Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.
Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle
Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.
Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism
Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.
When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.
What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
A Graphic example
For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.
In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.
Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.
Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are simply losing water in the sort term.
The dangers of crash dieting
Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.
This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.
They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.
Your goal should be long term weight loss
Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.
If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.
The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.
The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.
Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy
Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of starvation.
Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.
In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.
This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.
If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.
This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.
Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly
In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us
Appearance of Loose Skin
If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.
The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.
Gallstones
Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.
Lack of energy and illness
Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.
Lose weight slowly
Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.
You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.
How to do
Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.
Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle
Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.
Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism
Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.
When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.
What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
A Graphic example
For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.
In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.
Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.
Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are simply losing water in the sort term.
The dangers of crash dieting
Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.
This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.
They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.
Your goal should be long term weight loss
Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.
If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.
The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.
The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.
Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy
Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of starvation.
Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.
In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.
This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.
If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.
This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.
Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly
In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us
Appearance of Loose Skin
If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.
The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.
Gallstones
Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.
Lack of energy and illness
Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.
Lose weight slowly
Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.
You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.
How to do
How would you like to drop ten pounds?
Anyone can do it. You do need discipline and motivation to lose weight.
But losing weight fast?
How much time have you got?
1 month? 7 days?
Before I begin, I would like to warn you that if you lose weight fast, you are likely to regain back the weight you lost.
Do it wisely with a permanent change in your lifestyle to keep that weight off. Go for inch loss first by toning your body. Actual weight loss comes later. Muscle is heavier than fat but muscle burns far more calories. I’ll elaborate on this later.
Back to the fast ways to lose weight
Here are the most popular options.
1. Crash diets
Crash dieting can let you shed those pounds, at the expense of your health. Once you eat normally, you will regain what you lost and more. When you fast, or when you go on a crash diet, you might lose weight rapidly at first, then your body adjusts, trying to conserve calories just to survive.
Imagine the days of the cavemen. Sometimes, the hunter is successful and returns with food for the familiy. Other times, he returns empty-handed. Our bodies are adaptable. That is how our ancestors survived. When food was plentiful, they ate to their fill. Their bodies stored the food in the form of fat. When food was scarce, they had little, at times nothing to eat, the body could depend on the stores of fat for the necessary energy for survival. Hence when food is available, the body stores what it can for the bad time.
Back to modern day. The first crash diet might seem wildly successful, with the pounds falling off rapidly. Then you reach your target weight and stop dieting. You bloat up and the weight piles on even more easily. Well, congratulations. You tricked your body into going into starvation mode, slowing down your metabolism. Now that you are finally, eating, your body is storing what it can in case of a famine.
Now you diet again. That drastic diet you tried doesn’t seem effective. After cutting even more calories, you manage to shed the offending pounds. Satisfied, you take a break from the diet and all your hard work is wasted. The pounds return with a vengeance. Looks like your body is becoming very adept at holding on to the much needed energy stores in case of a famine.
You crash diet again. This time, your hair falls, the pounds seem even harder to lose. You are depriving your body of the nourishment it needs and that shows in your brittle hair, nails and dull skin.
Basically, although crash diets seem effective at first, they are a bad idea in the long run.
2. fasting to lose weight
People do fast for religious reasons. Muslims fast for an entire month in a year, eating lightly only before sunrise and after sunset. In between, for that fasting month, the devout muslims would train their discipline by not eating or drinking anything.
I’ve seen a Muslim friend slim down each year after that fasting month, wearing dresses that show off her slimmer figure after that. So how about fasting to lose weight?
Personally, I have not tried it. I have a problem with gastritis and for me, skipping a meal can lead to a gastric attack. Once you have gastric problems, they are pretty hard to get rid of, so if you do want to fast, check with a doctor first to see if you can do it safely in the first place.
My concern about fasting as a way to lose weight fast is the same as my concern for crash diets. Would you end up slowing your metabolic rate the way you might with on and off crash dieting?
3. Endurance sports
Did you notice how lean marathon runners are? How about those who engage in endurance sports.
I actually did go for a day trip cycling to a beach with a group of friends. 3 and a half hours cycling up and down hill with hardly any breaks to get there. The next day, another 3 and a half hours to get back. All of us lost some weight on that trip.
A friend of mine had a dynamite figure even though she had 3 kids. She was training for a marathon and it showed in her figure. Lean where it mattered. She showed off her figure in gorgeous dresses and looked better than most women ten years younger than she was.
I doubt if you can lose weight that fast, like in a week, by picking up an endurance sport but over the weeks, training for a marathon, or cycling as long as you can to explore your surroundings, or for day trips would go a long way in losing weight.
You would need to pick up speed first. Training for half an hour a day, before you increase your time to an hour or longer if necessary.
4. Strength training
Muscle burns far more calories flab. Basically, if you work out and tone your body, you boost your metabolic rate. Yes, you burn calories when you workout, but even after the workout, your body would continue to burn more calories at rest than if you had been lazing around all the time.
Incorporating strength training might not bring down the numbers on the scale. Muscle weighs more than fat, so you might even end up heavier.
Instead, you would see inch loss, which translates to a slimmer figure. On a guy, bulking up is far more positive effect than just reducing the fat.
4. Diet and exercise plan
The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to incorporate both a healthy diet and a daily exercise plan you follow for the rest of your life.
You will have to fit the daily exercise into your lifestyle. Something that incorporates strength training to boost your metabolism and tone your body with aerobic exercise to burn calories all around. Maybe get a set of weights you can use for strength training at home and an aerobics video for the aerobics part of it. Or a pair of running shoes for a daily run. Then get a diary specially to write down what you eat and drink each day, totaling up your calorie count per day. Use that to monitor your diet. Substitute unhealthy foods with healthier substitutes. Grill food instead of frying it. Take fruits instead of sweets. Drink water instead of sodas. You know the drill.
If you want to lost weight quickly, or rather, reduce inches quickly, incorporate crunches and abdominal exercises before you go for a daily run. Do strength training exercises to boost your metabolic rate and aerobic exercises to burn calories more rapidly. Eat a healthy diet focusing on more fruit and veggies, less carbohydrates and enough protein to get you through the day. Cut down on junk food and watch your drinks. A glass of coke could contain 200 calories. Now how hard do you have to work out to burn those calories. It is easier to keep them off by not taking unnecessary calories than to burn them off.
Personally, I would vouch for Billy Blanks workouts for fast inch loss. If you really follow that plan, in one week, you can measure the difference in your waist with a tape measure. The workouts are demanding but effective. They also have a decent meal plan which if you follow strictly, can help you shed the inches quickly. There are many other weight loss plans in the market. The ones that focus both on exercise and a healthy meal plan are your best bet.
How to do
