How to Lose Weight Fast in 2 Weeks with Ease (11 Tips and Secrets)

Losing weight is often a long, slow process. But if you want to know how to lose weight fast in 2 weeks, you’re in luck. 

Dropping extra pounds fast is a hot topic today and you can still shed the pounds quickly if you set realistic goals. Expect to use the next two weeks to set yourself up for a long-term path toward health and fitness, and you’ll be sure to succeed. In this article, we will go over our tips and secrets to losing weight fast, talk about health concerns with rapid weight loss, as well as address some common questions.

Set Your Goals and Commit to Them

If you’re trying to lose weight fast, you need to first set realistic goals. On average, a healthy weight loss goal is about 1 to 2 pounds a week [1]. If you have more fat to lose, you can healthily drop more than this, but that isn’t realistic for everyone. Losing four pounds in a week will require a lot of discipline, but it’s still achievable and won’t require any unhealthy methods to get there. 

Once you have set your goal, you should do your best to commit to them. If you want to know how to lose weight fast in 2 weeks, this step is by far the most important. With only 14 days to drop weight, it’s best to adhere to the weight loss plan as much as possible. 

The best way to stay committed during your weight loss journey is to find one or two accountability buddies. These are people who you will tell your goals and ask them to check in with you regularly to make sure you’re still working toward them. Plus, if you make a plan with them you can challenge each other to stick with it (I.e. who stayed within their calorie goals most consistently). If you happen to have a month to get in shape, see if your friends or family are up to create a 30-day weight loss challenge using our framework. 

You won’t want to disappoint these people, so you’ll be more likely to stick with your diet plan. 

Have A Healthy Mindset about Losing Weight

If you approach your weight loss as a quick fix, or a race to drop as many pounds as possible in the shortest amount of time, you will be setting yourself up to fail. Maintaining weight loss is ultimately a long-term commitment, and staying healthy requires lifestyle changes that last longer than two weeks. To give yourself a healthy mindset going into your two-week plan, try the following:

• Avoid fad diets. Some diets will tell you to fast for a week, advise to consume 1000 calories, or even to stick to one type of food like the pickle diet. In general, these are not sustainable and longevity should be kept in mind. Even if you lose 20 pounds in a week, you’re unlikely to keep the weight off with extreme diets[1]. Take a slow and steady approach and consider eating intuitively for weight loss to keep both your body and mind healthy through your weight loss journey in the upcoming weeks.
• Be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up if your fat loss is going slower than you hoped. Yes, you want to lose weight fast, but it is not a race. Negative self-talk can lead to unhealthy habits cropping up, like emotional and binge eating or giving up on your attempt to lose weight altogether [2]. Speak kindly to yourself and hype yourself up for committing to lose weight and get healthy. If you wouldn’t say it to your best friend, don’t say it to yourself!
• Get the right help. Enlist your doctor, therapist, or registered dietician to be on your team during your weight loss, and they can help set you on the right path toward quick weight loss that is healthy and sustainable. Make sure to only seek advice from qualified professionals.

Create a Caloric Deficit

There’s no way around this — to lose weight, you have to be in a caloric deficit. This means that the number of calories you consume in a day has to be less than the number of calories you burn each day. This is the only way to get your body to tap into your fat cells for energy and start burning them up [1]. 

A pound of fat is 3,500 calories. This means that to burn a pound of fat in one week, you need to be taking in 500 fewer calories than you burn each day. To lose two pounds, you have to double that to 1000. Note that this doesn’t mean you should starve yourself. The only way to lose weight fast in 2 weeks without exercise is to cut back on your calories, but you should never go below 1200 calories a day. In many cases, your daily intake should be higher than that to lose weight healthily. 

To figure out exactly how many calories to cut from your meal plan, you need to calculate your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), which is the number of calories you burn per day [3]. 

Here’s how you can do this:

Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

The formula for this number is: 

For men: 9.99 x (weight in kg) + 6.25 x (height in cm) – 4.92 x (age in yrs) + 5

For women: 9.99 x (weight in kg) + 6.25 x (height in cm) – 4.92 x (age in yrs) – 161

The number you end up with is your BMR.

Multiply Your BMR By Your Activity Factor

Your activity factor is determined by how active you are. Select which one describes you best:

• Sedentary (little to no exercise): 1.2
• Lightly active (exercise one to three days a week): 1.375
• Moderately active (exercise five or six days a week, moderate intensity): 1.55
• Very active (exercise daily, high intensity): 1.725

The number you get here is your TDEE. Subtract 500-1000 calories from this number to see how many calories you should be consuming every day to lose weight. 

The best way to create a large caloric deficit while still being able to eat enough to keep your body healthy is with exercise, which we’ll get into later in this article [3]. 

To make sure you’re creating the calorie deficit needed to lose weight, you should track your calories and your macros — your fat, carb, and protein intake. Typically, you want to aim for a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. 

You can track these numbers in a fitness app on your phone, or you can use a food tracking journal. Be sure to log every meal you eat and add up your total daily caloric intake. This is the best way to keep yourself on track and be able to spot mistakes in your diet early that can be fixed quickly. 

Know What You Should Be Eating to Lose Weight

Eating the right foods goes hand-in-hand with creating a caloric deficit. This is because if you know what to eat, you can still fill up each meal on foods that are lower in calories and rich in nutrients. During your two-week weight loss meal plan (and beyond), try to fill up on these foods:

• Fiber. Filling up on fiber is one of the best ways to lose weight fast. It’s great for your digestive health and might even play a role in preventing some cancers [4]. But most importantly for your weight loss, it helps you feel full and can help prevent you from grazing and snacking between meals. Fiber-rich foods include green vegetables, fruits, whole grains.
• Protein. Your body uses the amino acids found in protein for almost every biological process that goes on in your body. Protein is especially important if you’re adding exercise to your weight loss plan during these two weeks because this nutrient is vital for your muscles to repair themselves. Protein also takes a long time to digest in your stomach, so it keeps you fuller longer. You can find lots of protein in lean meats like chicken and fish, eggs, nuts, beans, and legumes. 
• Healthy fats. Unsaturated fats are important nutrients that might help fight cancer and are good for heart health [4]. As a bonus, they help keep you satiated when you add them to your meal plan. Look for healthy fats in olives, avocados, and fish.

Know What to Avoid

Equally important as knowing what you should be eating is knowing what you shouldn’t be eating if you want to know how to lose weight fast in 2 weeks. To make the most out of your meal plan, avoid these foods:

• Sugar. Simple sugars like what is found in desserts, soda, and alcohol have no nutritional value and are the main culprit for weight gain. Sugar has also been linked to several chronic diseases and should be avoided in your healthy lifestyle [5]. If you crave a sweet treat after dinner, try some antioxidant-rich fruit and dark chocolate instead.
• White carbs. Refined white carbs like white rice and white bread have been stripped of their nutritional value and contribute to weight gain. Instead, eat complex carbs like brown rice and whole-grain bread to get the benefits of fiber and several healthy vitamins.
• Salt. Salt is important for several bodily functions, but the typical American diet has way too much of it. Eating too much salt makes you bloated and can cause raised blood pressure and heart disease [1]. 
• Diet foods and sodas. You might think there’s no harm in consuming these foods since they are made specifically for dieting. However, low-fat foods are often full of sugar and artificial ingredients that aren’t good for your overall health. Go for a non-diet version of your favorite foods in moderation instead.

Add Exercise into Your Routine to Drop Pounds Fast

Although you don’t need to exercise to lose weight if your meal plan is on point, you can speed up the process by getting moving. Exercise increases your calorie deficit and allows you to eat more during the day while still losing weight. This is because you’ll be burning more calories while exercising. 

Bigger muscles need more calories to function. By doing strength training, you not only will burn calories during your workout, but you’ll be burning more calories throughout the day, even when resting, as your muscles repair themselves and grow [6]. 

It’s important to find an exercise plan that works for you. By doing an activity that you enjoy, you’re more likely to show up tomorrow to work out, too. For best results, try combining cardio and strength training for at least 30 minutes a day to lose weight fast. Try High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), weight lifting, running, or an active sport like tennis to get your blood pumping and your body burning calories.

Supplements for Weight Loss

When it comes to losing fat fast, you might find some extra help from supplements or diet pills that help lose weight. Adding supplements into your diet also ensures that you’re still getting key nutrients during a time when you’re cutting back on a lot of foods. Some great supplements that you might want to consider are:

• Protein powder. This supplement is an excellent way to add more protein to your meal plan without preparing complicated meals. 
• Omega-3 fatty acid supplements can decrease inflammation and promote weight loss [4]. 
• Powdered greens. This supplement is chock full of vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and antioxidants and has been associated with maintaining healthy blood pressure [7]. Filling up on these nutrients helps keep your body healthy and ready to burn fat.

Supplements and diet pills aren’t magic bullets, and they work best when used with established weight loss methods. Make sure you’re tackling your fat loss from every angle by adding healthy supplements while eating well and exercising for these two weeks.

Drink Lots of Water

Water is a key to weight loss that dieters often overlook. Not only is water hydrating and vital for your body to carry out all its essential functions, but water is a calorie-free way to help you feel full between meals. Drinking enough water daily will help your body get rid of the water weight that can cause you to bloat [1]. 

During these two weeks, don’t drink your calories with sugary drinks. Instead, aim to drink 64 ounces of water each day. If you don’t like the taste of water, you can add a slice of lemon for a boost of vitamin C. Green tea is a good way to add more water and has the added perk of antioxidants. You can also add more water to your diet without thinking about it by eating water-packed foods like fruits and vegetables.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is another crucial component of weight loss that might not seem obvious at first. Sleep is an important time of recovery and repair for your body. If you’re working out to lose weight, skimping on sleep will hinder your recovery time and decrease the amount of energy you have to be active each day. 

Not sleeping enough has been linked to increased difficulty losing weight and higher rates of hunger throughout the day [8]. To avoid this, make sure to aim for eight hours of sleep each night. To set yourself up for sleep success, create a bedtime routine and stick to a consistent bedtime and wake-up time each day. 

Avoid Stress

Not only is reducing stress levels important for overall wellness but keeping your life low-stress also helps you lose weight. The stress hormone cortisol makes your body hold on to fat, even if you’re eating healthy foods [9]. 

By avoiding stress and lowering your cortisol levels, you will be doing your body a favor and making it easier for you to drop pounds fast in two weeks. Try to maintain a healthy work-life balance and don’t participate in stressful activities while you’re dieting. To lower your stress levels, try relaxation techniques like meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga. 

Eat Smart

You can make your diet work for you with a little bit of strategy that doesn’t even involve the food that you’re eating. Try the following techniques to lose weight fast in 2 weeks:

• Meal prep. Meal planning and preparing have been associated with healthy diets and lower body weight [10]. Plan to do your grocery shopping and meal prep for the week all on one day, like Sunday. This way, you’ll get all the hard work and planning out of the way quickly, and you’ll be set up for success for the rest of the week.
• Eat many small meals. Having five or six small meals throughout the day instead of three large meals can help you feel full and satisfied throughout the day [1]. Prepare healthy snacks like nuts and fibrous fruit to boost your satiety between meals. 
• Eat Slowly. Taking your time while you eat helps you be more mindful of how much you’re eating and gives your body time to realize when it’s hungry. Using this technique will help you avoid overeating at mealtimes.
• Set a nightly food cut-off time. Stopping food consumption at least four hours before you go to bed can help with weight loss and proper digestion [1]. If you go to bed at 10 PM, don’t snack after dinner at 6.
• Try intermittent fasting. This is the practice of only eating during a small time window each day. By fasting 16 to 20 hours each day, your body can use all of its energy stored and tap into fat cells to burn between meals. Choose a four or six-hour window where you will eat all of your calories for the day. During your fasting window, only drink water, green tea, or black coffee.

Sample Diet Plan to Drop Weight in Two Weeks

If you need ideas on how to lose weight fast while still getting enough nutrients, the boiled egg diet might be perfect for you. This diet allows you to cut carbs and calories while still taking in plenty of protein thanks to the egg’s high nutritional value. 

Note that this diet is not a permanent solution and shouldn’t be followed for longer than two weeks before you slowly reintroduce more foods into your healthy lifestyle. 

Here is a sample two week diet plan:

Week 1:

• Breakfast: two boiled eggs and one citrus fruit like an orange or tangerine.
• Lunch: green salad with lean meat like boiled chicken.
• Dinner: steamed vegetables and two boiled eggs.

Week 2:

• Breakfast: two boiled eggs and one citrus fruit of choice.
• Lunch: two slices of whole-grain toast with cheese and tomato.
• Dinner: green salad with boiled chicken.

After your 14th day on this diet, you should be down several pounds. Now isn’t the time to go back to the way you ate and lived before this diet! To keep the weight off and promote good overall health, this is the perfect time to slowly introduce more healthful foods into your diet. 

Follow all of the above tips and eat in a safe caloric deficit if you still want to lose more weight after the two weeks are up. Exercise regularly to help keep the weight off and increase your overall health.

Why Rapid Weight Loss Can be Dangerous

Is weight loss possible in 2 weeks? Absolutely. But losing weight fast must be approached from a healthy perspective, or else you risk falling into unhealthy habits that will only set you back in your weight loss. 

Crash dieting and fad diets can lead to severe health problems over time and should never be used for long-term weight loss [11]. The safest and most effective weight loss plan is done by gradually instilling healthy lifestyle changes into your routine over time. If you’re thinking about losing weight fast, consider the following:

Rapid Weight Loss is Built on Unattainable Beauty Standards

There is a cultural pressure to be thin and adhere to a strict standard of beauty that might not be healthy for everyone. Almost half of the global population has tried to lose weight, and these attempts are most common among women [12]. Keep in mind that there is no one perfect body type, and you can be healthy even if your body is not considered “ideal”.

You’re More Likely to Regain the Weight

If you try fad diets or other extreme diets to lose weight fast, you might get the results you’re hoping for in the short term. But as soon as you return to your normal diet, the weight is likely to come right back [11]. 

In many cases, you might end up gaining more weight than you initially lost if you don’t incorporate healthy changes like exercise and healthy foods into your lifestyle.

You Might Lose Muscle and Water Weight Instead of Fat

Rapid weight loss is often associated with losing muscle and water weight instead of fat. Although losing water weight is often desirable because it helps decrease bloat and show muscle definition, it isn’t a long-term solution to weight loss [11]. 

You want to target fat, not water, for long-term results. And you want to hold onto muscle to help burn more fat during your weight loss. The only way to keep your muscle and lose fat is with a slow and steady approach that doesn’t require extreme calorie reduction.

You Might Decrease Your Resting Metabolic Rate

Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is how many calories your body burns at rest when you’re sleeping or lounging around. If you want to lose weight, you want your RMR to be as high as possible so you can burn calories without having to try. 

However, rapid weight loss has been associated with a decrease in RMR, which means your body will burn fewer calories at rest than before [13]. This is commonly referred to as your body going into “starvation mode”. When your body does this, it’s trying to conserve energy because it thinks it won’t be getting very much food in the future. 

This means you’ll have to cut calories or exercise even more to burn enough calories to lose weight. This can be dangerous and can lead to unhealthy habits like excessive exercise or eating disorders.

You Might Put Yourself In a Yo-Yo Dieting Loop

Since you’re likely to regain the weight you lost after you stop an extreme diet, you might be tempted to try another crash diet later. This can lead you to “yo-yo diet”, which is when you constantly crash diet to lose weight, regain weight once you come off the diet, and crash diet again. This is incredibly taxing on your body as well as your mental health [11]. 

To avoid getting into this cycle, go into your 2-week weight loss diet with the expectation that you will still need to put in the work to keep the weight off after your diet is done. Don’t look at your diet as a quick fix, but as a running start toward a lifetime of health and fitness. 

The Bottom Line

Wanting to lose weight fast is understandable and achievable, but the best way to set yourself up for success is to create a long-term plan that you can stick to for permanent and healthy weight loss for the rest of your life. 

If you follow the tips in this article, you won’t have to worry about the common consequences of crash dieting since you will be losing weight in a healthy way. Now that you know how to lose weight fast in 2 weeks, you can incorporate these techniques into a healthy lifestyle that will help you keep the weight off for good. 

References

[1] Hall, K. D., & Kahan, S. (2018). Maintenance of Lost Weight and Long-Term Management of Obesity. Medical Clinics of North America, 102(1), 183–197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcna.2017.08.012

[2] Duarte, C., Stubbs, J., Pinto-Gouveia, J., Matos, M., Gale, C., Morris, L., & Gilbert, P. (2017). The Impact of Self-Criticism and Self-Reassurance on Weight-Related Affect and Well-Being in Participants of a Commercial Weight Management Programme. Obesity Facts, 10(2), 65–75. https://doi.org/10.1159/000454834

[3] Melanson, E. L. (2017). The effect of exercise on non-exercise physical activity and sedentary behavior in adults. Obesity Reviews, 18, 40–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12507

[4] Champagne, C. M., Broyles, S. T., Moran, L. D., Cash, K. C., Levy, E. J., Lin, P. H., Batch, B. C., Lien, L. F., Funk, K. L., Dalcin, A., Loria, C., & Myers, V. H. (2011). Dietary Intakes Associated with Successful Weight Loss and Maintenance during the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 111(12), 1826–1835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2011.09.014

[5] Rippe, J., & Angelopoulos, T. (2016). Relationship between Added Sugars Consumption and Chronic Disease Risk Factors: Current Understanding. Nutrients, 8(11), 697. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu8110697

[6] Willis, L. H., Slentz, C. A., Bateman, L. A., Shields, A. T., Piner, L. W., Bales, C. W., Houmard, J. A., & Kraus, W. E. (2012). Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. Journal of Applied Physiology, 113(12), 1831–1837. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.01370.2011

[7] Zhang, J., Oxinos, G., & Maher, J. H. (2009). The effect of fruit and vegetable powder mix on hypertensive subjects: a pilot study. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 8(3), 101–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2008.09.004

[8] Ness-Abramof, R. (2011). Insufficient Sleep Undermines Dietary Efforts to Reduce Adiposity. Yearbook of Medicine, 2011, 551–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0084-3873(11)00377-4

[9] Larsen, S. C., Turicchi, J., Christensen, G. L., Larsen, C. S., Jørgensen, N. R., Mikkelsen, M. L. K., Horgan, G., O’Driscoll, R., Michalowska, J., Duarte, C., Scott, S. E., Santos, I., Encantado, J., Palmeira, A. L., Stubbs, R. J., & Heitmann, B. L. (2021). Hair Cortisol Concentration, Weight Loss Maintenance and Body Weight Variability: A Prospective Study Based on Data From the European NoHoW Trial. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2021.655197

[10] Ducrot, P., Méjean, C., Aroumougame, V., Ibanez, G., Allès, B., Kesse-Guyot, E., Hercberg, S., & Péneau, S. (2017). Meal planning is associated with food variety, diet quality and body weight status in a large sample of French adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0461-7

[11] Mohan, V., & Joshi, S. (2018). Pros & cons of some popular extreme weight-loss diets. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 148(5), 642. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijmr.ijmr_1793_18

[12] Santos, I., Sniehotta, F. F., Marques, M. M., Carraça, E. V., & Teixeira, P. J. (2016). Prevalence of personal weight control attempts in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews, 18(1), 32–50. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12466

[13] Ashtary-Larky, D., Ghanavati, M., Lamuchi-Deli, N., Payami, S. A., Alavi-Rad, S., Boustaninejad, M., Afrisham, R., Abbasnezhad, A., & Alipour, M. (2017). Rapid Weight Loss vs. Slow Weight Loss: Which is More Effective on Body Composition and Metabolic Risk Factors? International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, In Press(In Press). https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.13249