First, let’s be clear that losing 5 pounds in one week is not a sustainable strategy to lose a lot of weight; losing 1 pound a week is a healthy loss and one you can sustain throughout your weight lose period.

But, there may be times, like that upcoming class reunion or your first time at the beach this year, when losing 5 pounds in a hurry is necessary. By incorporating the following tips into your daily routine for a week, you can lose that amount of weight. The tips include:

• drinking water

• doing cardio exercises each day

• cutting down carbohydrates

Drinking Water

During this week, your main beverage of choice will be water. Water is almost the perfect drink for losing weight. Not only does it not contain calories or carbs, but drinking water helps flush retained fluids out of your body. Since much of your weight lost this week will be “water weight”, water is critical to help with this flushing. Drink 64 ounces per day – that is 8 eight-ounce glasses.

Doing Cardio Exercises Each Day

Exercising is an important element in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and it generally consists of a mix of cardio and strength training. However for this week, our concentration will be just on cardio training. Why? It burns the greatest number of calories over a given period of time.

To lose weight through exercising, you have to get your body in the fat-burning mode. This generally starts to happen after about 20 minutes of intense activity. So a daily 30 to 40 minute intense workout will get your metabolism pulling calories out of fat cells for 10 to 20 minutes a day. Kickboxing, cross-country skiing (or a ski trainer), running, stepping, biking, rowing (or a rowing machine) and an elliptical trainer are all cardio workouts that when done at a higher intensity, will burn the most calories. For example, a 145 pound person can burn about 300 calories on an elliptical trainer in 30 minutes.

Cutting Down Carbohydrates

After all that exercising, you are going to be hungry – and rightly so. But the key is not only watching what you eat, but how much. Don’t even think of eating this week any grain products, such as rice, spaghetti, or bread – white or whole grain. These carbohydrates have a bloating effect, which makes you look bigger than you really are. Instead, substitute vegetables, such as asparagus, cauliflower and broccoli. Eat lean meats, such as skinless chicken, turkey breast, pork chops and flank steak.

By drinking water, doing cardio fitness routines with resolve and purpose, and eating primarily vegetables and lean meats, you can quickly shed 5 pounds. Remember this is a short term solution to a long-term issue so if you go back to your old ways, you will quickly put it back on (and more)!

However, you could use this as a stepping stone to eat and exercise more intelligently and realistically, and safely lose 1 pound per week.