In this article I will tell you how to lose weight fast,
without feeling ravenously hungry or energy deprived.
But before we begin, let me introduce myself.
My name is Kris.
I am a med student and personal trainer.
I have been obsessed with health, nutrition and weight loss
for many years.
During this time, I have read multiple books and hundreds of
scientific studies.
“What can I do to lose weight quickly?”
This is a question I get almost every day, which isn’t
surprising since weight gain and the diseases that follow are becoming the
biggest health challenge of the 21st century.
This article is pretty long, so grab a cup of coffee (or
tea).
How to Lose Weight Fast
To lose weight quickly, we need to get to the root of the
problem.
The cause of weight gain isn’t that people are eating too
much and exercising too little.
How could that explain overweight children? Are overweight
kids just “greedy and lazy”?
Of course not. The world didn’t just wake up one day and
decide to become fat.
It isn’t simply a matter of choice or personal
responsibility. No one, and certainly no child, would ever choose to be fat.
No, weight gain is caused by eating foods that make the body
hold on to fat.
The obvious solution to this is removing those foods. And it
works.
But before I get to the details, let me explain a few things
that will make the rest of this article easier to understand.
(Side note: If you don’t care about the science and simply
want to know what to cook and eat, then this is for you: A Meal Plan That Can
Save Your Life.)
Insulin – The “Gatekeeper” to Your
Fat Cells
I’m going to tell you a little bit about the hormone insulin,
which is best known for its important role in blood sugar control.
What we’re interested in here is how insulin affects your
fat cells (adipocytes).
One of the main functions of insulin is to send signals to
fat cells, which are specialized cells in the body whose sole purpose is to
build and store fat.
To these cells, insulin functions like a “gatekeeper”.
It sends blood sugar into the fat cells and tells them to
turn it into fat.
At the same time, insulin tells the fat cells to hold on to
the fat that they carry, and not to let any of it out.
With a western diet, insulin levels can become constantly
elevated. They are high almost all the time, leading to the constant body fat
accumulation we call obesity.
So to make the fat cells release the fat, we need to reduce
insulin levels by changing the foods that we eat.
That is The Problem. This is The Solution
The most effective way to reduce insulin is to reduce
carbohydrates in the diet.
I’m not talking about Atkins here, so bear with me.
When carbohydrates in the diet are reduced, insulin goes
down, and the fat cells are free to release the fat that they are holding on
to.
When fat is freed from the fat cells, suddenly the body has
access to a whole lot of excess fat that it can use for energy.
At this point, the brain realizes that it doesn’t need to
eat so much anymore.
Really, what’s the point of eating when you have all those
fats now available?
Appetite goes down, and weight loss occurs without any sort
of restriction in calories as long as the carbs are kept low.
Weight Loss and Improved Health
When researchers compare low-carb to low-fat diets, they
need to actively restrict the calories in the low-fat group, while the low-carb
group can eat as much as they want (1).
They lose more weight, faster, without being hungry. It
happens automatically (2).
It really is that simple.
Low-carb diets are also healthier. They improve blood sugar,
insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides, and cause a greater amount of fat loss
than the low-fat diet (3, 4, 5, 6).
These diets can also in many cases completely reverse type
II diabetes (7, 8).
If you think this will be too hard, then there is no need to
worry. The research shows that low-carb diets are as easy or even easier to
follow than the diets they are compared to (3).
Reducing carbs and insulin is the best way to lose weight
fast. It is a fact.
Unfortunately, this promising research hasn’t yet made its
way to the official dietary guidelines (9).
How Much to Eat Per Day
I hope I’ve managed to convince you that low-carb is the
best approach to lose weight fast.
Really, who would want to be hungry and obsess about
calories and portions all the time?
That’s no way to live your life, and isn’t necessary.
The only thing you need to restrict is carbohydrates.
So, how many carbohydrates exactly?
• Maintenance:
100-150 grams of carbs per day.
• Steady
Weight Loss: Under 100 grams.
• Fast Weight
Loss: Under 50 grams of carbs per day.
These are guidelines that need to be adapted to individual
needs. If you’re a 300 pound powerlifter, then you’ll probably need more carbs
than this. If you’re a sedentary office worker, then you’ll need less.
It is important to experiment and find out what works best
for yourself.
Be aware that it can take a few days for your body to adapt
to burning fat and protein instead of carbohydrates.
You might feel kind of strange for a few days (for me it
takes three) but after that you will most likely feel better than ever.
If you’re not convinced and would rather do the calorie
restricted approach then I also have an article on how to lose weight fast by
reducing calories: How many calories should I eat?
Foods That Make You Sick, Unhappy and Fat
It goes without saying, that if you want to improve your
health then you need to eliminate all sources of added sugar.
Honestly, sugar is the absolute worst thing you can put in
your body. Some doctors even describe it as toxic, as it can lead to all sorts
of disease over time.
Sugar makes you overeat, raises your blood pressure, bad
cholesterol, triglycerides, and may be downright addicting (10, 11, 12).
But there is another type of food that is almost as bad, and
many people are surprised when I tell them about this.
It’s wheat.
Wheat raises blood sugar very quickly (13), and when the
blood sugar drops a few hours later it makes you ravenously hungry.
The gluten in wheat can also make you tired, damage your
intestine and harm your cholesterol.
Really, if removing sugar and wheat is all you do, you’ll
probably see amazing results.
The other two ingredients that you will probably want to
avoid are trans fats and industrial seed oils (soybean oil, cottonseed, etc).
On a low-carb diet, you also need to reduce all grains and
starchy vegetables.
Now, when you’ve reached your goal weight, then you can
reintroduce healthy carbs like potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, oats and some
others.
That is if you want to: many people are fine with eating
this way for the rest of their lives.
You shouldn’t gain the weight back as long as you keep your
diet natural and avoid junk foods.
Check out the full article: Foods to Avoid: The four worst
foods to eat when losing weight.
Healthy Foods That Can Save Your Life
You may have heard someone tell you that fatty foods like
meat are bad for you, but that is absolute nonsense.
Natural foods that are high in fat are actually very
nutritious and healthy, and these should really form the majority of your calories
on a low-carb diet.
Now you may start thinking, “what about all the saturated
fat?”.
Well, don’t get me started.
The whole propaganda against saturated fat was a lie, and
the truth is that it doesn’t have any association with heart disease. The research
proves it (17, 18).
When you drastically reduce carbs, then you need to replace
them with protein and fat. For this, animal foods are your best bet.
Think meat, fish, eggs, nuts and high-fat dairy products
like butter and cheese. These are healthy, nutritious, and also happen to be
ridiculously tasty and fulfilling.
You should also eat plenty of low-carb vegetables to get
your daily requirements for fiber, Vitamin C and other nutrients.
Don’t worry, you can eat tons of vegetables without going
over your carb limit.
To sum up, the food selection for how to lose weight fast
involves not eating sugar, grains, seed oils or trans fats, and replacing them
with unprocessed meat, fish, eggs, nuts, high-fat dairy, fats and oils, and
low-carb vegetables.
You should also click here to read the full article: Best
healthy foods to eat to lose weight.
Exercises to Lose Weight Fast
Obviously, exercise can help with weight loss too and is an
essential part of a healthy lifestyle.
Now, our goals with exercise are twofold.
First of all, we want to get rid of as much body fat as
possible.
Second of all, we want to hold on to our muscle mass because
we want to make sure that what is underneath our fat looks good.
To accomplish this, a combination of strength training and
cardiovascular exercise works best.
Lifting Weights to Build Muscle
If you have access to a gym, then you should go there 2-3
times per week and lift heavy weights. If you don’t have a gym membership card,
then you should get one or do bodyweight exercises at home.
Lifting weights will make your body look nicer, it will make
you stronger, and it will increase your muscle mass. Now if you’re a man (or a
woman who doesn’t mind gaining some muscle), then creatine supplementation is
both safe and effective.
Adding a bit of muscle mass carries the additional benefit
that muscle burns calories all the time, even at rest.
Cardio to Burn Fat and Improve Health
For cardio, you should do something that you enjoy a few
times per week. Running, swimming, walking and dancing are all great ideas.
But if you want to lose weight as fast as possible then you
should consider High Intensity Interval Training. This involves working out at
a high intensity for a short time, with low intensity periods in between.
An example: sprinting for 15 seconds, walking for 60
seconds, then sprinting again, etc. 8-10 cycles of this is enough, and this is
a great way to burn a lot of fat in a short amount of time.
High intensity interval training has the additional benefit
of raising your levels of human growth hormone, which can help induce fat loss
for as long as 36 hours after your workout (19, 20).
Some sports, such as Crossfit, automatically incorporate
both strength training and high intensity cardio.
Now if you are in this for life (only way to succeed in the
long run) and hate exercising, then just try to find something that you enjoy
doing.
It doesn’t have to be the gym or something intense, just
staying active throughout your life, walking, playing, and involving some
physical activities a few times per week may be enough.
It is Time to Take Action… As Soon As Possible!
Now you know how to lose weight fast using methods that are
scientifically proven to work.
If you leave my site now and don’t do anything, then you
will not see results. That is 100% certain.
Reading this is worthless if it doesn’t lead to a lasting
change in your lifestyle.
Additionally, you will forget 80% of the article by
tomorrow. That’s how the memory works.
So in order for you to get any benefit out of this, then you
need to take action.
1. Save this
article. Come back to it tomorrow and read it again. Take notes. Then come back
next week and read it for the third time. It is that important.
2. This post
contains an enormous amount of material, so much so that I was unable to
describe everything in full detail. Check out the links within the article to
read more on specific matters.
3. You need to
start doing something about your weight soon. There is no point in waiting, and
the longer you wait the higher the chances of you doing permanent damage to
your health.
If you follow this plan on how to lose weight fast, you will
get results.
Take action, as soon as possible!
P.S. I’ve been getting some questions whether there is a
health and weight loss program that I like. Well, the one I generally recommend
is called The Diet Solution.
It is a detailed program with a complete day-to-day meal
plan, shopping list, recipes and some bonuses. Pretty much all you need. Their
free video will teach you a lot about healthy nutrition.
