Quick Weight Loss Diets - Facts and Fallacies

Quick weight loss diets have been around forever, and seem ever-popular, but do they really work? Many of the quick "fad" diets can help for temporary weight loss, but usually it comes back eventually. It is normal for dieters to look for the Holy Grail of diets, one that can have you lose weight fast, then keep it off.

Fad or Binge diets will always be with us, and for a few reasons one may be able to rationalize their use, for any of a number of reasons: Temporary weight loss to "get in to that dress or Tux for the one event" like a wedding or reunion, then it is OK to go back to looking normal. One of the problems of these quick loss and fad diets is many of them are plain unhealthy, and can put you at greater health risk than being overweight.

There are no miracles when it comes to weight loss, but you can take positive steps to losing weight that will help speed things along without resorting to one of these fad diets or just starving yourself. Here are some ways you can move forward and lose weight;

Eat The Right Foods To Speed Up Your Metabolism

If you've been off-and-on dieting over the years, your metabolism may be as much as 30% slower than normal. To get back to normal, you need to eat enough calories to meet your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). You can search for BMR Calculator online and get the numbers you need. Everyone is different. You'll need to enter your height, weight, age and sex to get a number. For example, a 60 year old male at 200 lbs. that is 5' 7" tall has a BMR of about 1750 calories, while a 20 year male the same size has a BMR over 2000.

The BMR is the number of calories you need to get though the day, given "normal" activities. If you have a physically demanding job or big exercise routine, you will need more, and if you sit at a desk all day, you will need less. When trying to get to your BMR, it's best to stick to the healthier foods like lean protein, whole grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables.

You'll probably have an initial weight gain, but don't let that scare you off. First you need to get your body back to normal operating levels and repair itself. After you've been at your BMR for a couple of weeks to a month or so of eating the appropriate level of calories, your metabolism will speed up and the pounds will begin to fall away.

Once you've got your metabolism back up to speed, you can easily lose a pound a week with a balanced diet, or two pounds a week if you add an exercise program. This is safely sustainable and you won't be starving yourself any more.

Exercise to increase your weight loss.

You will rarely find exercise mentioned with quick weight loss and fad diet, primarily because exercise is work and they are trying to push your "easy" button. Most quick weight loss and fad diets dramatically reduce your caloric intake, which can lead to a quick initial weight loss, but it jacks your metabolism around and the weight will come back as soon as you eat normally again. Plus, most quick weight loss diets don't provide the same health benefits as a balanced diet and exercise.

With all of the various exercise routines out there, at least experts agree on one thing: The best exercise routines include a balance of cardio and strength training. Cardio helps exercise and strengthen the heart and circulatory system, while the strength training tends to build lean muscle mass. Everyone agrees that lean muscle mass is heavier than fat, so a physically fit person will look slim and trim compared to a fattie of the same weight and height. Regular exercise will also help you feel better, leading to a lot of other positive benefits. If you have a lot of stress in your life, you should also consider yoga for stretching and relaxation.

Once you are up to speed, if you get three to five hours a week of cardio exercise, and one or two hours a week of strength training, you will see significant changes in your body shape and fitness level.

The health benefits of exercise are well known, and include improved mood and better sleep, not to mention stronger, leaner body. Exercise also protects your heart and wards off metabolic disorders like type 2 diabetes. Quick weight loss diets can't touch any of these benefits.

Exercise doesn't need to be the kind of "dreary work out at the gym" program that many people tend to use. It can be found nearly everywhere. Gardening or home improvement projects, playing with the kids at the park, swimming, dancing, or participating in community sports are all ways of getting appropriate exercise without spending all of your time in the gym. I'm sure you can think of many others that not only provide good exercise, but are fun too!

Avoid Starvation Diets

The news and pulp magazines are full of reports of celebrities who drank nothing but [fill in your favorite fad food of the week here] to quickly slim down for a role. What we don't hear about is the aftermath: The rebound weight gain as soon as they ended their diet, and the increase in difficulty losing weight later due to messing up their metabolism.

Watch out for any quick weight loss plan that talks about "retaining water" as if it is a bad thing. Your body NEEDS water, and the sad fact is that most Americans are close to dehydration anyway due to imbalanced diets and other excesses. Most of us are so close that even as few as a couple of days without normal water intake can put us in the hospital. (I know this from personal experience, having collapsed from dehydration because my throat hurt so bad I avoided normal drinking and eating minimally for only a couple of days. That's one hospital stay I really won't be repeating.) Most of these fad and quick weight loss diets are extremely stressful to your body. They just aren't worth the health risk. At best, you'll end up tired, hungry, grouchy, dehydrated, and heavier than before. At worst, you could seriously damage your metabolism, making it impossible to lose weight later, even when you eat very few calories.

Set Reasonable Expectations

Don't set yourself up for failure. Choose a reasonable weight target for your body type and height. Trying to get your weight down to that of an anorexic looking boy-girl model just isn't reasonable unless you've got twigs for bones and don't mind a short, miserable life from all of the damage done to your body by the quick loss diets and their related issues.

In summary, the Fact is that Quick Loss Diets can work, but they are only temporary and many are plain dangerous to your continued well being. The Fallacy is that they can give you what you want, beyond a very brief instant while you are on their miserable routine.

Only a reasonable plan that includes maintaining a healthy weight by keeping your body healthy will get you where you should be. Feed your body a well balanced diet, move it often, stay hydrated and it will perform at its peak for you, for a long time to come.

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Diets for Quick Weight Loss in Weeks Not Months

Are you still looking for diets for quick weight loss?

Take a few minutes to read this article. At the end you will see that you really do not need another diet to get the rapid weight loss you have been searching for.

Diets for Quick Weight Loss

There are literally thousands of diets that promise super quick weight loss. And you and I have probably been on most of them. At least I know I have. I have been on the Atkins, Weight Watchers, Pritikin, Vegetarian, Dean Ornish, Calorie Counting, fasting, Raw Food Diet, Slim Fast, and more.

The problem with a diet is that it is something you "go on" and then "go off" of.

What you really need is a way of eating that allows you to LIVE. A diet that you can live with the rest of your life. So you are no longer on a darn "diet teeter totter." Where you are gaining weight and losing weight over and over again. Where you always have those last 10-15 pounds that keep hanging on.

The first thing you have to do is change the way you think about what it takes to lose weight. Diets mean deprivation to most of us. And I hate being deprived, don't you?

So change that thought. Think about all the wonderful things you GET to eat for the rest of your life that will slim you down and keep you healthy. Foods that make you look really youthful, energized. Foods that keep your body free of heart disease and diabetes.

Truth is, you don't have to do another silly diet to lose weight fast. You really can lose weight fast on your own.

Just get my free report that explains exactly how I lost 13 pounds in only 2 weeks with a simple weight healthy weight loss plan that ANYONE can do. Go to http://quickhealthyweightlossplan.com/

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Diets & Weight Loss - Healthy Weight Loss

Well, you've finally come to the realization that you're overweight and that you need to lose weight, but you want to lose weight in a healthy manner. That's the best thing to do and it's not hard to accomplish at all. We're going to talk about healthy weight loss and how to reach your goals without hurting yourself.

First, always use common sense in all of your weight loss endeavors. You're starting down the road to a healthier lifestyle and you don't want to hurt all of your hard work and make stupid, silly choices. Keep a positive attitude, think about what you are doing, and always think of what the effects of what you are doing will be. Think thoughts like "Will this help me to lose weight?" or "How will this affect my weight loss efforts?" with every diet decision that you make.

Second, educate yourself on the importance of nutrition. Find out how your favorite foods affect your body and what they contain within them. It's important that you drink more water than you do soda because studies have proven that drinking more water helps to increase your body's ability to burn calories. Also, try to find fat free alternatives to some of your favorite foods. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to substitute fat free alternatives into some of your favorite recipes without your recipe suffering from quality or tasting great.

Third, never stop exercising. It's okay to give yourself a day off during the week, but always try to exercise every day if you can. Diet alone is not enough to keep you slim and looking great. It takes a combination of diet and exercise to help you keep your weight off and to accomplish your goal of healthy weight loss.

Fourth, surround yourself with a support group of people who are trying to lose weight like you are or people who have lost weight like you have. You need to have a healthy support group of people who understand what you're going through and can relate to the problems that you're facing as you're trying to achieve healthy weight loss. A support group is a group of people who understand that sometimes you want to eat a piece of cheesecake when you should be eating fruits or vegetables. They understand that you sometimes want to drink a Dr. Pepper instead of a glass of water. They understand all of these urges but they still help to guide you down the road of healthy weight loss no matter what.

By following the four steps outlined above, healthy weight loss is not only easy but it is entirely achievable. Losing weight can be very difficult at times and that's why you want to maximize all of your weight-loss efforts into long term results. Really, once you get started losing weight, you'll never want to look back. Get started today and enjoy the full effects of healthy weight loss in your life.

Karl Warren is the owner of 'Fight Your Flab... Fast' - a new site dedicated to helping you achieve your perfect body. If you are serious about losing weight, or you simply want to slim down a little, you should check out http://www.fightyourflabfast.com/blog now.

Sustainable Weight Loss - Why Fad Diets Won't Work

For hundreds of years, losing weight has remained a daily battle many people find so hard to win. As times change, and as the world is turning into something less friendlier to those with 'a little extra weight', people are becoming more and more convinced that the only way to look beautiful is to have a slim figure. The extra attention given to one's weight and figure has pushed manufacturers to make all sorts of options for those who believe they have a few extra pounds they need to shave off. Health and fitness stores then started packing their shelves with products ranging from slimming creams, slimming drinks to slimming tablets of all brands. Different forms of exercise machines were made available in varying sophistication while spas and clinics started advertising costly slimming services employing some of the world's most recent technologies promising one to sculpt those folds, rolls and bulges away. But as none of these products, techniques and services offer instant results, those who are in quite a hurry to lose some weight often turn to fad dieting.

Definitely not a new issue in the 'weight loss world', and in fact many are aware of its many dangers, many still practice fad dieting. Also branded by some as deprivation diet, crash diet or Hollywood diet, the remarkably quick reduction of one's weight using this method have impressed a lot of people. This method can take many forms, but low-fat, low-carbohydrates and high protein are the most popular. Others perform fad diet by focusing on a single particular food, and grapefruit is more commonly used. This type of diet do not have some hard rules on what to include and what to omit from one's diet, and the individual himself usually decides only which to allow and exclude. But as these are done, one is depriving himself of all necessary major nutrients like dietary fiber, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, as well as the natural anti-oxidants certain foods contain.

In terms of the amount of weight intended to lose, desirable results may be seen for a while. However this type of weight loss is very short-lived. As fad dieting is observed for a longer period, serious health condition would start to develop. Not receiving needed calories could lead to nutritional deficiencies. Iron deficiency anemia, deficiency of certain other vitamins as well as minerals, electrolyte imbalances, mental health problems and damages to some of our body's vital organs are just few of the many possibilities.

Quite an unpleasant way of losing weight, and undeniably unsafe. Shedding those pounds effectively indeed is not as easy as others claim to be, however, it is very achievable. Just as one would acknowledge that there is no instant way to do it, the society is now filled with many healthy eating options that makes one no longer require fad dieting. But whatever type of diet one chooses, or whatever other method one opts for, checking with the doctor is always a good idea.

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