A Popular Weight Loss Question - What Is The Quickest Way To Lose Weight?

I'll bet you've either heard it before, or you have asked the question yourself. I know I have asked the question before. What is the quickest way to lose weight? It seems that almost everyone who gets on the weight loss train to a thinner self wants to know how long the trip really is that they are attempting to take. And really, who can blame them, or blame us, for that matter. I always want to know what the cost of anything really is - from actual dollars to time invested. What am I putting out in return for this healthy new body and self image?

When I stop to think about the question, one of the first things that comes to my mind is another question. Is this the right question to be asking? The important thing isn't really the speed of weight loss, but rather the best way to get yourself healthy. At least, from my perspective, that is the right question to be asking. Sure, the fact remains, that the quicker you are able to shed the excess pounds to sooner you will be in better health. So the time frame in which your journey takes is indeed important, but I'm not convinced that it is the only important factor to consider. For example, if you were to use an illegal drug, like cocaine (which will really suppress your appetite), to help you lose weight fast, I think that we can all agree that the side effects it would have on your body would leave you, by far, more unhealthy than staying overweight. So I would propose that the best question you should be asking yourself is "What is the quickest way to lose weight in a healthy manner?"

I believe that I have discussed this previously on this blog, but with the holidays coming up it is worth repeating. I recommend a three prong attack to get you to your ideal weight in the least amount of time. You are probably very familiar with the first two prongs or factors. In fact, you are probably well aware of all three. The key is using all three methods in conjunction together to assist you in reaching your weight loss goals. The factors to consider are as follows: Diet, Exercise, and Supplementation. Each on alone has positive factors, but when used in concert with each other they can turn your body into a fat burning machine. Our bodies are designed to work very efficiently. This is the reason so many of us have a tough time with our weight. With a poor diet over the years of our life we have basically told our bodies "You need to store this energy for later" and they listened and did exactly what we told them to do based on how we were feeding them. SO the key to getting to a healthy weight is to use our body's efficiency to our advantage by giving it the right message on what to do. Here is how it works.

Diet - It isn't just what you eat and how much, but it is also how often. To lose weight you need to eat more often. Yes, you read that correctly. Instead of eating three "square" meals a day you should eat every 2 or 3 hours. This sends the message to your body "There is always energy coming in we need to use as much of it as possible and stop storing it" Now, portion control is also very important here. If you are eating 6 or more times a day, you shouldn't be eating the same amount that you are eating in the normal "3 meals a day" program we were all brought up to believe in. A rough estimate of the portion size you should be eating is your fist. For each of your 6 meals you should have a portion of protein (lean meat, cottage cheese, etc.) and a portion of carbohydrate (complex carbs like apples are best). If you get hungry throughout the day eat vegetables. They are basically a free food (salad with unhealthy dressing doesn't count - raw carrots are always good). By changing this eating habit alone you might see great results. One other note on diet before we wrap this section up. You need to drink water. Because our bodies are mostly water they cannot flush out and use the excess fat if there isn't enough water in the body to transport the stored energy (fat) to where it needs to go. So make sure you stay hydrated with several glasses of water a day (8 is a good number to shoot for starting out).

Exercise - You don't need to spend everyday in the gym working out for longer and longer periods of time. What you need to do is spend at least 20 minutes each day doing some sort of focused exercise. You will see the best results if you choose an exercise program with a balanced attack. You need both a cardiovascular (called cardio most of the time - running, walking, riding a bike, etc.) workout and a strength training (lifting weights) workout to really be effective. The reason for this is that the cardio workout gets your heart rate up which speeds up your metabolism and the strength training builds muscle which gives your body more substance to feed energy to (which effectively means that you will burn calories faster because the muscle you have been building requires that energy to live - fat doesn't require much energy to stay viable so it doesn't help in burning calories).

Supplementation - There is NO magic diet pill. None. There are, however, a number of good supplements on the market to help you lose weight. I'm not going to go into those in this article, but you should talk with your medical professional about which one would be right for you. In the same vein as weight loss supplements, it is very important that you get your daily amount of vitamins so that your body can function correctly. So make sure that you are at least taking a daily multi-vitamin to cover your bases.

This three prong attack, I believe, is the answer to the age old question - What is the quickest way to lose weight? Follow it, and you will see great results. I did. Many others have also. You can too!