Losing weight quickly is not as healthy and permanent as doing it slowly but it can be done safely and naturally with the right diet, exercise and lifestyle changes. For successful fast weight loss do the following:
• Get a Realistic Diet Plan- learn about food and health. There are only two major causes why we eat unhealthy foods and make poor unhealthy lifestyle choices that keep us from attaining our health goals and having our ideal bodies. They are:
1. Lack of honest, unbiased health information from effective marketing and misinformation.
2. Emotional or psychological blocks and triggers that keep us from breaking our addictive habits even when we know the truth.
If we can address these two causes we can discover the self-love and self-acceptance about our bodies that we have always wanted and finally get the bodies of our dreams.
• Change Your Focus-many people focus on what they don’t want (fat). They say things like “I am fat.” Or “I don’t want to be fat.” They put a lot of negative energy and resistance into it. What we resist persists. Instead attract what you do want by focusing on what you do want (a thin, lean, toned, muscular body. Your ideal body and perfect weight. Change your self-talk to things like- “I am getting thinner and more defined every day” or “I love having my ideal body”. Don’t fight fat and resist instead accept yourself and allow yourself to be the way you are. This will free you to have what you really want.
• Set a Goal- Make sure it is a positive goal like “ I will have my ideal body and be my perfect weight”. Be specific. Give it a realistic timeline. A goal without a deadline is called a DREAM. Less than 2% of the U.S. population have there goals in writing, and among this 2% are 90% of the CEOs of the fortune 500 companies, top motivational speakers, top athletes, college professors and top scientists. Write it down and read it every day and it will happen.
• Plan your Meals- Buy your food ahead of time and know what and when you will eat a day ahead of time. It’s OK to eat the same few meals/snacks everyday for a 2-4 weeks at a time and then rotate in new meals/snacks when you get bored with what your eating. If you fail to plan you plan to fail.
• Take a Feast Day- Pick a day once a week as your Feast Day. On this day it is forbidden to diet. Go crazy, overeat and have all your favorite foods. Amazingly, splurging on calories once a week will actually boost your fat loss by normalizing and resetting your metabolism and hormones, which would otherwise become increasingly slower and fat loss resistant making you hold onto body fat. Sounds ridiculous but I swear it really works. More about Metabolism Boosting later. The other huge benefit of this is that you will not cultivate a pattern of guilt or shame about eating foods that are not healthful because the Feast Day will be a regular part of your diet plan. Have a Coke and a smile, dunk a donut, have fun with it.
BIG TIME FAT LOSS SECRET-Weight Lifting/Strength/Resistance training is the number one, top choice, best way to burn fat fast and achieve the body you want not running and cardio.
• Start a Fat Burning Exercise Program-Skyrocket your gains with High Intensity Strength/Resistance Training. Many people focus on running and cardio training combined with starvation dieting. This slows your metabolism and trains your body to burn and store fat. When you eat after running and cardio, your body channels the calories to your fat cells and tries to hold onto them in preparation of the next cycle of starvation and running/cardio. When you focus on strength training and challenge your muscles with weights and resistance you speed your metabolism and train your body to channel the calories you eat to the muscles instead. This does not make you become big and muscular as many people think, instead body fat shrinks away without effort as a side effect.
First get yourself used to weight training and learn the basics and good form with a personal trainer. It is best to start by doing 1 or 2 weeks of circuit training on machines. Perform your Weight Lifting exercises 3 days a week after a 5-10 minute warm-up and include your usual cardio workout at the end if you like. Your total workout should last around 60-90 minutes, no longer. You should be completing at least 2 complete circuits covering every muscle group of the body. This will get you used the more intense, isolated routine that will follow. Here is an example of a very effective 3-day fat loss workout routine:
Perform every exercise to failure adjusting the weight/resistance to keep yourself in the range of 10-15 reps. Rest for only 1-2 minutes pyramiding down (decreasing the weight on each set) to allow for the minimal rest time. These will be intense fat burning workouts lasting no more than 60 minutes.
Day 1- Chest, Shoulders and Triceps:
12 sets on chest and shoulders- 4 exercises x 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
12 sets on triceps- 3 exercises x 4 sets of 10-15 reps.
Day 2- Back and Biceps:
12 sets on back- 3 exercises x 4 sets of 10-15 reps.
12 sets on biceps- 3 exercises x 4 sets of 10-15 reps.
Day 3- Legs:
20 sets on legs- 5 exercises x 4 sets of 10-15 reps.
3 hours in the gym- fast fat loss. This leaves you plenty of time for cardio, stretching, abs, core, taking a body pump or yoga class, or whatever tickles your fancy. Next time more on specific exercises, Super Sets and Forced Reps. Have Fun and feel great.
Ian Kelley- Author of The Organic Body and Secret Organic Diet Health, fitness and cookbooks and creator of the Organic Body Fat Loss System. Ian is a lifetime chef, manager and former restaurant owner with over 20 years of experience working with food, Since 2000-2008 Ian was the Foodservice Director and Health and Nutrition Educator for a Drug and Alcohol Rehab in the mountains of Vermont and now works as a Personal Trainer, Natural Bodybuilder, Holistic Health Advocate and Writer.