Everybody wants to know the secrets of fast fat loss. In our overweight society, so many people are trying to lose weight and have a fitter, more toned body with less of that unattractive flabby fat. If there was a miracle pill that could make the body burn or digest five pounds of fat every day, just imagine what the demand for that would be!
Unfortunately there is no such miracle pill. There are medications and supplements that you can take to help with weight loss, but independent research studies show that they do not have that huge of an effect. Sure they can be worth taking, especially if fast fat loss is important to you for health reasons. But they are designed to work with a healthy weight loss diet and exercise program, not replace it.
So now that we know that there are no miracle answers to the problem of fast fat loss, how can we go about losing fat in the quickest way?
The answer is a combination of diet and exercise – but please do not be tempted to follow a crash diet. Crash diets can help you lose a lot of weight in a short time but just about everybody will gain back that weight afterward. I'm talking here about the kind of diet that tells you to eat nothing but cabbage for two weeks. The only reason for doing that would be if you needed to drop a dress size for a big event, and you didn't care if you put that weight right back on (and probably more) afterward.
There are many diet programs out there and the truth is that most of them work if you follow them. That second part of the equation – whether you can follow them – is actually the most important. The reason that there are so many different diet plans is because people have different tastes.
When you think about it, I am sure you will agree that it is way more important to find a diet that you can follow, than to find the one that is scientifically proven to give the most weight loss. Why is this? Well, let's take an example.
Anna follows a healthy weight loss plan and loses 50 pounds in 6 months. That's an average of around 2 pounds per week, although some weeks she lost more, and some weeks less.
Betty goes for the plan that advertises spectacularly fast fat loss. She loses 20 pounds in a month. But she doesn't like the foods she is supposed to eat and she is constantly hungry, so she starts having slipups and gains all that weight back in the next month. Then she goes on the diet again and the same thing happens. And then again.
So at the end of 6 months, it could be said that Betty lost 60 pounds in 3 months. But in the other 3 months, she gained back those 60 pounds. So at the end of 6 months, Anna is 50 pounds lighter, but Betty weighs exactly the same as she did on day one.
Of course, on most diet plans, you will lose a good amount of weight in the first week. This is because bad eating habits cause the body to keep excess water in the system to help it get rid of the toxins that are entering with all that junk food. So when you switch to healthier foods, the body heaves a sigh of relief and lets go of that excess water.
After that, your weight loss should reduce to an average of around 1-3 pounds per week. The exact amount will depend on your current weight, your lifestyle and the diet that you are following. The more overweight you are, the more you can expect to lose. So when you hear about people who achieve stunningly fast fat loss, they were usually very heavy in the beginning.
