Training & Nutrition - Making Weight - Advice Needed

Ok, so I need to lose 3-5lbs for a weigh-in on Sunday or Monday.

I am enlisting in the Navy and heading to boot camp. In the past 2 weeks I have been following Atkins and have lost 10lbs. So right now I weigh between 188-190lbs. My goal weight for Sunday or Monday is 185lbs or less.

How can I be sure to drop the final 5lbs in the next few days?

For starters, I plan to ride my bike at least 2 hours today, THU, FRI, and SAT. I will also be running on those days as well in order to get my leg muscles used to the impact of running.

I am willing to dehydrate, starve, or whatever it may take to make the weight. I have been dealing with this too long to be "too heavy" for the Navy.

I am 69inchces tall. If I am too heavy they will "tape" me and my "differential" is really close. Girth of waist - Girth of Neck. 38" - 16" so according to their charts I am 23% body fat. Of course they don't take into account that there isn't fat on my arms or legs. And my quads are about 24" around. So I know it is muscle. Anyway, sorry for the aside, but I am just trying to lose the last 5 lbs so I don't have to worry about the measurements.

Advice?

Do they let you ride much when you are in the Navy? Laps around the aircraft carrier?

Easy as pie. First of all, cut salt out of your diet NOW. If you're not cooking it, don't eat it.

Second - go totally liquid diet. 4-5 protein shakes a day, preferably low carb. If you're dying for food, salad with white meat chicken and vinegar and oil as a dressing, and one a day only.

Third, no liquid after noon the day before your weigh in.

Keep up the aerobics as well. On the day of weigh in, if you're still too close, bring a jump rope and a set of heavy sweats. Do lots of jumping to work up a big sweat, pull the hood over your head, and sweat it out. Pull them off to weigh, obviously!

That'll probably be good for 7-10 pounds to be safe. I've had years and years of this kind of thing as a wrestling coach. Too bad I didn't know about this a week ago, we coulda done it a bit less drastically.

Water retention from salt is very low... just FYI. Also cutting out carbs will not do much either.

Water retention from salt is very low... just FYI. Also cutting out carbs will not do much either.

That's at odds with nearly everything I've read, and my own experience.

Easy as pie. First of all, cut salt out of your diet NOW. If you're not cooking it, don't eat it.

Second - go totally liquid diet. 4-5 protein shakes a day, preferably low carb. If you're dying for food, salad with white meat chicken and vinegar and oil as a dressing, and one a day only.

Third, no liquid after noon the day before your weigh in.

Keep up the aerobics as well. On the day of weigh in, if you're still too close, bring a jump rope and a set of heavy sweats. Do lots of jumping to work up a big sweat, pull the hood over your head, and sweat it out. Pull them off to weigh, obviously!

That'll probably be good for 7-10 pounds to be safe. I've had years and years of this kind of thing as a wrestling coach. Too bad I didn't know about this a week ago, we coulda done it a bit less drastically.

What about also eating some stuff that's high in potassium (like spinach)? That's a natural diuretic, right?

With the stats you gave, 5 lbs in 5 days should be easy. I'd eat natural foods, high in nutrients in relation to their caloric content. fruits, veg, water. At your height and weight, i'd limit my caloric intake to 1000-1200 calories a day while maintaining my training. Eat 4-5 times a day, roughly every 3-4 hrs, keeping your portions small.And DON'T EAT AFTER 9PM. Sounds like a pretty easy goal, but if you've never had to make weight before, after a day or two you might feel run down. but no worries, you've just got to make weight, not fight after weight-ins.

or. if you just want to man up. just grab the sweats and do calesthenics in the sauna. you could cut 5 pounds pretty quicly.

Well, after I posted that, I went for a 50 mile ride. 3 hours later my scale says 184 lbs. So making the weight won't be an issue. Just gonna keep up the aerobics and eating small portions.

Thanks for the advice.

A lot of time in hot tub/sauna/steam room will drop the weight really fast. You will feel like ***** but it will be effective, in the short-term. Also, glycogen is stored in muscles as a kind of gel, and it takes 4 times the weight of cabohydrates in water to store it. That's why they say you "retain water" when you eat carbs. Anyway, the typical person stores somewhere around 2000 calories as glycogen in their muscles, there are 4 calories for every grab of carbs. So 2000 calories is 500g of carbs and another 2500g of water, that's about 5.6 pounds. You may not see much because you are already on Atkins, but you can deplete your stores before the weigh-in and don't replenish them by eating carbs or drinking water.

just dont drink anything or eat a ton 12 hours before your weigh in, should drop 5lbs of water easy

This is a bit extreme but also consider an enema if you feel you are really close.

This is a bit extreme but also consider an enema if you feel you are really close.

Oh you went THERE!