How to Lose Weight in a Week

Diet experts usually don't recommend that you try to lose weight in a week. But let's face it, we all have special occasions when we need to lose weight quickly and we'll do just about anything to slim down fast. So if you're serious about a one-week weight loss plan, these are the two steps you can take to change your diet and your daily routine for quick weight loss.

Lose Weight in a Week: The 2-Step Plan

Are you ready for a seven-day slim down? This plan isn't easy, but it is simple. It requires laser-sharp focus and iron-clad commitment. But it doesn't require any special diet pills, expensive supplements, or dangerous exercise program. It's common sense weight loss—supercharged.

Step One: Change Your Diet for Seven Days

In just seven days, you don't have time to count calories, and balance micronutrients to manage your energy balance. Those are the steps you would take to make lasting changes to your body. Instead, take a more simple approach and eliminate these few things from your diet for seven days.

• Baked goods. For the entire week don't eat any sweet or savory baked goods. That means you don't eat cake, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, bread, or bagels. You should also pass up salty baked snack foods like pretzels, baked chips or tortilla strips. Got a sweet tooth? Eat a single serving of fresh fruit. When you need something crunchy, grab some raw veggies.
   

• Fried foods.  Fried foods are high in calories and high in salt. So don't eat any fish, poultry or meat that is breaded or fried. That means that you won't consume any chicken nuggets, french fries, potato chips, battered or fried veggies.  Keep in mind that many frozen products (like frozen french fries) are fried before they are frozen, so those are on the banned list as well.
   

• Sauces and spreads. Eat lean protein (like chicken, eggs, fish, pork, or lean beef) that is grilled without oil and free from sauces and spreads. Many of them boost the calorie intake of your meal by hundreds of calories. And eating your meal without them is easier than you would imagine.
   
• High calorie drinks. Sweetened beverages are full of calories.  Drink water this week and avoid all alcohol (wine, beer , and cocktails), juice, sports drinks, sweetened teas, flavored coffee drinks, soda, and commercially flavored water (things like vitamin waters). You can make flavored water at home if you don't like plain water. Stay hydrated, but avoid the drinks that cause weight gain.

Step Two: Increase Daily Movement for One Week

In seven days, you don't have time to put together a total weight loss workout program. And if you try to do hardcore fat-burning workouts without any previous experience, you could easily injure yourself. So if you want to lose weight in a week, you'll increase your steps per day to burn more calories.

If you currently exercise, continue to do your normal workouts and add up to 10,000 steps per day.  If you don't exercise at all, add 10,000 steps to your daily routine.

Want bonus points? See if you can increase the number to 15,000 or even 20,000 steps per day. Use an activity monitor or a downloadable app to measure your steps per day.

It may seem like completing 10,000 or 20,000 steps per day is too many, but once you get the hang of it, you'll feel more confident. Try to break the steps into smaller chunks. For example, many office workers take breaks every hour to go for a short walking, adding a few hundred steps several times a day. You can also go for a longer walk in the morning, during your lunch break at the office, and after dinner time or before bed.

If you walk for 30 minutes or more, you can easily reach your step goal.

A Word From Verywell

If you follow these two steps and don't make any other changes to your normal routine (don't eat more because you're walking more) you should be able to lose weight in a week. But keep in mind that unless you make permanent changes to your lifestyle, the weight loss is not likely to last.  If you're ready to lose weight for good, take just one hour to set up a solid plan for long-term weight loss to get a better body that lasts.