If you have ever tried to lose weight you know it is not a simple matter—especially if you want to keep the weight off. Add to that the desire to lose the weight quickly and you have a complex set of factors to consider. Complex, but not impossible. In fact, many medical doctors and dieticians agree: It is possible to lose weight quickly and keep the weight off without putting your health in danger. You just have to do it the right way.
But what is the right way? The wrong way is to jump into the latest fad diet. Crash diets that limit your calorie intake severely or rely on only one or two food groups are unhealthy and don’t work. You may lose weight quickly but you will gain it back just as quickly, and you may bring on serious health problems. Diet pills are often ineffective and/or very dangerous and are not recommended. Another diet that won’t work is one where you have to eat food you can’t easily get or food you don’t like; no one can keep up that kind of diet for long.
The right way is simple: To lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. You can do that by eating less (to take in fewer calories) and exercising more (to burn more calories). Do that and you can reach—and maintain–your weight goal.
Importance of Metabolic Rate
Eating less is not the same as not eating or following an extreme diet. An extreme diet can suppress the metabolic rate by up to 45%. That’s important to know because the metabolic rate is the rate at which the body burns fat in order to stay alive. When your metabolic rate goes down, you burn less fat, but more muscle. With a very low calorie diet (below 1050 calories a day) you can lose weight quickly, but you can’t keep it off. That’s because without enough food you will lose weight, but your metabolic rate will go down, which means you will burn calories more slowly and you won’t have the muscles mass or energy to exercise–so your weight will go back up. It’s the up-and-down cycle many dieters are familiar with. The fact is, you cannot lose weight fast and keep the weight off if you don’t eat enough food.
How Many Calories?
How many calories should your diet provide each day to lose weight quickly? One calorie intake formula recommends cutting back to seven calories for each pound you currently weigh (but no less than 1050 calories daily). If, for example, you weight 200 pounds, your diet for quick weight loss would have 1400 calories per day (200 pounds x 7 calories per pound=1400 calories).
Another way to calculate your daily calorie intake for losing weight quickly is to subtract 500 calories from your current daily diet. If you do that and increase physical activity, you can lose one-to-two pounds a week. To lose more weight, eat less and exercise more. With good nutrition and exercise people can safely lose three-to-five pounds the first week. Keep in mind, the more fat you have, the faster the fat will burn off; that is, the more you weigh the quicker you will lose weight.
Foods for Rapid Weight Lose
You can lose up to five pounds when you start your diet if you reduce sodium (salt). Salt retains water; with less salt the body loses more quickly, a big help for fast weight loss. A total of two-to-three teaspoons of salt a day is enough for most people. That includes the salt you put on at the table as well as the salt used in cooking and the salt in prepared foods.
Replace carbohydrates (even healthy, whole grain carbs) with more vegetables in your diet. In addition to vegetables, eat mostly fruits, egg whites, soy products, skinless poultry breasts, fish, shellfish, non-fat dairy and 95% lean meat for quick weight loss. Eat lots of protein throughout the day.
Drink lots of water; people sometimes think they are hungry when they are actually thirsty. If you drink a lot you won’t be thirsty, so you won’t confuse thirst with hunger. Plus, water makes you feel full.
How You Eat
A diet for quick weight loss that works is not only about what you eat, it’s also about how you eat.
Eat more slowly. Research shows that when people eat more slowly they eat less. When you eat slowly you get more of a sense of fullness after your meal. You can practice eating more slowly by putting your fork or spoon down after each bite and not picking it up again until you have swallowed the food in your mouth. Another tip is to take small bites and chew each mouthful four or five times before swallowing. Schedule your meals so you have the time to eat slowly.
Eat three meals daily plus one snack. Skipping meals makes you hungry, which makes it harder to resist handy, high-calorie snacks.
Eat seated at a table. Eat from a plate. This means no eating in the car and no food on the fly. And while you are at the table, don’t do anything other than eat. People tend to eat more quickly (which means eating more) when they are reading or watching TV while eating.
Consult Your Doctor
A good way to start a weight loss diet is with a visit to your medical provider. Your provider may have recommendations for quick weight loss programs or may refer you to a registered dietician. He or she can review your medical and dieting history, and make suggestions based on your needs and concerns. The medical provider can also make sure you don’t have any medical conditions relevant to your weight and your dieting plans.
Quick and Healthy Diet
With diets for quick weight loss that work you can lose weight rapidly without endangering your health.