If you want to lose weight as quickly as possible, you may be tempted to try diets that promise quick weight-loss results. Although diets that involve eating very low-calorie meals or eating the same food group over and over may sound appealing, they do not provide long-term, sustainable weight loss. To lose weight quickly and keep it off, choose a program that fits your lifestyle in the long term.
Fad Diets
Fad diets are commercial diets that can be found in books, infomercials, or on the internet. Sometimes, they may even be recommended by a doctor or other medical professional. Fad diets, like the Cabbage Soup Diet or the Grapefruit Diet, focus on eating mostly cabbage soup or mostly grapefruit throughout the day. Because you are taking in a drastically lower calorie count than you usually do, your body will go into starvation mode by holding onto fat and releasing water. You may lose weight quickly, but it is likely water weight. When you resume your normal diet, you will gain the weight back.
A Realistic Approach
Instead of starving yourself or putting yourself through a variety of diets that involve eating only one food group, do the math. In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. If you burn 500 calories more than you consume every day for a week, you will lose one pound of fat. If you maintain a diet and exercise plan that allows you to burn 500 more calories than you take in every day, you will continue to lose one pound per week.
Eating Habits
If you typically eat more calories than you burn, adjust your diet so you are taking in fewer calories. Instead of starving yourself or forgoing your favorite foods, make substitutions. Eat only low-fat or nonfat dairy products, including yogurt, cheese and milk. Swap out white bread for whole-grain bread and all red meat for lean protein sources, like fish and chicken. By making a few small changes in your diet, you'll still be eating the same amount of food but consuming fewer calories.
Exercise Plan
Participating in a daily exercise plan will ensure that you burn more calories than you consume every day. If running on the treadmill at the gym for an hour every day bores you, go outside and incorporate your friends and family members into your exercise plan. Challenge your friends to a game of tennis or basketball, or invite your family on a hiking trip through the woods. Not only will you burn calories, but you'll also spend quality time with your loved ones.
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