How to lose weight fast

Do you want to lose weight as quickly as possible? When it comes to fast weight loss, it’s important to take a healthy approach — one that promotes loss of fat, retention of muscle, and increases your likelihood of keeping the weight off.

After reading our new guide, you’ll be on your way to losing weight quickly in five simple steps.

Fast, healthy, sustainable weight loss

Is it possible to lose weight both rapidly and permanently? Yes, indeed.

Recent research suggests that people who lose weight quickly are just as likely to keep pounds or kilos off as those who lose weight more gradually. Moreover, preserving lean mass seems to decrease a person’s risk for regain, regardless of how long it takes them to lose the weight. In addition, several factors influence how quickly you can lose weight. Women typically lose weight more slowly than men. And because metabolic rate tends to decline with age, older women may lose at a slower pace than younger men and women — despite putting in just as much effort, if not more.

Below, you’ll find the simple steps to take to start losing weight quickly.

Five simple steps to fast weight loss

1. Eat plenty of protein

For starters, protein can suppress your appetite by triggering your body to release hormones that help you feel full and satisfied. Protein is an essential nutrient your body needs to survive and thrive. In addition, boosting your protein intake may help speed up your weight loss.  protein has a higher “thermic effect” than fat and carbohydrates. This means your body burns slightly more calories digesting protein compared to the two other macronutrients. We recommend consuming 1.2 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of reference weight or ideal body weight per day. For example, a woman who currently weighs 170 pounds but whose ideal body weight (or reference weight) is 130 pounds (59 kilos) would aim to eat 69 to 118 grams of protein per day.

2. Cut way back on carbs

First, according to high-quality research, very-low-carb diets — also known as keto diets — reduce hunger. Start by eliminating foods high in carbs: sweets, bread, pasta, fruit, and similar foods. Going low carb can significantly speed up weight loss, for several reasons. This allows you to eat less and lose weight quickly without deliberately restricting calories and without feeling hungry or deprived. This impressive fat loss may be partly due to the drop in insulin levels that occur during keto eating. When insulin levels are low, your body is primed to burn rather than store fat.

Finally, some research suggests that continuing to eat low carb to maintain your new weight may help keep your metabolic rate up, increasing the likelihood that you’ll keep the weight off.

Note: Be sure to read our tips to avoid or minimize symptoms of the keto flu before going low carb.

3. Get some exercise, but don’t overdo it

Engaging in aerobic activity (e.g., walking briskly or bicycling) and resistance training (e.g., lifting weights) can boost your metabolic rate and help preserve muscle mass as you lose weight. Will exercising for several hours every day help you lose weight faster? According to studies, physical activity by itself has a limited effect on weight loss. What you eat appears to play a much larger role. However, getting regular exercise can provide benefits during weight loss. While it’s good to engage in physical activity, working out vigorously for several hours every day isn’t necessary or advisable for weight loss and good health. Plus, making dramatic changes to both your diet and exercise routine at the same time can be overwhelming. So try to lift weights, do push-ups, or perform other resistance exercise for 15 to 30 minutes a few times a week. Walk, run, dance, ride a bike, or do similar aerobic activity for 30 to 60 minutes on most days, if possible.

4. Go for non-starchy vegetables

In the 2007 A to Z weight loss trial, people who followed the Atkins diet lost an average of 10 pounds within the first two months — far more than people who followed the other three diets being studied. Leafy greens and other non-starchy vegetables are excellent foods for fast weight loss. They’re very low in carbs and calories yet provide fiber that can help you feel full. The Atkins diet, which has helped millions of people lose weight, recommends eating two cups of leafy green vegetables and one cup of other low-carb vegetables every day. This advice is designed to produce fast weight loss during the initial stage of the diet. How many low-carb vegetables should you eat? We recommend that you eat as many keto-friendly vegetables as you want while staying within your daily carbohydrate target. For many people, this will be about two servings per day, but a great deal of individual variation exists.

5. Keep fat intake moderate

When you’re trying to drop pounds or kilos quickly, eating less fat may seem to make sense. That said, eating excessive amounts of fat isn’t a good strategy for quick weight loss either. Even on a very-low-carb diet, eating more fat than your body needs can slow down rather than speed up weight loss. However, it’s not a good idea to eat a diet that’s low in both carbs and fat. You’ll likely end up feeling deprived within a few days or weeks — and it certainly isn’t sustainable long term. There’s no need to fear fat. Instead, eat enough fat to add flavor and richness to your food but not so much that you feel stuffed. Let your body burn its stored fat rather than the fat you are eating.