The 3 essential components we’re going to focus on is nutrition (calorie intake), cardio, and weight training. You will need all 3.

First we’ll determine your daily calories. Multiply your weight by 10 if you’re a man, or multiply by 8 if you’re a woman.

This number will be your daily calorie intake for the 2 week period. You’ll then start consuming 4-6 small meals per day. To calculate the calories you need per meal, divide your new daily calorie intake by 4, 5, or 6 (however many times per day you plan to eat – but no fewer than 4 if you’re a woman, and no fewer than 5 if you’re male).

Once you calculate the calories per meal, you’ll need to strategically plan each meal before hand. The best way to do this is to plan what you’ll eat for the next 2-3 days, and prepare those meals ahead of time. So at this point, you’ll have 3 days worth of meals ready to go. If this is too much, you can easily just prepare each day’s meals the night before.

You’ll take in the majority of your calories from lean meats such as chicken breast, turkey breast, lean hamburger meat, and egg whites. There are other options, but these will be the mainstay of your protein calories.

The majority of your carbohydrate calories will come strictly from potatoes, sweet potatoes, and brown rice.

During this 2 week period, you’re not eating for taste, you’re eating to lose fat. Period.

For condiments (just during this 2 week phase), only stick to ketchup and mustard (honey mustard is okay in moderation). Stay away from any added fat that’s not already contained in the protein or carbs you’re eating.

Cardio – Interval training is super effective, and it is generally recommended by most experts to alternate sprints with a slow jog or a walk in times of 30 seconds (for sprints), and 20 seconds (for walking/jogging), then alternating the 2 for a set time period of 5-20 minutes.

The problem is that many people (especially if you’re just getting back into exercise) can’t sprint because of joint or back pain, and if you haven’t sprinted since high school, it will feel like you’ve been run over by a truck when you’re done. Not to mention the risk of injury.

So I’ve designed an interval training series for non-sprinters. All you’ll need is a jump rope and some tennis shoes.

Interval Training

Squat Jump x 20 reps
Jump Rope x 30 seconds
Rest 15 seconds

You’ll perform squat jumps for 20 reps, immediately move to jumping rope for 30 seconds, and then immediately rest for 15 seconds. That’s 1 round. Complete 4-6 rounds 6 of the 7 days {{{of|for} week 1. Complete 6-10 rounds 6 of the 7 days of week 2.

Weight Training

We’ll focus on full body movements to burn the most amount of calories in the least amount of time while also fatiguing the muscles with moderately heavy weight. You’ll complete this circuit every other day starting on day 1 ending on day 15.

1. Upright Row x 6
2. Bicep Curl x 6
3. Bent Row x 6
4. Shoulder Press x 6
5. Stiff Leg Deadlift x 6
6. Squat Push Press x 6
7. Power Clean x 6

You’ll begin at exercise 1 and move to the next exercise until 6 reps of all 7 exercises are complete before resting. Once exercise number 7 is complete, you’ll rest 90 seconds and repeat for a total of 4 rounds during week 1. During week 2, you’ll complete 6 rounds total for each workout.