Time Efficient 5k speed training (Bonus: 30 minutes of Audiobook)
After a 12 week training program, I ran a 18:54 (sub 19) 5k for the first time in my life. Bonus: I weighed 186lbs, it was 80F+ degrees outside, and I had been multitasking by listening to nonfiction audiobooks for almost all of the training program. Now my resting heart rate is under 50!
If you want a 5k training program that makes you faster, your cardio significantly better, without wasting time, this is the program for you.
Some personal background
The thing I’m most proud of, I didn’t change my lifestyle for it, I worked it into my regular workout schedule.
At the start of 2025 I made a New Year’s Resolution to do 30 minutes of combined cardio + (nonfiction) audiobook per day. Health benefits, energy benefits, and more knowledge.
I didn’t need to run fast. One of the purposes of the combined 30 minute audiobook + cardio was to not care about speed, as I tend to have more willpower than physical ability… and I seem to injure myself.
By the start of summer, I decided I wanted to further improve my cardio for health reasons. Enter: The Speed Day.
The Routine
- 1 Speed Day Per Week
- 1 Distance Day Per Week
- 3-5 Easy Days Per Week
Attached is the routine in a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LbSnZhED202-CJIyUAzuSnFcc8o0y5dkZyJydMCAbpE/edit?usp=sharing
To determine your times use this website: https://vdoto2.com/calculator
More details and tips below.
The Efficiency
I cannot make claims this is the most pure Efficient 5k running plan, there is science missing here. This is no Pi= C/D perfection here. However the running coach who made this routine combined their college athlete level experience with my requirements of 30 minutes of cardio per day. The engineer in me says: If it meets spec, good enough.
To make this as Efficient as possible, I did the following:
- Audiobooks during all easy days, distance days, and during speed day warmups and cooldowns.
- This was typically done as a break from work. I’d use this when stuck on a problem or exhaustion.
- I would go to our local run club for 1 easy day/week, listening to audiobooks in the car, and socializing/networking/meeting people at the event.
Only 1 speed day per week meant only sacrificing ~15-20 minutes of audiobook time. Distance days were longer than the desired 30 minutes, but I still listened to audiobooks, and once you get into running, having 1 distance day per week is normal.
The Speed Days
These are the important days. The rest of the week, you can casually mess around and not care about your times.
If possible, I’d wait until the weather was nice. This is the only workout that matters, so I would typically look for the best day between Tuesday and Thursday(and rarely Monday or Friday). The rest of the days get filled in with easy days.
If the weather was too hot and sunny, I’d do my 1 mile warmup to the shady part of my route. Even if you have to run under hot conditions, your workout is going to push your cardio. You are always winning on speed days, even if you can’t quite hit the time due to weather.
I hesitate to tell you the following because I didn’t know I was allowed to fail on speed days. There were 8 x 600m repeats that I would successfully do 5, then the last 3 were painful struggles that I would fail on. Not even the shame of failure could get me to move faster. I thought I had 0 chance of completing my goal. But… Apparently it didn’t matter. Pushing myself hard was the workout.
I broke tradition and would alternate fast and slightly less fast. While conventional wisdom says to have a consistent speed, I break tradition here. My reasoning is that doing the same form means lactic acid is going to build up for the entire workout. If you alternate between two forms, it gives your muscles a break. Admittedly these were both fast, but one was super fast, and the other was a recovery fast. Coach disagrees with me here.
Eating
A constant fight me and my running coach had was over food.
A 185lb person is going to use more energy than a 135lb runner. I insisted that I needed to lose 15lbs. Coach insisted I needed to fuel.
I relented and ate.
My compromise was after the 12 week plan, I’d cut 10-15lbs and retry when the weather was 20 degrees colder. To my shock, I still hit my goal.
As a fun fact, this whole thing has me inventing a new type of competition. Momentum race. Whoever has the highest weight * average speed wins. More details Here.
Easy Days
Easy days are super fun. There are basically no expectations. I was running at 9 or 10 minute mile pace (my 5k pace was under 6:06).
3-5 days a week, you will be running easy. This means you could take a day off cardio. I personally didn’t due to my 30min/day goal, and I think this helps with habits for psychological reasons.
I would listen to my audiobook and take voice to text notes while running.
At least 1+ easy day per week, I’d stationary bike. This is important to mention. You should be giving your body time to repair. Do not run 7 days a week.
A tip on these easy days: Feel good, get blood flowing to your legs. After a speed day, my legs would feel wrecked. There is something that feels good about running with different forms. While most of my easy days would be mindless, I’d occasionally feel good changing up my form:
- Running on my tip toes.
- Running with high knees.
- Running fast for a few seconds before slowing down. (I believe people call this ‘Strides’)
- And of course, normal mindless running.
Distance Days
These were typically easy, but I have a caveat.
After the middle of the routine, the coach gave me 2 different distance days to alternate. Easy and progressively difficult. Easy is just like the easy days above.
Progressive distance days started at 9 minute mile pace and would reduce down to 7:30 pace by the last mile. For 9 miles, this means reducing by 10 seconds per mile.
Injury/Pain
Less running and more rest. This means more stationary bike days(or whatever cardio). You can eliminate distance days if necessary.
At one point, I took 1 week off speed days to recover.
I nearly always run the day after a speed day or distance day. I’m a believer in getting blood flowing.
Hot tubs or hot showers with stretching may help as well.
Admittedly as the race day was approaching, my knees were not 100%. However I knew I had less than 10 days left, the last week was easy, and after the race, I could take it easy.
Race Day
Other people like to sign up for races. I like picking the best day, time, and location for me. In this case, I waited until the sun went down and I was feeling good.
Of course eat good/carbs. Maybe some caffeine before the run.
Here is the big tip: Go for your goal.
If you had the goal, do it. Know your pace and keep to it. I accidentally ran faster on my first mile, and was happy to know I had a little bit of wiggle room. If I compromised on the run, I would have ran a slow first mile and had 0 chance of recovery.
The training plan you have been working on for 12 weeks and struggling was built for you to struggle. You are likely capable of hitting your goal. This was all built in.
Don’t compromise.
Race day tips from Coach
Do not go into the run thinking you will fail, or you definitely will.
Go into the run and grit out the pace for as long as you can.
You can do this.
Race day adrenaline is legit.
Clothing and Equipment
Shoes
I had 2-3 shoes to cycle between. An old pair, a new pair, and speed shoes.
My speedy shoes force you on the front of your feet and would feel weird running on the back. This is your race day shoes. They were purple and sparkly, forcing me to run fast or be embarrassed haha.
My new shoes were typically worn most of the easy runs and most of the distance runs. Especially when going to social running events. They looked nice.
My old shoes were a nice change. You can imagine slightly different angles mean different muscle use and different muscle wear and tear. I’d wear these ~1 time per week if I remembered.
Clothing
On sunny speed days days: white shirts. It reflects the sun. I specifically cut a tshirt from sleeve to waist to allow breathing. It looked silly, but it does reflect the heat, and it does allow breathing.
Nothing special on shorts or socks.
Tight underwear, to prevent chafing.
In the winter, before starting this routine I’d wear the following: Shirt, Hoodie, neck gater, sunglasses, one tight underwear, one loose underwear, sweatpants. I’d also run on trails when the road froze over.
Smart Watch
Cheap Garmin.
Halfway through I got the Strava app.
Hypee
This program can work for you too.
You will improve your cardio health. You will have some vanity numbers to show off to friends. You will be faster!
You can do this.
Short: Save time brewing coffee with an 1 cup measuring scoop in your coffee container
For too long I’ve been doing ~12 heaping scoops of a tablespoon to fill up my coffee filter with coffee grounds.
I finally had enough and decided to measure out the coffee grounds required to make a pot of coffee.
Given every indivdual has their prefered strength of coffee, I suggest doing this once:
Do your regular scoops, but instead of putting them in a coffee filter, place it in a measuring cup. I make a full pot of coffee, so I put 12 heaping scoops into a 1 cup measuring cup.
Take note of what this looks like, mine was a slightly heaping 1 cup of coffee grounds.
Now I can leave a 1 cup measuring cup in my coffee container and instead of taking 12 motions, I can take a single motion to add coffee to my coffee filter.
Short: Print Labels To Reduce Time Daily Writing (on baby bottles)
Our daycare has a requirement label our bottles with our child’s name, date, and type of liquid. For our first child, we had been writing this information on 4 pieces of tape, everyday.
We bought a digital label maker, and now we can print these labels, changing only the date.
Its been a favorite for the next 3 kids we had, saves time every morning.
Time Efficient Packed Lunches
When my daughter came home with uneaten Red Pepper slices, something Mrs. Efficiency had spent labor to cut up, I decided this had to be studied.
Bonus points if your kid packs their own lunch. Although given pre-school chaos, this might be more ideal than real. Could pack lunches at night.
Specifications/Requirements
A packed lunch had a requirement Not to be something heated. No leftovers would meet this criteria. The grey area here is that some typically warm foods like Pizza are enjoyed cold. This can be cultural, and more power to anyone who can eat leftovers cold.
Food must have some caloric content to give energy for the rest of the day. A bunch of celery sticks isn’t enough, even if by volume they could satiate and fill a stomach. Let us set a goal for ~500 calories.
Foods must have some desired nutritional content. Protein and vitamins are deemed universally acceptable in this case.
Known winners
Ready to eat Fruit and Vegetables
The best:
- Bananas immediately come to mind. They are among the most perfect of foods that satisfy the Requirements. ~100 calories, have vitamins, and take almost no time to put into a lunchbox.
- Small, easy peal, Oranges, they arent as many calories, but I suppose you could get larger oranges or pack multiple.
- Dried fruit, these are semi-heavy in calories, depending on the fruit they have varying amounts of nutrition. Dried blueberries are higher in nutrition than rasins, but more generally these are great options
- Baby Carrots, low in calories but high in nutrition
Lesser options that come to mind, but they have some downsides:
- Blueberries also need to be washed, but have significant enough vitamins and enough of them do hit caloric goals.
- Strawberries need to be washed and are relatively low calorie, but they do have significant vitamins.
- Apples, they need to be washed and do not have the vitamin content found in Bananas or Oranges.
- Grapes, these also need to be washed and similar to apples do not have the vitamin content found in Bananas or Oranges.
- Celery Sticks, these don’t to be washed, but they are low calorie and low vitamin, these are somewhat a waste of time, but could be filling by volume.
As you can see, spending time washing fruit is an unwanted time-sink. To save time, you could get all your fruit out, wash it at the start of the week and package it.
Protein
Smoked/preserved meats come to mind as ‘The Best’ when it comes to fast. I am aware that these are costly and potentially have carcinogenic properties, but I believe it would be wrong to not include them for their Efficiency:
- Beef Jerky: Expensive but tasty
- Meat Sticks: Heavier in fats could be useful if trying to hit caloric goals
-
Lunchmeat: Turkey, Ham, that sliced stuff. This is only Efficient if you don’t make a sandwhich, however if you were going to add something simple like bread, cheese, or mayo to supplement calories(see later section), this could be acceptable. Just don’t spend time adding something calorie-free mustard.
Lesser:
- Hardboiled eggs: Easy enough to toss a carton of eggs in water, let it boil, and use them all week. Eggs have lots of nutrition and for a caloric goal, fat.
- Nuts: High in calories and often banned at schools, at least it has some protein.
Calories
These are almost too easy.
- Crackers
- Bread
- Cheese sticks
- Cereal
- Yogurt
- Granola Bars
- Trail Mix
Covering everything in oil. As long as it takes almost 0 time to prepare, I consider these meeting requirements.
Completed pre-packed lunches
We all know about Lunchables and similar foods. They follow this
Things to avoid
As mentioned earlier, avoid:
- Washing
- Cutting/Chopping
- Complexity: Keep the number of items limited so you aren’t making many trips to cabinets, pantry, and refrigerator.
What combinations can you vision?
Considering everything said, could you further optimize by getting items from the same location? Hypothetically, if you were making a lunch with Beef Jerky, a banana, and crackers, you could put everything in the same spot on the counter, and pack everything without taking any extra steps. Alternatively and a bit more strange, if you were making a lunch of meat sticks, dried fruit, and crackers, could you put everything in the refrigerator?
Sequencing aka Multitasking but with each body part.
We all multitask, or attempt to. This idea of multitasking is a bit finer as it attempts to utilize your idle body parts.
Imagine you grab a bag of cheese out of the refrigerator and are walking to your stove to put cheese on some food. Instead of opening the bag of cheese when you arrive, you can open it during your walk. This makes use of both your legs and your arms.
If you can apply this daily and save 2 seconds, that adds up to ~10 hours in your lifetime. Suppose you find ~5 of these useful, that can be 50 hours of savings.
I look at this list and admittedly they seem a bit trivial or obvious, but I went for breadth in order to give a plethora of ideas.
Kitchen Ideas for sequencing
- Pealing Fruit
- (Un)cap spices
- Begin tearing lettuce
- Opening yogurt/applesauce
- Shake a drink
- Open a snackbag
- Shell a hardboiled egg
- Open a vitamin/medicine container
- Open a jar
- Open a cheese bag
- Peal off stickers from fruits/veggies/produce.
- Uncap a waterbottle
- Unwrap food items
- Unscrew baby bottles or sippy cups
Household Ideas
- Sort mail, potentially open mail.
- Open a trashbag
- Open up a package
- Click a pen
- Tear tape
Clothing
- (Un)button a shirt
- (Un)zip
- Put on a watch/bracelet.
- Use a hair tie on your hair.
Pets
- Open bags
- Break up treats
Everywhere
- Check your phone/reply to messages
Greater Takeaways
I partially want to apologize about how simple some of these are. I hope the greater takeaway is a new consideration of using your hands and mind while walking. These are merely ideas to consider in the future that can save you literal days of your life in efficiency gains.
Using ChatGPT4 to Save Time
Some ideas on how to utilize AI to save time.
As a note, this is only tested on ChatGPT4. One time ChatGPT4 was down and I ended up going to Google’s Gemini to do the work, it was alright.
Food
Want to start eating healthy or a specific diet, but not sure what to buy? Ask
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what can I buy at *insert restaurant*
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what should I buy at the grocery store this week?
I am *insert Keto/Vegetarian/Gluten Free/Low FODMAP*, what snacks that don’t require refrigeration can I buy?
Ask ChatGPT how to modify a recipe according to whatever you want. I will warn you, this is probably best for seasoned cooks because it can occasionally give bad advice like add way too much soy sauce (or at least that seems far too much to me).
It wins far more than it loses.
Ask it for recipes (No endless scrolling of cooking spam articles!). Include dietary restrictions. Tell it to add extra vegetables. Ask what to do if you are out of an ingredient. Replace expensive/seasonal ingredients.
Party Planning
In moments I can ask:
Give 10 different cuisines I can *insert cook/cater* from and give 3 possible examples of what specific foods and quantities will be needed for *insert number of kids and number of adults*.
It gives a bunch of ideas, no brainstorming time needed.
Then ask:
I want the theme to be *insert theme*, what are 20 extremely easy, fast, and simple ways to decorate?
Finally, whenever a crisis happens, ask ChatGPT for advice, there might be a simple solution.
Watching/Answering Children’s Questions
My kids ask a lot of questions, and since ChatGPT can understand phonetically spelled words, my 4 year old can ask ChatGPT questions. It’s similar to a Google/Siri thing, but there’s a higher level of detail in output. I specifically have a bot that tells ChatGPT that they will be talking to a 4-year-old who spells things phonetically and that the answers should have simple words.
Law Questions
While this isn’t for high stakes things, I feel comfortable asking ChatGPT about low stakes legal questions. I’ll often read some document and not understand a sentence. I could just ignore the problem and sign anyway. I could pay a lawyer $100-$200 to read it. I could ask ChatGPT and confirm my understanding with further reading. The nice part is that ChatGPT is awake at 4am when I am working, my lawyer isn’t awake until 8am and my $100 question is small fries to them.
Medical Corruption
Avoid unnecessary medical procedures, ask ChatGPT before you are billed and waste time on unnecessary treatment. As an example, I had a stomach bug and the nurse was pretty pushy about an x-ray. I told ChatGPT about my symptoms and it thought the x-ray was unnecessary. An anti-biotic later, I feel great. No x-ray needed. (I then listened to this nurse go down the room and ask everyone if they wanted x-rays for any condition imaginable).
Car Repair
Confirm that what your mechanic is saying is true. Ask ChatGPT to confirm everything from diagnosis, pricing, etc…
Bots
You could turn all of these questions into ‘Bots’. Bots are literally copypasting your question/prompt/command before you send your new question. You could do this manually by… copypasting your question/prompt/command before sending your question. For instance:
Always copypaste this:
“You are a master chef and come up with ultra healthy recipes that are filling, high in protein, high in nutrients, and easy to cook. Come up with simple recipes I can make up at home”.
Then type whatever you want after before hitting send.
“I want 3 meals that only require a few ingredients from the grocery store”
Then you get a customized answer.
The ‘bot’ thing, is saving the pre-prompt in the ChatGPT4 system… Yeah, they copypaste for you. Its actually kind of nice 🙂
Final thoughts and tips
I often reply to AI with: “That was a 2/10 answer, give me a 10/10 answer” or “Be realistic, not idealistic”. These really do work, the technical term is called Chain of Thought.
Application is up to you. You will get better at asking AI questions.
7.5 Minute Per Day Bodybuilding Workout (And make more money)
Due to miscommunication, one of our Efficiency Is Everything creators thought I was doing a 5 Minute Per Day workout. When I corrected her, she mentioned: “A 5 minute per day workout would be really cool”. (Note from the Editor: I personally would want to warm up and cool down, but the purpose of this article is efficiency. Add a warm-up/cooldown and you can still get in a quicker strength workout).
I couldn’t get it down to 5 minutes, at least not with enough warmups. You might do better.
As a note, given the countless studies suggesting good looks = more confidence = more money, I will propose that exercise is profitable.
Goals
The goals are to be healthy, save time, get stronger, look good, and make more money.
On Being Healthy
Don’t get injured, the weights are heavy and typically done to failure. Two suggestions: Be conscious of form by ensuring the targeted muscles are getting hit rather than joints or unwanted muscles. Stop when you feel pain. (You already got stronger this week, come back next week)
On Saving Time
Be deliberate. If your goal is to get in your workout and save time, look at the biggest sources of waste. A 20 minute drive to the gym would justify doing 2 of the lifts in a single session. How long does it take to get dressed/ready for the gym? Can you do warmups more efficiently?
On Getting Stronger
Each week the goal is to move up in weight, or do more reps. You will get stronger if you do this. To ensure this happens, record your weights somehow. I use either pen and paper or Google Sheets on my phone.
On Looking Good/Make More Money
Muscle looks good. Combine this with eating right, higher protein diets, potentially alternating between bulking(excess calories) and cutting/losing weight.
Good looks will help you do better in interviews, performance reviews, and general conversations with everyone you encounter.
The Workout
The classically recommended Bench, Deadlift, Overhead Press, Squat. 1 per day, 1 heavy set, 4 times total per week. Each lift is done on a separate day, the advantage here is that you rest during your day, rather than between sets at the gym. This isnt significant and if you want to stack Bench and Deadlift on the same day, and Squat and Overhead Press another day to avoid traveling to the gym, it could be more efficient. With a home gym, the rest time is greater than the time it takes to travel to my weight set.
Lifts
I recommended the classic 4, but feel free to add and subtract as you see fit. The process/system is important. Although there is a reason these 4 are classic, they are good. For vanity reasons, I added bicep curls as an additional day.
Reps, Sets, Weights
Whatever you do, you want to keep close to 0 strength left in you. This means you will *always* need a spotter for bench; you cannot do this program without a spotter on bench, because you will be failing.
Sets: the less warmups the faster, the more warmups, the better your performance. You warm up to 1 final set, it’s the heaviest and you will do enough reps to fail or be close to failing.
For bodybuilding, I like eccentric/negative training. Where you do ~8 reps, but you count for 6 seconds doing negatives.
For strength, I like warming up to a single heavy set aiming for 2-5 reps.
Real Life Notes
The first time you do the routine, you may or may not get under 7.5 minutes. Maybe it’s due to having to create a brand new Weight/Reps sheet, or not finding the clips.
You will want to work fast, everything should be more upbeat than normal.
Find ways to reduce transportation time. Driving to the gym is never going to hit 5 minutes/day. This is nearly exclusive to the home gym crew. However, you can see there may be applications of a quick workout in a gym setting. Given the friends and connections I made at the gym, I frequently consider getting a membership for social rather than health reasons.
Efficiency Kandice insists on this: Disclaimer: Efficiency is Everything is not a physician or healthcare provider. This article is for general information purposes only. Follow this exercise regimen at your own risk.
Save Time With Fish Tanks
Our Efficiency Assistant had some ideas for saving time caring for fish tanks. When she mentioned plants, I personally could attest to how much time this saved.
Efficiency Abigail:
There’s something magical about watching colorful fish glide through the water, however I knew I didn’t want my tank to become an overwhelming time suck. I researched and researched, discovering a few tricks to save time, money, and stress.
Here are my top three tips for creating a thriving, low-maintenance tank.
Choose the Right Tank Setup
A well-prepared tank makes everything easier. I started with a 10-gallon tank – it’s big enough to create a stable environment without being overwhelming to care for. I cycled my tank for almost three (3) months, prior to adding any aquatic life. This helped my tank to build up beneficial bacteria that will keep the water healthy. For filtration, I swear by sponge filters. They’re budget-friendly, easy to clean in between your water cycles and a deep clean of your filtration system.
Focus on a Self-Cleaning Ecosystem
What really saves me time is focusing on a natural setup. Live plants like Anubias and Java Fern have been game-changers for my tank. They improve water quality by absorbing toxins and reducing algae, which means fewer water changes for me. Combining these plants with natural cleaners like algae-eating fish and scavengers creates a balanced ecosystem.
Efficiency Michael Kirk: We have also added plants to our tank, we got some from friends who said their plants had grown too much.
Pick Hardy Species
My tetras, grouped as an all-female “Cheerleader Squad,” thrive as social creatures. African dwarf frogs delight me with their antics, while a Rubber Lip Plecostomus and my Nerite Snail handles cleaning the glass. There are two Albino Cory Catfish which love sifting through the gravel and sand for leftover food.
Easy on the budget and relaxing
Fishkeeping has become a relaxing, budget-friendly hobby for me. With the right setup, hardy species, and natural cleaning methods, my tank practically cares for itself.
60 second “French Toast”
It seemed my friend and the social media world was appalled, but they didn’t taste it.
Imagine doing the following first thing in the morning, upbeat and as quick as possible.
Or whenever.
The Process
Get a plate, a bowl and a fork, Eggs, Bread, Cinnamon, and nonstick spray. You should do this along the path of your kitchen in the most efficient way possible.
Crack 1 (or more) eggs into the bowl and whisk
Spray plate with nonstick spray
Dip both sides of bread in the egg. Place on plate. Repeat for all bread.
Shake cinnamon over top, put in microwave long enough for the egg to cook. Probably 75 seconds for 1 slice, 2 minutes for 4 slices. I don’t mind overcooking.
Go do something else while waiting
You have about 2 minutes of microwave time.
Grab the syrup, clean up, answer text messages.
Enjoy
Coat in syrup and eat. It might not be the exact texture you expected, but I am sure it tastes great.
What other corners can be cut in favorite recipes to have them prepared in 1 minute? Hard problem, but I’ve seen it work.
Weight Loss Per Day – Fasting, Exercise, and more compared
I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see “Not Eating” + “Doing Exercise” is the fastest way to lose weight. However the noteworthy comparison is the Efficiency of weight loss. This can be used to limit the pain needed to lose weight.
There are plenty of websites about fasting for multiple days, look into those or the Electrolyte loss + Refeeding Syndrome can kill you.
Data and Findings
Fasting with exercise wins, this is easier said than done if you’ve fasted for a few days. I’ve been able to run ~1 mile and walk 2-3 miles during a 5 day fast. This is approx 300+ calories.
Something interesting here. The extra exercise is gives you the same weight loss per day as if you never fasted, however the absolute when fasting is higher. Its easy to dismiss this as obvious, but if you ever found yourself buying an extra item because it was Buy One Get One Half Off and you ended up spending 50% more money than you expected. My point being: If you are going to be suffering during a fasting day anyway or its urgent to lose weight, you could add an extra 300+ calories in exercise.
This also highlights how insignificant some exercise is. 1 hour of causal walking burns ~300 calories max. It is quite time intensive to burn calories this way. Meanwhile if you could run 6 or 13 miles, you could be burning 800 or 1700 calories in a day. These stacked with a caloric deficit can get decently high in weight loss per day.
Personal Application
If you can handle fasting, it clearly shows to be the best. I will do this a few times a year for ~2-3 days to lose weight but not get into ketosis. Being obsessed with Efficiency, I admittedly will do sometimes a 1 mile run then take the kids ~2 miles round trip to the park.
More regularly, I’ll eat 1 large-ish meal and 0-1 smaller meal/snacks through the day. Then I’ll do some cardio, often 6 miles. 1500 calories eaten, ~800 calories burned. 1800 Caloric deficit! Lose a half pound in 1 day!
This is semi-reasonable to do this and similar all week. Swapping 6 mile runs for biking to let muscles rest won’t burn as many calories, but it will give you a break and still burn extra.
Final Thoughts and Long Term
I consider losing weight a temporary condition. I don’t plan to live like this forever. I plan to lose the weight and stay some-what around that weight.
If I gain 5-15lbs in a year, I can lose this weight in weeks. This can beat some of the mental difficulties with weight loss. We are often inspired for the first ~2 months of a new lifestyle before the excitement is gone.
Apply this law of nature and sprint at weight loss for 2 months before taking a break and eating normal. When you are excited to take on another round of weight loss, you are ready to begin.