Obviously, going to 1500 kcal a day, would not provide all needed vitamins and micro-nutrients. Also, I did have a bottle of Vitamin D left over from before, so why not? If I didn't have it left, I probably wouldn't have taken it.
The last supplement I added was a ZMA supplement. ZMA is essentially zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6, combined with a certain ratio that helps support healthy testosterone levels. The reason I started taking it is because I noticed a decrease in my sex drive, and I did not want it to affect my relationship, so I had to do something about it. This has happened because of the lack of fats in my diet, which I have mentioned previously. Fats are responsible for hormone production, and, since I would only consume 30-40 grams a day, my hormone production processes would slow down. Moreover, ZMA supposedly helps prevent muscle loss and increase fat loss. However, I do think that those claims are bogus as well, and fat loss is not why I started taking this supplement.

Workouts

This week I added cardio training to my routine. I did the same weight lifting routine for 6 days a week, plus on Wednesday I added 40 minutes kickboxing bag training routine. Also, I had a break from school Thursday through Sunday, so on each of those days I would do half an hour of cardio either on treadmill or on a bicycle after my weight lifting routine.

The Results

The results were very surprising and rather shocking. Despite that I added 5 days of cardio to my workout regime, I only lost 0.8lb and went to 201lb. Yes, you guessed it! The peanut butter!!! However, I did lose an inch of my waist, bringing it down to 33 inches. Therefore, what I figured that happened was that I lost around 3lb of fat, but, since my body would get more calories, it would start store more food inside the body, so I gained back the water weight as well as some food weight inside my stomach. That is the only explanation I could find for the waist lost, but not weight loss. Moreover, I did measure my body fat percentage - it was 12.5%.

Third Week

The Diet

Obviously after such unsuccessful weight loss the previous week, I had to say no to peanut butter. I only had peanut butter twice this week, and it was in tiny amounts. Other than that my diet stayed pretty much the same - I would still consume around 1500kcal per day.

Supplements

This week was big on supplements. I received my supplements delivery, and I added many supplements to my regime.
The first, and probably the most important supplement, I added was L-Carnitine. L-Carnitine does help your body use body fat, instead of muscle, for energy. Moreover, there has been a lot of research done on L-Carnitine and proven that it works. I would take a liquid L-Carnitine, as it was fairly cheap, and it would deliver a good amount of L-Carnitine. Moreover, it tastes delicious - I feel that I could drink the whole bottle at once.
The next supplement I added was CLA. The conjugated linoic acid is another healthy fat that has been proven to have positive effects on the fat loss. However, there is one thing I did not like about it - I would take 5 grams of CLA, and 2 grams of Fish oil. That's 7 grams of fats in total, which would add extra ~49kcal to my diet. That's 50 calories less that I could eat off my peanut butter! But I guess it's for the greater good.
I also added a thyroid support supplement. I do not know if they work or not, but I did read that supposedly they increase (or at least support the healthy rates of) metabolism. Since I ate 1500kcal a day, and would only eat 8 hours per day, my metabolic rate would slow down from what it would be at a normal pace. Therefore, I decided to give it a try - it couldn't hurt.
Another fat loss supplement I introduced was a green tea extract. Green tea extract, along with caffeine, yohimbe and CLA, help to use body fat as energy. I would take 2 pills of green tea extract, three times a day. Also, it is one of the cheaper supplements. I probably wouldn't have introduced it but I had it left from previous cuts, so I gave it a shot.
Two more supplements I introduced was multivitamins and rhodiola. Multivitamins is a bogus supplements. I believe that your body does not absorb it, and you just piss it out. Since I would drink about 1-2 gallons of water every day, my urine would usually be transparent. However, after taking multivitamins, it turns to yellow-green color. Yes, you guessed it - that's the multivitamins coming out of your body. Now that being said, I am not 100% percent positive that the body doesn't absorb it, so I gave it a try anyways. Who knows, maybe it would benefit me. And also I had it left over from before.
Rhodiola is a supplement to reduce stress levels. Stress is bad because it produces cortisol, a hormone that encourages muscle loss and fat gains. I wanted to prevent that, so rhodiola hopefully was there to do the trick. No idea if it works or not, but it had good reviews, so hopefully it does work.

Workouts

My workouts pretty much stayed the same this week, but my cardio routine changed a bit. Wednesday was still 40 minutes of kickboxing bag workout, but no cardio on Thursday; 20 minute cardio on Friday, but an hour long elliptical session on Saturday, followed by 30min elliptical session on Sunday.

The Results

The results were back on track after this week. My waist went from 33 to 32 inches. My body fat percentage went from 12.5% to 11%, and my weight went down from 201 to 195.5 pounds.

Fourth Week

The Diet

This was my last week, and considering that one must thing that it must have been the easiest week, since my goal was almost there. However, that is far from being the truth. My largest mental struggle appeared this week. I don't know why because I did not really have any cravings and I didn't want to eat that much. The problem was that I was noticeably losing muscle size. Obviously, that was expect, and I shouldn't be complaining about it, but still, it wasn't the most pleasurable thing in the world.
This week I aimed for the 1500kcal as well, but on a few occasions I sneaked in some peanut butter, and once I finished it, I ate some peanuts. However, I'd say 4 out of 7 days were clean and peanut butter free!

Supplements

My supplementation did not change much during this last week. I introduced another pill of fat burner, just to get that extra boost. And also, I added joint support supplements - MSM and Chondroitin. I did that because the last Sunday was my leg day, and for some reason my knee was hurting while doing squats, so I figured the lack of micro-nutrients in the diet was to blame.

Workouts

My workout regime was almost identical as the week before, except I did not do any cardio on Friday.

The Results

And here the final day has come! Today, Sunday, April 14, 2013, I weighed in at 190.9, making me have lost almost 18 pounds in the period of 4 weeks. I reached the body fat percentage of 9.5%, and my waist was 31 inch. Mission accomplished!

Other Important Things to Notice

Cheat meals

It is very important to stay mentally healthy throughout your diet. My way out is cheat meals. I would eat my cheat meal every Sunday. Why Sunday? Firstly, Sunday is my weigh in day, so I could congratulate myself after eating healthy for six days. Secondly, Sunday is my hardest day of the week workout-wise - I would do legs, abs and 30min of cardio on Sundays, and leg workouts do burn most of the calories. Therefore, having a cheat meal on such a heavy day would usually cancel out. Also, when I would eat my cheat meal, I would go out, and wouldn't eat it at home. So if you do the math, cheat meal is probably around 800-1200kcal. I would tend to skip 1-2 meals during my cheat meal days. So that one meal should have around 900kcal because it would count as three different meals. Therefore, cheat meal would not even end up being as bad as it should! Obviously that's probably not the best way to do it, as I shouldn't be skipping meals, and etc, but hey - it worked for me, and I stayed mentally healthy!

Cravings

Another point to consider is cravings. Interestingly enough, I did not have any cravings throughout this diet! OK, I'm lying. I did crave peanut butter, but peanut butter was generally included in my diet as one of the meals anyway. The problem was that I wouldn't control myself how much of PB I would eat, but that's another story.
The reason why I had no cravings, I believe, is because of very low sugar content I would eat daily. I would say I would eat less than 20-30 grams of sugar a day. And since it was that low, and it was really spread out throughout the day, my insulin levels wouldn't spike and wouldn't create those cravings.

Diet Sodas and Sweeteners

Diet soda is always a consideration when dieting. However, from my past experience I noticed that diet sodas would usually create cravings. I don't know why, but I have read some reports that diet sodas have ingredients that create similar effects to your brain that an insulin does. However, I am not sure about their credibility.
What I would do instead, though, is I would drink two-three large, and I mean it - large, mug of tea, and 1-2 large mugs of coffee every day. Firstly, they would keep me full, and I wouldn't want to eat as much. Secondly, they would taste pretty good, and is a healthy alternative to soda. I would use Sweet n' Low as my sugar-free sweetener mainly because it was the cheapest one in the market. However, on my latest shopping trip, I compared the ingredients of Sweet n' Low and the more expensive fat burners, and I saw that Sweet n' Low had some questionable ingredients - I got Splenda instead. The problem is - Splenda doesn't sweeten as much as Sweet n' Low, but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Supplementation

As you can tell, I have used A LOT of different supplements.

• Did I need any of them? No.
• Did they help? I don't know.
• Then why did you use it? I felt that I could use an extra boost.

As I have mentioned previously, I am impatient person, in particularly, when it comes to limiting the foods I eat. To prevent that, I wanted to get best results as quickly as possible. I used the supplements to maximize the fat burning potential, and prevent muscle loss as much as possible. I do believe that similar results can be achieved without any fat burning supplements.

What's next?

Next, I am planning to do a lighted diet for another week or so, maybe to shed off an extra 1-2lb of fat, mostly because I still have some L-Carnitine left, and I want to finish it all (I told you, it tastes awesome!). After that I will increase my calories to a little bit above my maintenance level, to start cleanly bulking again. However, I do expect to gain back around 2-5lb within the first week of increasing calories back to normal. The reason for that is, that those 18 pounds I lost is not all fat and muscle. It's also some of the water weight, and the food that the body would normally keep in the digestive tracts. Increasing the amount of food I eat, would normally increase the amount of food the body has to process, and keep inside at a given time. Also, I will quite intermittent fasting, because I did notice it does slow down your metabolic rate a lot. Might work for a diet, but definitely not for bulking.
Thank you for reading, and I hope this article helped you to get motivated to achieve your goals, as well as provided some useful information. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!