You want to lose weight. Maybe a few extra pounds have made your jeans too snug or possibly the weight you've carried for years is threatening to affect your health. Regardless of how much weight you'd like to lose, you'd like to do it quickly. Fast weight loss may not mean healthy weight loss and it's important to educate yourself and consult your doctor to ensure your health and safety.
Healthy Weight Loss
According to the Centers for Disease Control losing is one to two pounds per week, utilizing lifestyle changes rather than restrictive or fad diets, is healthiest. This is achievable by either reducing or burning calories, or both. You can reduce your calorie intake by 500 to 1000 calories per day to lose pounds and you can also include an exercise program to burn additional calories. One pound is equal to 3500 calories. It's recommended that adults get a minimum of two and a half hours of moderate exercise per week for general health.
Weight Loss Supplements
Some commonly known weight loss supplements are fat burners, which claim to speed up your body's metabolism through a blend of herbs and caffeine; and fat or carbohydrate blockers that claim to prevent your body from absorbing either fats or carbohydrates. The efficacy of these products varies and you should consult your doctor to ensure they are safe for you to try. The Food and Drug Administration leaves it up to the manufacturers of supplements to be truthful in their claims, which means you must educate yourself to find the right product for you.
Body Cleansers
Over-the-counter cleansers consist of weight loss cleansers and colon cleansers. Care must be taken when using these products because they may cause significant side effects such as dehydration, fatigue and flu-like symptoms. However, they can be effective for fast weight loss but look for a cleansing program that allows you to still eat foods such as vegetables, legumes, whole grains and water. These are also temporary weight loss plans and should not be used longer than the program recommends to prevent nutrient deficiency.
Very Low Calorie Diets
Very low calorie diets, or VLCD, suggest cutting your calorie intake dramatically. Most VLCDs only allow between 400 and 800 calories per day. In an article published on CNN.com titled, "Extreme Diets: Life on 800 calories a day", Dr. John Hernried, medical director for OTC Medical Weight Loss Group in California, claimed that aside from bariatric surgery, VLCDs are the most effective means of losing weight. Very low calorie diets should be done under the care of your physician and are only for people who are obese. These diets are not without risk, however. Heart arrhythmias, dehydration, low blood pressure and kidney stones are just a few of the complications you may experience.
References
- Centers for Disease Control: Losing Weight, What is a healthy weight loss?
- US Department of Health and Human Services: Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
- Food and Drug Administration: Dietary Supplements
- Mayo Clinic: Over-The-Counter Weight-Loss Pills, Do They Work?
- UPMC.com: Colon Cleansing, Don't Be Mislead By The Claims
- CBS News: The Early Show, Do Detox Diets Work? Are They Safe?
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