Lose Weight Quickly Without Damaging Your Health

Under most circumstances, it’s not a good idea to try to lose weight quickly. Doing so can lead to all sorts of health complications, including cardiovascular issues, sleep difficulty, mood changes, malnutrition, lack of energy, dehydration, or rapid muscle loss. It can even affect your appearance in negative ways, potentially causing haggard-looking skin or hair loss. All of these things are no fun, which is why weight loss should be done gradually and with a clear plan in mind.

However, there are plenty of situations in which it’s understandable to want to lose weight quickly, and in these cases it’s important to make sure you protect your health first and foremost. Know the limits of what you can put your body through, and set up a plan that stops you from trying go too far.

Ultimately, your plan should be customized for your unique body type and needs, but to help you get started, keep these things in mind.

1. Don’t stop eating, and don’t over-exercise. This is the most important thing. Starvation diets can be catastrophic for the body, as can harsh juice detoxes and brutal exercise regimes. Do everything in moderation, and that includes exercise and calorie restriction. Stay away from activities associated with eating disorders (vomiting, starvation, using laxatives, exercising too much). Be sure to consume at least 1200 calories per day, and don’t exercise more than 3 hours.

2. Use strength training plus cardio. Plenty of cardio is useful for quick weight loss, but it should never be used on its own. For one thing, if you don’t mix in a healthy dose of strength training, your diet will cause your body to eat away at your muscles, which will be difficult to get back later on. For another thing, if you don’t build muscle to replace the fat you lose, you’ll be much more likely to gain that weight right back when your diet is over.

3. Vary and intensify your exercise routine. For quick weight loss, rather than starting at maximum intensity on day one, start with a normal, moderate work-out and slowly build it up each day. This will help prevent you from injuring yourself, and it will make the diet smoother and more sustainable. Also, don’t just do the same thing every day. Make a list of all the exercise activities you can do, and alternate between them. This will help keep your weight loss and your muscle training in balance.

4. Eliminate useless calories. The average American tends to consume hundreds of empty calories daily. This includes sodas, many types of juices, most desserts, snacks such as potato chips or popcorn, and things like gum and candy. These contribute no nutritional value, and you’d be surprised how they can add up over the course of a day or a week. While they can be fine consumed in moderation, it’s a good idea to cut these things out completely during your diet.

5. Reduce portion sizes. Cutting back on portion sizes by 25-33% can have a surprising impact, adding up to thousands of calories over the course of a week. If your reduced portions seem too small, try eating more slowly, and drink plenty of water with your meal.

6. Do consume carbohydrates. Thanks to certain recent fad diets, many dieters start by cutting down on carbohydrates, but this is a mistake. Carbohydrates are needed to keep our bodies running, particularly with all of the energy you’re going to need for exercise. What you can do is cut out bad carbohydrates in favor of good ones. Replace white bread, white pasta, and white rice with whole grain varieties. Also, be sure to have plenty of fruits and vegetables, which contain good, natural, energy-giving carbs.

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