Lose weight fast diets. Which work & are they safe?
By: Andy B — ThatWeightLossPlanGuy
Author of “How to lose 7lbs in 21 days”
One of the most common questions I see regarding weight loss is “how can I lose weight fast?”. This then leads people onto the inevitable search for “diets to lose weight fast”.
This subject really gets me really angry (more on that later!). I’ve been on my own weight loss journey, lost a lot of weight and now focus on helping people do the same. So I understand peoples pain and frustration when it comes to trying to lose weight. That’s why, I now help people lose weight with a free mini course and a simple, easy weight loss plan .
This blog will focus on diets to lose weight fast, which ones work, why they work and if they’re safe. Most importantly however, I want to challenge you and your thinking. I want you to question if you should even be considering a lose weight fast diet. I want to suggest a better solution for your weight loss problem, that will be easier, is much more likely to succeed in the short term and keep it off in the long term. How does that sound?
Lets start by looking at why you want to lose weight fast as this will dictate which diets will suit you best.
By the way, there is a great free gift for you at the end of this article as a thank you for reading my blog.
Why do you want to lose weight fast?
This is a really important question for so many reasons. For 99% of people, they will fall in one of 2 camps answering this question.
The first camp have an event (wedding, holiday or special occasion) coming up or have just put on a little extra weight and want to lose it quickly. If it’s to lose a small amount of weight and it’s quick (a week or two), this camp might consider a lose weight fast diet.
The second camp represents the majority of dieters and they shouldn’t even entertain the thought of doing a lose weight fast diet. This group have more weight to lose and want to find the quickest way to do it! Let’s face it, we all want results quickly (yesterday if possible!), for the least amount of effort.
This is perfectly natural and logical thinking. However, I’ll explain later in this blog why this short term thinking and fast weight loss diets, will doom you to failure when it comes to weight loss. So, by simply changing your thinking and approach, you maximise your chances of hitting your weight loss goals.
So, how and why can these lose weight fast diets work? Let’s explore this next.
How and why these diets can work
These diets all work on a very simple principle. Take in substantially less calories than the body needs to maintain its weight and you will lose weight. It’s simple science.
You need to be deficient by 3,500 calories to lose 1lb in weight. The average women should have 2,000 calories a day and 2,500 calories a day for a man. This means if you can eat like a sparrow for enough time, you will lose weight. Not ground-breaking information, I know! These diets all market themselves with some angle (shakes, eating just one food type, cutting out a food group or even not eating most of the time!) to distract you from the fact you’re going to be eating very little to achieve weight loss!
So, by essentially starving yourself, they can work. I have MAJOR issues with this approach and why you shouldn’t go down this road, which I will go into (rant about) later.
There are lots of diets that fall under this category. I would classify them all as “fad” diets, dangerous and WOULD STRONGLY ADVISE AGAINST DOING ANY OF THEM. All of these make large weight loss claims, in a short period of time. Let’s look at the most common ones:
Cabbage soup diet — Eat mainly cabbage soup with a few other limited foods for 7 days.
Meal replacements (shakes) — Have shakes for breakfast and lunch and then a small healthy evening meal.
Extreme Fasting — We are not talking about the 5:2 diet here but ones that see you fast everyday for a week or more, with just a small healthy evening meal each day.
Raw food diet — Eating just uncooked raw fruit, vegetables and seeds.
Egg diet — You guessed it, eating just eggs with occasional low GI vegetables and protein.
Grapefruit diet — Eat half a grapefruit before meals and then eat lean protein.
Macrobiotic diet — Made famous by Gwyneth Paltrow. Eat 60% wholegrains and the rest raw fruit and veg.
These are just a few of the crazy diets out there to lose weight fast. They can work but I beg you not to do them, however tempting it might be to lose weight fast (which from personal experience, I get!). I explore why in the next couple of sections.
Are fast weight loss diets safe?
The simple answer is a resounding no! Whilst doing some of the fast weight loss diets might not be dangerous for a week (still not an endorsement to do them!), it can be if you do them for any longer. Weight loss professionals (doctors) consider a safe weight loss amount to be 2–3lbs a week if you are in the overweight category.
There are so many side effects of fast weight loss diets. These can include a lack of essential minerals, dizziness, fatigue, insomnia, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, bad breath and headaches. I don’t know about you but none of those side effects seem fun to have whilst simultaneously starving yourself!
Lots for fast weight loss diets advertise weight loss of 7lbs a week or more. Stay away from them! I’ll explain why you shouldn’t use them in the next section.
Why you shouldn’t use a lose weight fast diet for general weight loss
If you are in the 2nd camp (have quite a bit of weight to lose) as we discussed earlier, you shouldn’t do a lose weight fast diet. Why?
I hate these diets with a passion. They pray on peoples pain and desperation to lose weight quickly. They promise fast results which they know aren’t sustainable long term and are incredibly difficult to do successfully. Even worse, most are dangerous and go against the medical professions advice on safe weight loss. Please do yourself a huge favour and avoid them. Pick a diet that promotes a longer term, sensible weight loss per week. Rant over.
So, if you shouldn’t do a fast weight loss diet, what’s the solution? I’m glad you asked! Lets look at an alternative that gives you a much higher chance of losing weight and then keeping it off!
How to lose weight the right way — Change your mindset
Hopefully you now know that fast weight loss diets aren’t a long term solution, safe or effective. So how can we lose weight the right way? The answer is to change your mindset.
To be successful in weight loss, you need to change your mindset to recognise that losing weight is a marathon, not a sprint. Why? A long term weight loss mindset / goal:
- Sets realistic goals that are achievable.
- Puts less pressure on you, as if you don’t hit your target one week, it’s a small blip as a part of a longer term target.
- Means you don’t have to do an extreme diet, that will leave you miserable and tired.
- Is much easier to succeed, so you’re less likely to become demotivated, quit and fail, breaking the whole dieting cycle many of us are / were on.
- Changes your habits slowly, so you get back to making good nutritional choices, for a long term change.
There are lots mainstream diets that take a longer term mindset approach. I have written a blog about how to pick the right diet for you , that goes through all the main diets and their pro’s and cons. Hopefully it will help you pick the right diet for you.
What worked for me was a diet that was calorie controlled (all the calculations done for you!), that involved eating 3 tasty, easy to prepare and well portioned meals a day, with a snack, no cutting out any food groups (so balanced), with no need to exercise (I hate exercise!). This allowed me to lose 29lbs to get back to healthy weight. You can learn more about it to see if it might be right for you.
Summary
Learning why you want to lose weight fast is important, as for most dieters, it isn’t the right decision. Fast weight loss diets can work in the very short term by creating a massive calorie deficit from what the body needs. There are lots of diets that do this but they are generally dangerous, have lots of nasty side effects and shouldn’t be attempted for any serious length of time for so many reasons.
You should be looking to lose weight at a sensible rate (2–3lbs a week as recommended by many health professionals). Changing your mindset to a long term approach greatly increases your chances of succeeding in your weight loss goals, changing your eating habits and breaking the dieting cycle for good. A balanced calorie controlled diet will likely work best for most people of the longer term.
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ThatWeightLossPlanGuy
Andy B
Author of “How to lose 7lbs in 21 days” “What have you got to lose?”
Disclaimer — The information contained in this article is general information about nutrition, health, exercise and dieting. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such. The article is for educational purposes and is based on the author’s personal experiences when losing weight. The author is not a doctor and before embarking on any weight loss program, please consult with your doctor to ensure it’s safe for you to do so. The author has strived to present information as accurately as possible but accepts no liability for any errors, diet results or personal injuries resulting from following any information contained within the article. The information is offered without warranties or guarantees of any kind, express or implied, and the author disclaims any liability, loss or damage caused by the contents, either directly or consequentially.
Originally published at https://thatweightlossplanguy.com on February 5, 2021.
