Is Fast Weight Loss Possible?

We are all looking for dieting hints, quick ways to guarantee we lose the pounds or advice that means we see long term slimming goals achieved. But is it possible to find this "fast route"?

The answer is yes, fast weight loss is possible, but you have to be dedicated and you also have to be one of the 5 in 6 people who doesn't have the "fatso gene".

The Wrong Foods!

One of the main causes of putting on weight is due to people eating the wrong foods. By "wrong" we actually mean "nutritionally inadequate"!

By eliminating the following foods from your diet you will dramatically increase the chances of making some progress in losing a few pounds. You may also, as a by-product, feel less sluggish and have more energy!

Processed Food

One type of food that most people eat during a week, it's also a type of food that a lot of people eat a lot of for convenience.

If you are serious about losing some weight quickly, you will need to dramatically reduce your consumption of processed food. Processed foods are designed to be convenient and tasty, so good nutrition is not really top of the list!

As such processed foods are packed with fat, sodium (in the form of salt), sugar, chemicals and preservatives. All of these things add on pounds and also, more concerningly, mess with your body's natural chemical processes. Avoid them at all costs!

Fast Food

One of the quickest routes to piling on the pounds and , dare we say it, obesity! Removing this type of food is a must if you want to lose weight quickly.

Did you know that an average fast food meal contains about 1000 calories - half of your calories for the entire day. It also contains almost your entire's RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of sugar and fat. This type of food is also not particularly filling, meaning you then supplement with snacks or more processed/takeaway food.

Deep Fried Foods

From fish and chips to burgers and fries, deep fried foods are loaded with calories and fat. Should really have included this in the takeaway's section above as similar in all ways. Ditch them!

White Sugar

White sugar is so refined that it has almost no nutritional value. Worse yet, the body is not really designed to process foods that are this refined, so it is absorbed rapidly into the blood. This causes a spike in blood sugar and therefore a response from your insulin system. This means that these sugar fixes soon fade, leaving you craving more and therefore piling on those calories!

Alcohol

Again, alcohol provides almost nothing in the way of nutrition, but is packed with calories! Did you know that there are a whopping 7 calories per gram!?

A big night on the town can easily see you consume 1000 calories just in drinks - and that's before you stop for a cheeseburger and fries or a Chinese on the way home. Horrific!

If these form a large part of your diet, you will have to replace them with something. So what do you actually need to be eating to get it right?

The 'Right' Foods

Your diet should be made up from the following foods:

Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

Aim for at least five portions of fruit and vegetables. Not only are they full of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs, they also contain lots of fibre - because your body has to work hard to digest this fibre, it burns extra calories.

Low Fat Meat and Fish

You need healthy sources of protein, so choose options like chicken (without the skin), and fish.

Whole grains

Whole grains, whether in bread, pasta, or brown rice, are absorbed more slowly by the body, and provide essential vitamins and minerals.

Water

Finally, you need to drink plenty of water - it is calorie free, and not only will it help to fill you up, so you eat less, it is also needed by the body for the metabolising of fat.

Portion Control

One of the enemies of weight gain, in fact probably the most difficult to control in some ways, is the size of portions that you receive and therefore, in many cases, consume.

No one is physically forced to eat the whole plate, but having paid good money for the main meal, you feel compelled to finish off the plate. It has been proven that up to a certain point, the more that's placed on the plate, the more you will consume.

This is wrong on every level as it encourages us to gorge, placing stress on the body's digestive system as well as encouraging us to eat way more than we actually want or need.

We would go as far as to say a large reason (excuse the pun) for the obesity plague in the Western world is purely down to the size of portions that people are now used to eating at a sitting.