There’s a lot of information on this topic, but after doing hours and hours of research, I found the most important tips to help you along your journey.
You should consult your doctor if you’re planning to engage in an extreme weight loss plan or are not losing weight despite having an adequate calorie deficit and are exercising regularly. There are some medical conditions that can prevent some individuals from losing weight.
The following list contains the main points you should consider if you’re interested in losing weight. Follow it to the letter for several weeks and you will see results.
Keep reading to find out more on how to lose weight fast.
Speed Of Weight Loss
While you may want to lose weight as fast as possible, it’s not healthy to lose weight too quickly. [1]
The reason for this is because of the immense effort needed to lose that much weight and the fact that it could result in the loss of muscle rather than fat. [1]
The recommended rate of taking off weight is one to two pounds per week. [1] This is how to lose weight fast.
To accomplish this, you must know that a pound of fat contains 3500 calories. [1] So to burn one pound in a week, you would need to burn 500 calories more than you consume per day over the course of the week to lose that pound. To lose two pounds per week, you’d need to burn 1000 calories more per day than you consume.
Calorie Deficit
A calorie deficit is the key to how to lose weight fast. It is when you burn more calories than you consume.
Keep in mind that too big of a calorie deficit is not recommended due to the possible negative effects it can have on your health, and you should only do so with medical supervision. [1]
To figure this out, you need to know what your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) is, which you can do with the help of an online calculator. This includes your daily physical activity, the amount of calories your body needs to keep itself functioning, and how your body digests calories. [2]
Once you know this number, it’s just a simple matter of tracking your calories and adjusting the amount of physical activity you do so that you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming. As an example, if your TDEE is 1000 calories per day and you eat 2000 calories per day, then you need to burn 1500 calories per day to lose 1 pound of body weight per day, or you can reduce your calorie intake to 500 per day. The middle ground is to reduce your calorie intake to 1000 per day and burn 500 per day.
It is best to increase your physical activity and reduce your calorie intake so that you do not have to dramatically decrease how much you eat or do a large amount of exercise to burn so many calories. [2]
The simple formula to figure out how many calories you need to burn per day to lose 1 pound of fat per week is [(Calories Consumed) + (500) – (TDEE)]. Replace 500 with 1000 if interested in losing 2 pounds of fat per week. The lower the number, the better.
Exercise
Another component of how to lose weight fast is getting in daily exercise.
It is possible to lose weight without doing any exercise at all, but doing this requires putting yourself in a calorie deficit that could be detrimental to your health. It is possible you can lose muscle mass by doing this. [1]
Exercise burns calories, and thus will help you burn the amount of calories you need to burn to lose weight. There are calculators and guides you can look at to find out how many calories different exercises burn.
Regular exercise will help preserve and maybe even increase your muscle mass during your weight loss journey. [3,4]
Sleep
Getting good sleep is another good tip on how to lose weight fast. There are connections between how much you sleep and how much you weigh. Those who sleep better tend to have a healthier body weight than those who don’t. [5]
Those who are sleep deprived tend to prefer foods higher in calories and carbs. [5] Losing sleep often results in overeating.
If sleep deprived, it’s harder to have the energy to exercise during the day, which results in burning less calories than needed to achieve your weight loss goals.
Make sure to focus on improving your sleep to reach your weight loss goals.
Focus on Eating Healthy First
This may seem silly, but early on, it can be a good idea to just focus on eating healthy foods before beginning to count your calories.
The reasoning behind this is that it will help you get used to a new diet. If you try to completely quit eating your old diet when you begin your weight loss journey, you may become discouraged and stop trying because you are making such a drastic change. It is better to gradually update your diet over time. This will also reduce the amount of initial planning needed to get started. It is much better to take action as soon as possible and start small by eliminating bad things from your diet here and there over time.
Once you’re comfortable with a new diet, then you can begin to take things up a notch.
Food Journal
Regardless of what your fitness goals are, keeping a food journal to track your calories and what you eat will massively improve your chances of success.
You can keep a notepad with you everywhere or use an app to do this. You will need to become familiar with reading nutritional labels that you can find on just about every food item. By keeping a record of this information, it will help you track your calories better so that you can meet your caloric needs for the day.
Keeping a food journal will make it much easier to keep track of your day to day progress. Remember that to reach your goals, you must be able to do the correct things consistently over time, and a food journal will allow you to do just that.
Fruits and Vegetables
To lose weight, you should make sure to eat a lot more fruits and vegetables.
These foods are very low in calories and high in fiber, so you will feel more full after eating them. [6] Make sure to include plenty of fruits and/or vegetables in every meal. They also make a great, low calorie snack to satiate your hunger. You can get fruits and vegetables fresh, frozen, or canned.
Carbohydrates
For those interested in how to lose weight fast, reducing your carb intake can help you reach your goals.
Having a diet low in carbs is what the Ketogenic Diet (keto diet for short) is. Those who utilize this diet plan tend to have reduced appetite, which makes it easier to avoid overeating. [7,8]
Protein
A diet high in protein will help in your weight loss journey.
Eating a lot of protein will help stimulate muscle growth if you’re regularly exercising, which will help you preserve lean muscle mass in a calorie deficit. A high protein diet can reduce your appetite, which again is helpful in preventing overeating. [9,10]
Fats
Fats are an essential part of a healthy diet, but only certain kinds.
Sources of fat tend to be very calorie dense, so foods high in fat will add quite a few calories to your daily total. [11] It is best to choose foods that contain unsaturated fats, and stay away from foods with saturated or trans fats. Try to keep your cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg per day. [11]
Drink More Water
Regardless of your fitness goals, you should drink plenty of water throughout the day.
Drinking plenty of water will help you stay hydrated and will help keep you away from worse beverages that will be detrimental to your goals. You should reduce, if not eliminate, sugary drinks and alcohol from your diet for the best chances of success in your fitness goals.
How Often Should You Eat?
Eating frequency does play a part in your weight loss journey.
As long as you’re consuming the correct amount of calories you need to facilitate weight loss, how often you eat throughout the day is not too important. [12] That said, there are some things to consider.
Eating several small meals throughout the day can make you feel more full throughout the day so that you do not have the urge to indulge in eating unnecessary snacks. [12]
Intermittent Fasting is a great way to continue to enjoy eating the foods you like, but you will have to go long periods without eating in order to utilize this diet.
The best thing to do is decide what eating frequency works for you and focus on maintaining a healthy diet and proper caloric intake to achieve success in your weight loss journey. [12]
What Next?
So now you know how to lose weight fast. You should know that fitness is not a race, but a marathon.
Your next step is to determine the amount of calories you need if you haven’t already and then figure out an exercise plan for yourself.
