How do I lose weight fast and keep it off for good?
Majority of people asking this question have done some type of weight loss program(s) or diets in the past. I understand that today’s world is all about instant gratification and everybody wants to see results right here and right now. However, this is not how it works in real life. I am sure if you are the one asking this question, you did not gain that extra weight during the last two days, did you? No, it took you some time to end up here. You’ve made choices for an extended period of time to gain extra weight. Do not expect it to magically disappear just because you have found some new trend diet. It does not work this way! It is a hard and long process that never ends. That’s of course if you want to keep your weight off for good.
You have to literally become a different person if you want to have permanent results. For you to succeed in this journey, you’ll have to like different things and have different set of beliefs and values in your life.
See, if you love drinking soda pop and have been drinking it every day for the past 10-20 years, by now it is literally part of you. You have conditioned yourself to such an extent that it would be almost impossible for you to quit drinking it cold turkey and never touch it again. Just starting some new random diet will not do it. You will have to change your lifestyle, you’ll have to become a new and different YOU! And our brains do not like to change, we are creatures of habit. We are wired for comfort and consistency within our current comfort zone. This is exactly why not too many adults can have a drastic and permanent change in their life doing it on their own. So, are you doomed? Of course not! Many have succeeded and you can too! Let’s see how.
There are a few components in this process that you need to keep in mind. First, there are many different ways to lose weight. You need to find what works for you and what you can maintain as a new personal lifestyle.
You can lose weight by just dieting, but it is not the optimal way of doing it. Humans are designed to move. We used to move a lot just a couple hundred years ago. And now, with current technology, we don’t even need to leave our house if we chose to. Some don’t. And after some time, they cannot leave their house even if they want to, due to their weight and health problems. So, if you want to lose weight, start a proper exercise program along with it.
When people ask, how can I lose weight fast? They are usually coming from two different reasons. The first usually is that they have an event and are trying to lose a few pounds to look good. The second, they have more weight to lose and they are fed up with their current situation so much that they want to change it as fast as possible. In both cases, if you want to lose weight fast you should implement both, nutrition and training.
I will cover training for weight loss in a different article. Let’s talk now about what you should do in terms of your diet/nutrition. You can choose any diet you want, but the most effective ones will be the ones that are extremely low on sugar, that include complex carbs. Many nutritionists may suggest that it’s important to have healthy complex carbs, like whole wheat grains in your diet. However, in my experience in this industry (over 30+ years) I disagree. In my personal experience, any time I have needed to get ready for an event or photoshoot, I had to cut my carb intake almost to zero. Especially once I passed the age of 40. Now, I am talking fast results here. If you want to take it easy and lose weight over one or two years instead of just a couple of months, you can have some slow burning complex carbs in your nutrition plan.
What are those? First of all, the best carbs for weight loss come from green vegetables. The benefit is that green vegetables have moderate amounts of carbs, high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Make sure you eat your vegetables raw! If you eat your vegetables cooked, you break down/predigest fiber and destroy big percentages of the nutrients. It’s a big misconception that we need to eat lots of whole grain products to be healthy.
It is a big fat lie brought to us by the corrupted food industry. You can get all the sugars, carbs and fiber your body needs from just eating dark green leafy vegetables. You will not feel sluggish after eating them either. The other option would be sweet or yam potatoes. Those burn much faster, but will give you tons of energy and much better than white rice.
Do your best to stay away from grains, with the exception of wild rice. And stay away from anything made out of flour (If you live in North America), that includes pasta, any type of bread and bakery products.
Get your protein and fat from fish, poultry and some red meat, in that exact order of priority. Do not fall for somebody telling you that peanut butter is a great source of protein and fat. If you do, you’ll like the taste, but you won’t like results you’ll see in the mirror. You can add some natural herbs to your diet that are indirectly good for weight loss by helping you cleanse your body and decrease chronic inflammation. Some great choices are Turmeric, Red reishi and Chaga.
Stay away from another highly advertised source of protein, beans. I have worked with tons of people who gained weight due to eating high amount of beans. So, the nutrition trick for the fastest weight loss is – moderate proteins, moderate animal and low non-animal fats and lots of dark green or purple leafy vegetables. No packaged or canned food, buy it raw and cook it yourself. Drink lots of pure water. Follow the above and you’ll be surprised how fast your weight will melt off and how good you will feel!
