If you are one of the many people searching the web for tips to start losing weight fast, you have no doubt already read a huge amount of science and theory pertaining to diet and weight loss. This puts you in a fantastic position to start reducing calories, managing blood sugar, exercising and more.
But the remaining question is how you go about putting that theory into practice. How can you change your diet so that it will take all of this logic into account and still be manageable and effective? Read on for some simple steps that you can take and a step-by-step action plan you can follow.
Assess Your Current Diet and Lifestyle
Step one is to assess your current diet and lifestyle. What shape are you in? What shape would you like to be in? Are you very active? Do you currently eat healthily? Is it possible that you might have some kind of condition that makes losing weight hard?
Calculate your basal metabolic rate as well as how many calories you’re burning in a day. Get a fitness tracker if you have the money. And visit your doctor to discuss the possibility of hypothyroidism/medication causing weight gain. You can even ask for blood tests which may revel nutrient deficiencies or hormone imbalances for you to address.
Create a Calorie Deficit
The next step is to try and gently create a calorie deficit while:
- Not disrupting your current diet and lifestyle too much
- Still getting lots of great nutrition
This might mean cutting things from your diet and routine (such as the aforementioned Coca-Cola) or it might mean just eating smaller portions. Maintaining a consistent lunch and breakfast can also help, as can using complex carbs and fats to reduce hunger pangs.
Meanwhile, look for nutrient dense foods and try and find a salad bar or a smoothie or something else that will give you a lot of goodness.
Add Resistance Cardio
You can also try to add some kind of resistance cardio which should help to improve your calorie total throughout the day. A great option for losing weight fast is the kettlebell swing. Try performing 300 kettlebell swings every day, this is a great challenge and a great way to begin losing weight fast as it burns a lot of calories in a short amount of time. It should only take around 5-10 minutes though!
Monitor Your Results
Now see if this alone is enough to bring about some changes to your composition. Measure your weight but also your waist which can tell you a bit more about body composition. If you’re using a fitness watch then you might also notice your VO2 max improve (only some products measure this).
Go Low Carb or Try Intermittent Fasting
If this doesn’t work and doesn’t bring about the changes you want and your blood work was all clear, then you may want to consider trying to improve your insulin sensitivity. One way to do this is to go low carb for a while, to use carb-backloading, or to try intermittent fasting. This will put you in a temporarily ketogenic state while also improving your energy efficiency and using up glycogen.
Use this as a reset and then try the dieting again to see if it helps.
Incorporate High-Intensity Interval Training
Another thing you can incorporate is high-intensity interval training (HIIT) which has many of the same benefits as intermittent fasting and also helps you to further elevate your metabolism. Its tempting to go hard right away, as your goal is losing weight fast, but build up to it slowly at first! You should also look for ways to be more active throughout the day and use your fitness tracker to spot points where you slow down.
Seek Out Superfoods
Think like a Paleo eater and try to get as many nutrient dense organ meats and marine plants as you can. All this stuff will enhance your health and your hormone balance. Also try and make sure you are getting plenty of sleep and sunlight to further enhance your energy metabolism.
Armed with all this knowledge and all this information, you should eventually start to see improvements in your weight loss. You have the science and now it’s simply a matter of making it work for you. It’s really not that hard when you know how!
About the Author
Justin Arndt is an avid fitness researcher and exercise enthusiast who has written countless articles on health, fitness, and weight loss. He is the author of the upcoming book Lose Weight Fast – The Science of Weight Loss which is now available for pre-order exclusively on iTunes. You can read more of his work at http://loseweight.io.
