How to Lose 20 Pounds in 2 Weeks (Fastest Way)

Need to know how to lose 20 pounds in two weeks?

Sometimes you just need to lose a lot of weight really fast. Maybe it’s a wedding, birthday party, vacation or some other big event in your life that you need to look your best.

The good news is it is possible to lose 20 pounds in two weeks fast, naturally, and safely. Many studies have found losing weight quickly can help lead to better long-term weight loss.¹

You shouldn’t expect a miracle cure but you can still lose a lot of weight fast when you’re doing the right stuff and putting in the work.

It can be a great way to kickstart your weight loss journey by losing a lot of weight very fast. It’s highly motivating to see some quick results that’ll encourage you to keep going.

This diet can be very effective for rapid weight loss. Although I wouldn’t recommend doing this specific diet and workout plan forever.

Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race. Especially if your pants are tight and your shirts are looking horrible on you. Then rapid weight loss is the answer.

If you need to lose 20 pounds in two weeks then you can do it as long as you’re doing the dieting strategies below. Here you’ll find a diet, exercises, and workout plan to do it without starving yourself in the process.

How to Lose Weight Fast (In 2 Weeks)

Dieting is going to be the most effective and quickest way to drop 20 pounds. There’s a saying amongst trainers that “you can’t out-train a bad diet” and it’s 100% true.

Even if you’re working out all the time you’ll still struggle to lose weight if you’re diet is bad. Many make the mistake to think that just working out will make them lose weight only to find out their diet plays a much bigger role.

So you can lose 20 pounds in just two weeks without exercise as long as you’re willing to get your diet down. Nothing is guaranteed but you’ll for sure drop a lot of weight fast with this meal plan. This diet and meal plan can be done at home and even the included exercises require minimal equipment too.

If you do a Quora or Reddit search you might find others saying that’s it isn’t doable, healthy or sustainable to lose that much weight that fast. But dieting for two weeks isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things and it should be safe.

Losing 20 pounds of weight is definitely noticeable. You should drop a dress size and fit a lot easier into your skinny jeans. The first place you’ll lose weight is all over your body, but there are stubborn parts that hold onto weight longer.

Best Diet Plan to Lose 20 Pounds

Those who’ll get the best results with this diet and exercise program are those who have a lot of weight and fat to lose. With two weeks, it’s more than safe to lose this much weight in such a short amount of time.

Your health levels should also improve once you start getting rid of the excess fat from your body. Some of the benefits you should expect to see include:

• insulin markers
• blood sugar
• cholesterol
• belly fat
• oxidative stress levels

But if you’re already lean then you’re more likely to lose muscle first with a diet like this. It’s always better to shoot big if you’re trying to lose weight quickly than to set too many small goals.

In this 2004 review study, researchers found having a “lack of realism” when it comes to losing weight led to having greater weight loss.²

Even though much of the weight you lose initially will be water weight. You’ll still be able to burn a good chunk of fat off your body. You’ll burn a lot more fat than you think in these two weeks by following the proven dieting and exercise strategies below.

This diet will work best if you have a lot of weight to lose. You can definitely lose 20 pounds in two weeks if you haven’t followed a diet or workout plan in a long time.

Being able to manipulate your metabolism is key for rapid weight loss. You’ll discover all the best strategies to do so below.

Your diet will give you the bulk of your results for rapid weight loss. The key is to have a nutrition meal plan and stick with it. But there are also other strategies like exercise that’ll accelerate your weight loss in these next two weeks.

Drop Your Water Weight

One of the simplest methods to lose weight fast is to drop your water weight.

You’ll see some fast results with weight loss by losing stored water. Even though you aren’t burning fat off your body the water pounds and bloating will go away giving you some instant results.

Seeing these quick results can help to boost your motivation.

To do so it’s best to reduce your sodium levels and track how much water you’re drinking throughout the day. This will help to ensure you stop storing excess water weight.

Try to keep your sodium levels under 1500 mg per day at the absolute maximum over the two weeks. While your body needs some sodium to thrive most of us are consuming way too much from processed foods.

Cutting your carbohydrate intake will instantly help you flush out the water weight. Stored carbs (glycogen) holds 3 grams of water for every 1 gram of glycogen. So by cutting your carb intake you’ll start flushing out the water retention within days.

You can also try using the sauna to help sweat out any excess water and salt from your body. A few sauna sessions per week for up to 20 minutes should be enough.

Although I wouldn’t recommend going to the extremes with trying to lose your water weight. It can be very unsafe if you’re not carefully monitoring yourself.

Keep in mind much of the water weight you lose will come back the instant you start drinking a ton of water, eating carbs, or putting salt in your body.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is one of my favorite ways to achieve rapid weight loss.

It’s been proven to help people not only lose weight but increase metabolism while keeping lean muscle.³ You’ll also improve your fat loss hormone balance by lowering insulin and increasing growth hormone.^4,5

With intermittent fasting, your body will start burning your fat stores for fuel since you won’t have any calories coming in. Once you start running low your body is forced to switch over to burning your body fat as an energy source.

I try to aim for at least 12 to 13 hours for fasting, but 16-20 hours will get much better results. You can start off on the low end and work your way up.

For the 16 hours fast all you have to do is start a timer from your last meal at night. By around noon the next day, you will be able to eat again.

The trick with intermittent fasting is to only consume pre-approved drinks that will not break your fast. These drinks will curb your hunger and speed up your results.

These approved fasting drinks include:

• Keto Elevate C8-MCT powder
• Black coffee
• Cold lemon water
• Unsweetened green tea
• Super greens powder
• zero-calorie sparkling waters

Intermittent fasting will naturally reduce your calorie intake by 550 calories for the day.⁶ Reducing your calories is a big part of rapid weight loss and intermittent fasting will help.

If you want to take your intermittent fasting up a notch then you might want to try a 7-day water fast that can help you lose 10-20 pounds in a week.

Cut Your Carbs

Eating too many carbohydrates can lead to insulin resistance. It’s one of the main reasons why there’s an obesity epidemic today.⁷

Taking these junk carbs out of your diet for these next two weeks will be of the utmost importance. Or else you won’t be able to lose 20 pounds in two weeks.

When you eat sugars, refined carbs, and starches you blood sugar spikes and your body releases insulin to balance it out. Insulin is a fat-storing hormone and promotes weight gain.

Carbs are used by your body as a fuel source. So unless you’re burning them off right away with exercise you’ll end up storing them as glycogen or body fat. By lowering your carb intake you’ll prevent weight gain and promote weight loss.

Cutting out carbohydrates will also help to naturally lower your water weight too. When you eat carbs your body will store this energy as glycogen and bring water along with it.

Keep your daily carb intake limited to 50 grams per day over the next 2 weeks.

Try to stick with eating fibrous vegetables low glycemic index and glycemic load. Kale, spinach, and broccoli are a few examples. Avoid starchy vegetables like carrots, potatoes, peas, and corn.

Eating more of these fibrous vegetables will help to keep your belly feeling full. Hunger is one of the hardest parts of dieting so the more you’re able to feel full then the less likely you are to binge eat.⁸

Try to limit your fruit intake during these next two weeks. Fruits do contain “natural sugars” but these are in the form of fructose which is still sugar.

You can check out the best fruits for weight loss here. Keep in mind fruits should be limited during these next couple of weeks unless they’re low-sugar berries.

If you have trouble cutting your carb intake then at least be sure to take a “carb blocker” beforehand. It’ll help prevent the insulin spike from eating sugars and carbs that makes you store fat.

Watch Your Calories

It will be impossible to lose 20 pounds in two weeks if you’re not tracking and limiting your daily calories.

This is by far one of the hardest parts for most people to get done when trying to achieve rapid weight loss. Most people greatly underestimate just how many calories they’re eating daily.⁹

For women, 1200 calories per day should be about right to promote weight loss. For men, 1500 calories per day. These numbers will depend on the individual person so it’s best to adjust as you go.

The key is to not reach the point where you feel like you’re starving yourself. This will cause your metabolism to slow down and you’ll end up binge eating everything in sight.

That’s why I recommend eating satiating foods that make you feel fuller for longer. And why have a structured and strategically timed cheat meal could help prevent your body from entering “starvation mode.”

Protein is a highly satiating food as well as good fats.¹⁰ High fiber vegetables do a great job at curbing hunger. Carbs and sugars are the worst since you’ll crave more of them as your blood sugar drops.

Drink more of these weight loss drinks to help your stomach feeling full without reducing your metabolism. I like to drink cold lemon water before meals to help prevent myself from overeating meals.

Track what you’re eating with a daily food log. You’ll be able to measure exactly how many calories, carbs, protein, and fats you’re eating daily.

This will help to manage your diet and make sure you’re on the right track. Otherwise, it’s easy to “think” you’re eating healthy but in reality you’re not.

What You Should Eat to Lose 20 Pounds in 2 Weeks

It goes without saying you can’t eat junk food during these next two weeks if you want to lose 20 pounds. They’re not only very high in calories, bad vegetable oils, and they’re also high in junk carbohydrates that’ll keep you from losing weight.

Stay away from these foods:

• sugar
• refined carbs and grains
• starches
• alcohol
• processed junk foods

So no pasta, breads, pizza, cheeseburgers, Cheetos, potato chips, cake, French fries, pie, muffins, fried rice, etc.

Try to eat more protein instead. Aim for at least 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily. Protein is satiating making you feel fuller. It’s thermogenic and will increase how many calories your body burns.¹¹

Good protein foods:

• eggs
• chicken breast
• tuna
• cod
• halibut
• lean red meat
• low-carb protein powder

Eat more healthy good fats. Fats are also satiating, don’t spike your insulin, and contain essential fatty acids your body can’t make. But fats are high in calories so you shouldn’t eat too many.

Good fat foods:

• extra virgin olive oil
• avocados
• nuts & seeds
• fatty fish like salmon & sardines
• grass-fed butter & ghee

High fiber vegetables should be the only carbs you’re eating. These vegetables are fibrous and “fill out” your stomach make you feel full. They won’t spike your blood sugar like starchy vegetables.

Good high fiber vegetables:

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• collard greens
• kale
• spinach
• Swiss chard

No Alcohol or Milk

Alcohol should also be limited since it’s high in calories, stops fat burning, and can negatively impact your fat burning hormones.

If you want to lose 20 pounds during these next two weeks it’s a good idea to eliminate alcohol from your diet completely.

Alcoholic not only contains a lot of empty calories but will also slow down your metabolism. Your body views alcohol as a poison so it prioritizes metabolizing it out of your body. While it does this it stops all other fat burning.

Drinking alcohol can cause disruptions to your sleep patterns.¹² If you’re not getting enough high-quality sleep then it can cause you to store more weight.

It’s also a good idea during these next two weeks to skip out on the milk or dairy in your diet. Milk causes an insulin response in your body that will increase the likelihood you store it as body fat.¹³

While most of the time it can be beneficial to have dairy if your body feels good when taking it. But milk contains a lot of sugars too. This will not help to maximize your weight loss during these next couple of weeks.

Next Level Supplements

There are a handful of supplements you should be taking if you want to lose 20 pounds in the next two weeks fast.

Taking the right supplements can help to accelerate your weight loss. They can also help to ensure you’re not nutritionally deficient during these next two weeks.

It’s a good idea to keep taking these kinds of supplements even after the two weeks are up. This is to make sure you keep losing the weight and fat that you want.

C8-MCTs. When fasting in the morning add a scoop of MCTs to your coffee. It’ll “flip the switch” for your metabolism to start burning your fat stores for fuel. These MCTs are quickly converted into ketones by your liver.¹⁴ This is the same process your body goes through when on the keto diet. But you can use these MCTs to trick your body into burning your fat for fuel without going 100% keto.

Fish and Krill oil. It’s always critical to take an omega-3 fatty acid supplement such as fish or krill oil. Both are great but in my opinion krill oil is a low bit better. Omega-3 fatty acids have been found to not only lower inflammation but also promote weight loss regardless of exercise.¹⁴

Low-carb Protein Powder. Make sure you find a grass-fed whey protein shake that’s also low in carbohydrates. If your body isn’t getting enough protein then it will be very hard for you to lose weight fast. Taking a whey protein shake will help to fill your stomach so you don’t get too hungry. You also keep your calories low for the day by replacing a meal or two.

HIIT Workouts + Cardio

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is by far the best workouts you can do to lose 20 pounds in 2 weeks.

HIIT workouts have been found to be much more effective for fat loss than traditional slow-go cardio workouts.¹⁵ You’ll burn more calories, more fat, and increase fat burning hormones with HIIT workouts.

The vast majority of your time working out should be done with HIIT workouts. But if you have the extra time do a cardio workout such as going for brisk walking, jogging, bike ride or hiking.

Adding in an extra cardio workout while fasting can add a big boost for weight loss. Even though HIIT workouts will burn more fat cardio workouts have also been found to be beneficial for weight loss.¹⁶

While fasting you’ll be depleted of an incoming energy source so your body will start burning your fat stores. Then if you exercise while fasting you’ll burn even more fat than usual.

I wouldn’t recommend starting a strength training routine in these next two weeks if you really want to lose 20 pounds.

A strength training routine will help you gain some muscle which will also add weight to your body. This muscle will help to shape and tone your body. But it may mentally defeat you do not see the scale fall down as much as you’d like.

I always recommend some kind of strength training routine. But for these next two weeks, it will be okay if you just stick with the HIIT workouts or cardio.

Many people who lose a lot of weight fast will end up “skinny fat.” This is when they appear to be thin but their body is mushy and soft. This will result in them not having a well-shaped and toned body (not nearly as attractive-looking).

Try to do at least 20 minutes of HIIT workouts per day 4-6x per week. You can go higher depending on your current fitness levels and how well your body responds while dieting. You can also do 20-60 minutes of longer-form cardio per day (5-6 days per week).

Women tend to burn more fat from doing longer intervals (45-60 seconds) while men tend to burn more fat with shorter intervals. Women also tend to need less time to recover between sets than men. Women may also benefit from doing longer session HIIT workouts.

Sleep More, Stress Less

Believe it or not, how much sleep you’re getting can have a big effect on how much weight you lose in the next two weeks.

If you’re not getting enough sleep your metabolism will slow down.¹⁷ Your body will also release hormones such as cortisol that cause you to binge eat.

Cortisol is released into your body as a response to the stress of not getting enough sleep. And this hormone promotes the storage of belly fat.¹⁸

Your body will also release the hormone ghrelin. This is the hormone that will make you feel hungrier leading you to eat more. You’ll also crave fatty junk foods from sleep deprivation.¹⁹

Studies have found your willpower to stick with your diet and workouts will significantly be diminished when you’re not getting enough sleep.²⁰

Most people today simply aren’t getting enough quality sleep. It’s really screwing with their metabolism and weight loss efforts.

Try to get a solid 7-8 hours of high-quality uninterrupted sleep each night during these next two weeks.

How much can I lose in 2 weeks?

You’ll be surprised how much weight you can lose in 2 weeks but it’s going to take some work. 20 pounds is possible to lose in just 2 weeks depending on how much weight you have to lose.

If you have a lot of excess weight then losing 20 pounds with some work is more than doable. But if you only have a few extra pounds on your body then it’s going to be way harder to lose that much by then.

Conclusion

Simply by following the above diet plan, you can definitely lose 20 pounds in two weeks fast.

If you have a lot of weight to lose and haven’t dieted or worked out in a while then you can expect to see better results.

But make sure once you stop this kind of diet that you stick with a long-term plan. This is so you can keep getting the results you want.

In this 2001 review study, researchers found those who followed up their rapid weight loss with a solid diet and workout program were able to keep their results and keep losing even more.²¹

The last thing you want to do after putting in all this hard work for two weeks is to lose it right away. Don’t let it happen to you.

I would highly recommend using The Flat Belly Formula and workout program to not only keep getting quick results but to keep it off for good.

It’s a much more long-term sustainable program that will keep your unwanted fat and stubborn weight off you for good.

If you’re willing to put in the work and then the diet plan above will get you the fast and quick results you’re looking for.

Now that you know how to lose 20 pounds in two weeks it’s time to get to work so you can get the results you want fast.