I am in the ARMY and my yearly physical fitness assessment is due in one week. In order for me to pass, I need to drop 20 lbs in seven days. How can I safely do that?

Here is the short answer; you can’t.  You have waited too long to reduce your weight. I would suggest you try and postpone the test.

You could attempt to eat very little and drink lots of water – a crash diet.  You will lose some weight if you do this but the cost to your body will be high.  You will starve your body possibly to the point of cannibalizing muscle tissue for nutrition while locking up your fat stores.  Once you lose some weight or pass the fitness test and resume eating, you will likely put the weight back on.  However you have lost muscle mass, so your muscle to fat ratio will be different and not in a good way.  Your body replaces your lost muscle tissue with new fat tissue so once you regain your previous weight, you will be physically weaker.  The vicious cycle begins; being weaker, you will find moving more difficult and opt to stay sedentary.  As you continue to eat you gain more weight.  This is the vicious cycle that crash diets cause, how it occurs, and why it always backfires.

I sympathize with your predicament but would advise that you maintain a regular physical fitness program and sensible diet all year long.  You will benefit from regular, consistent training and proper nutrition.  By following a healthier lifestyle, you will always be ready for your yearly test.  Thank you for your service to our country!

Comments

[Ben]

Further, if you crash diet just before the physical fitness assessment, you might bring your weight down a few pounds, but your other parts of the test will suffer miserably from an absolute lack of energy.