how do i lose weight fast?

Answer 1

For all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it.


On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. A couple of common question amounts to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete.

Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

In order to consistently keep your weight under control, it is advisable to walk about 10,000 steps daily. It is the easiest activity among all the exercise programs and does not involve stress to the body. Apart from the activity of walking, a systematic dietary pattern should be followed so that you are always free from the obesity symptoms.

Generally people, who are overweight, are usually not interested in physical activities. They prefer doing any type of work but without moving from one place to another. They usually enjoy watching TV and having something to eat. For this category, fixing a program like aerobics or floor exercises would require great efforts. Therefore walking is the most recommended form of exercise. For the beginners it is ideal to walk for 15-20 minutes daily. Gradually, the time can be extended daily until they are capable of walking 60 minutes a day.

When the doctors prescribe pills for the patients, they advice the patients to spend some time walking around. The tablets are effective only when combined with the healthy dietary patterns and a daily exercise activity. Losing weight is a difficult task, and people who are disciplined and take exercise seriously, would lose weight. So take your exercise activity seriously and be active throughout the day.

Answer 3

I've lost 8 pounds in the past 7 days. I am walking either outside or on a Treadmill for about an hour every day at 3.5 miles an hour. AND.. I am eating less often. At first you may feel some hunger pains .. but your stomach shrinks back down .. and you get used to having less food. If you get hungry and need to eat something.. buy SUGAR FREE Popsicals.. made with Splenda.. they are only 5 calories each .. you can eat 10 of them and it is only 50 calories... Also, cucumbers are mostly water and roughage .. you can eat one or two cucumbers and not worry about it .. also, pickles are only 5 calories each and tend to kill my appetite. Eat all the Lettuce you want to. Eat only when you are hungry. Largest meal should be in the morning .. medium meal for lunch .. and a light meal for dinner. But it all comes down to a simple formula .. Eat Less and Excersise More. Burn up more calories than you take into your body. Good Luck !!! :)

Answer 4

The difference between your current weight and the ideal weight is the weight you wish to lose. The maximum weight that can be lost safely by a person is 1-2 kg a week. Any faster weight loss could adversely affect your health, and you could regain it quickly after you stop the weight loss program. More information on a weight loss diet and exercises available at http://tinyurl.com/jax5h

Answer 5

Losing weight fast is bad for your body. It causes the "yo-yo" diet syndrome where people lose weight and gain even more back. When you starve yourself, your body compensates by hording fat.

A better diet (and one easy to stick to) is to drink 8 ounces (about the size of a medium glass) of water and eat a piece of fruit or vegtables every 1.5 to two hours between meals. This keeps your metabolism going so that you naturally burn more calories (you actually burn more calories than the few extra calories you are eating believe it or not!) The water helps you to flush the extra fat and toxins and loose "water weight" your body hordes.

Please, do not try weird diets people might list. They are bad for your body. You need proper nutrition; don't starve yourself. Be patient about losing weight and you will feel better and keep the weight off longer.

Answer 6

This might be the most unhealthy answer, but eat no carbs whatsoever for two weeks, and do cardio 5 days a week for 30 mins, and you will drop weight like crazy.

Answer 7

Cut the amount of calories that you take in and eats lots of lean protein. Exercise and burn off more calories than you take in. The only way to lose weight and keep it off in the long run is diet and exercise. It's also the healthiest way to do it!

Answer 8

someone recommended "Callanetics" to me (amazon.com) a couple of weeks ago and I can already feel a difference - I haven't been doing it very much either.

You can get the used VHS tapes for about 4 or 5 bucks or so, too.

Answer 9

drink a lot of water and eat veggies, no carrots though. I drank up to a gallon a day to loose up to 12 pounds a week.

Answer 10

Hitting the gym is important for weight loss

Answer 11

chug 12 8 ounce glasses of ice water a day it has the same effect on your metabolism as green tea