Rapid weight loss can be achieved with very strict dieting, exercise and with the supervision of professionals. This, for most people, is normally difficult to endure for an extended period. A safe and reasonable amount of weight loss is about one to two pounds a week. This slow and steady approach, usually prevents the chances of weight gain occurring again over time.
Weight Loss Goals
Maintaining healthy weight requires dedication and permanent changes to your lifestyle in regards to exercising and dieting. In order to take and keep the weight off, you must take note of your bad habits involving eating and not getting the proper amount of exercise daily. Keep a food diary; tracking the amount of calories you consume, what time you eat, and how you feel before and after you eat. This aspect of dieting helps you mentally prepare by examining possible food triggers and limiting your portion sizes.
Proper Exercise
Exercising daily will help you achieve weight loss while increasing your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. Activities that require you to work all major muscle groups such as the back, legs, chest, arms, shoulder and abdominal should be included daily in your aerobic exercise routine. Increasing the amount of time and intensity that you exercise will yield the highest results of weight loss, and help increase your health overall. With rapid weight loss, you might not actually gain an understanding of exercising regularly, and you could possibly slip back into your old exercising habits.
Calorie Deficit
Calories come from all the foods you eat; they are either used in your body for energy or stored in the body as fat. Weight loss is achieved by burning those extra stored calories through proper exercise or by reducing the amount of calories you consume, so that your body will use the extra stored calories as energy. One pound is equal to 3,500 calories, so in order to lose one to two pounds a week, you must create a deficit of 7,000 calories in that week.
Considerations
Creating this calorie deficit at a faster rate may be dangerous to your body if not under the supervision of professionals such as doctors, dietitians and personal trainers. For those who are obese and need to lose weight at a fast rate for health concerns, doctors may prescribe a very low calorie diet. Also, those who are on these rapid weight loss diets, may initially lose the most weight in the first two weeks, but is recommended to gradually get back to losing only 1 to 2 lbs. a week.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Fast Weight Loss-What's Wrong With It?
- Weight-Control Information Center: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Across Your Lifespan
- Centers For Disease Control and Prevention: Healthy Weight-it's Not a Diet, it's a Lifestyle
- Mayo Clinic: Counting Calories- Get Back To Weight-loss Basics
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