15 lbs @ 3500 cal / lb = 52,500 calories deficit required
52,500 calories / 19 days = 2763 cal/day deficit required
Assuming your basal metabolic rate is about 2000 cal and you are eating 2000 cal / day you need to burn 2763 cal/day working out.
2763 cal/day / 600 cal/hr = 4.6 hr / day working out
To lose that about of weight in April you will need to workout 4 1/2 hours per day on average (or dehydrate yourself and lose the weight in water).
That’s pretty aggressive, even for a triathlete.
Brent F has this exactly right.
Over the past 3 years I have converted myself from a 250-lb golfer into a 185-lb fast AG’er.
I have vast experience at cutting calories, both before and after I began training. Any deficit larger than 500 calories per day (conveniently 3500 calories or 1 lb/week) requires willpower that, for me at least, is unsustainable for more than a few days.
This is true whether I’m sedate, or putting in 20-hour training weeks. On my biggest IM training days (say 6 hr bike, 1.5 hr run), I burn about 6000 calories beyond my daily normal metabolism of 2000. Honest to gosh, if I don’t eat 7500 calories before bedtime, I’m too hungry.
Godspeed, Slowman. I wish you great success, but I don’t envy the level of suffering you have carved out for yourself.
(And I do think that a superhuman effort on your part can result in 15 lbs over 21 days, but at least 7 of those pounds will be from the dehydration that accompanies extreme dieting. I hope you’re not going to show up for Wildflower minus a gallon of water.)
Don’t you love us naysayers? We’re providing you bonus motivation.
GR
