After you read the article title I know most of you probably thought something like “I don’t care if it’s healthy or not I just want to lose as much fat as possible fast”. I must say I understand from your point of view that you think of fat loss as something linear and the attitude ”the more the better” is very common in weight loss community. However from my personal experience I can vouch that any extreme action brings more trouble than results.
Most people think of fat as some dead alien weight that they carry around, they fail to realize that your body works very hard to keep that fat and it is in your nature to have as much energy reserves as possible to ensure maximum survival. So when we try something extreme like lose 30 pounds a week diets our body will automatically shut down fat burning mechanisms to prevent us from lowering our survival chances. The body doesn’t know you won’t starve to death next week and survival mechanisms that are results of millions of years of evolution are more powerful than some diet you read on the internet. As a result we have tons of diets that don’t work, those that know how these mechanisms function work well and can help us to lose fat healthy.
Is it Possible to Lose Fat Fast And Healthy?
To be able to answer this first I must know what you consider fast. Theoretically it is possible to lose 20 pounds a week with extreme 5h long exercise each day, perfect diet and monitoring of at least 3 doctors that specialize in weight loss, nutrition and exercise. Most likely you would get injured in the process or after 2 days you couldn’t move from all the lactic acid in your muscles.
Large number of my clients that started a healthy meal plan and exercise regularly lost in average 1-2 pounds a week. Individuals with more extra weight initially lose weight easier than those who are already fit, athletes trying to get to single digit body fat levels have the most difficult task.
From my experience the biggest amount anyone has lost in the first week was 5 pounds. Losing 2-3 pounds a week is considered a healthy tempo by many diet experts, individuals with these results are less likely to get any rebound effect and regain the lost weight.
Exercise is still the fastest way to directly burn fat. Only way to increase your metabolism rate and fat oxidation is with proper intense exercise.
As you can see in the above example the numbers on the weight scale are not something reliable, use the mirror or some clothes you couldn’t fit to measure your progress.
Stay Away from Crash Diets That Promise Big Results
Popular ways to lose fat fast are crash diets, I had a friend that tried such a diet before his summer vacation. He ate less than 1000 calories daily, after a week he lost almost 10 pounds (big part of that was just water) but then suddenly the weight loss slowed down to 2-3 pounds per week and after 3 weeks it was less than 1 pound. After 3 weeks he was in bad condition, no energy, always hungry and to be perfectly honest he didn’t look that much slimmer. The weight scale was obviously showing the right numbers but the mirror was different. He started to eat normal again soon after that and he regained all the “lost” weight. Lesson here is that you should avoid any kind of diet that makes you consume less than 1300 calories per day as they are not effective in the long-term. Also they can harm your immune system and can cause many other health problems.
Quote of the post: “A one hour workout is only 4% of your day. NO Excuses!!”
