A pound of fat is 3500 kilo-calories (or just 3500 Calories) of energy goodness.
Losing weight in a crash fashion is usually not too good for you, and, unless you permanently change your eating or exercising habits (less eating, more exercising), the weight will eventually come right back to you.
Just start watching what you eat now, and keep your exercise routine going. I believe in the 2000 calorie diet + exercise. Being an engineer, I care about material and energy balances, not the infinite number of fad diets out there. To be true, yes, sugars and fats are a much more concentrated form of calories, and notably less nutritious than things that aren't high in these areas, but... if you watch the calorie count (which you can do for free... who needs WeightWatchers?) and keep the exercise routine on, itt'l come off faster than you think
Depending on how much time you have left before MEPS, and how much you need to lose though... well, hopefully you aren't far out of range to begin with. 1-3 lbs a week weight loss is a healthy rate of loss generally speaking.
BTW... I'm not a nutrition expert. A lot of the info I use comes from www.howstuffworks.com you can search for "How Calories Work" or "How Dieting Works." All the info you could want, and links to more for planning your nutritional future are there, it's great.
Alrighty
~Nate
PS - As an aside toward Palmetto's point... yah, cutting out pop and soda and sugary drinks is HUGE. It's incredible how many calories you suck down just on a regular $1 bottle of pop. I think it's in the viscinity of 250-300 cals (remember... it's 2.5 servings of pop too, don't forget to multiply the calories!). I drink unsweetened iced tea or water pretty much anymore. Water's cheaper too!
Originally posted by sxychkymonky
I am craming to get in shape and get my PFT out of the way however I have to go through MEPS first... I was wondering if anyone knew of a fast way to loose weight.. any tips can help I'm sure there is more I can do short of starving myself.
Thank you