Diets for quick weight loss have always been popular. Maybe your New Year’s resolution is to lose 20 pounds, maybe you need to get ready for swimsuit season, maybe its for a work party or graduation or a family reunion. No matter what it is for, the goal is the same – you want to look better, right? And of course you want to do it as quick as possible. I mean, if I were to ask you, “Do you want to lose 10 pounds in 4 months or 4 weeks?” You would pick 4 weeks. No one wants to drag their diet out.

Now, before we go any farther,we need to address something that seems simple, but is very important. Do you want to lose weight or do you want to look thinner? It may seem like the same thing, but it’s not. When we’re talking about diets for quick weight loss, you will probably need to choose one or the other. Over time, you can achieve both. But we don’t have time here! We need quick results!

Let me break it down a little more. Do you want the number on the scale to go down or do to want your clothes to fit better? You need to know the answer to that question before you can find out what you need to do. Got it? Good, let’s dig into it. First, let’s look at what you need to do to drop pounds quickly.

How to Lose Water Weight

If you only have a week or less, the only thing you’re really going to be able to lose is water weight. Water makes up 50% to 70% of our bodies. Your body will adjust the level of water it is holding based on a number of things. By making an adjustment to a few of those things, your body will release some of that water that it is retaining. Depending on how much water your body is retaining, you can lose anywhere from a few pounds to 20+.

The first thing you can do you lose water weight is to drink more water! No, I’m not kidding. Your body needs water for almost every function. Without water your body can’t function. If you went without food and water, you would die from dehydration long before starvation. When you aren’t getting enough water, your body starts to retain it. It does everything it can to hold on the the one thing it needs most. When you start drinking more water, you body will switch out of starvation mode and only hold on to the water it needs. 8 to 10 glasses of water a day is what you should be shooting for.

Another thing you can do to lose water weight is to avoid fast food and processed foods. Specifically, the problem is all of the sodium that these foods contain. The preservatives and other artificial chemicals don’t help either. The more sodium you consume, the more water your body has to retain to maintain a proper electrolyte balance.

You can also look into taking a diuretic. Diuretics essentially cause your body to excrete sodium. As sodium is urinated, water goes along with it. It would probably be a good idea to talk to your doctor about this one though.

All of these items will cause you to lose water weight. This is one of the best diets for quick weight loss. That is, if you are only looking to lose weight and not actually lose inches. This will cause the scale to drop, but will not likely make a difference in the way you look.

If you are more concerned about your clothes fitting better and looking thinner and more fit, then there are a number of other things you can do.

Ways to Look Thinner

If you go this route, the goal is to actually make parts of your body smaller. The problem is, even the most extreme quick weight loss diet won’t cause you to lose excess fat. (We’re talking short time-frames here). So, how can you look thinner if you don’t have time to lose fat? The trick is to tighten up key muscles. Tight, lean muscles pull everything in and make you look thinner.

The muscles that you really need to focus on are your abs, your legs, your butt and your arms. If you can tighten those up, you can look like you dropped 10 pounds in less than a week! You can tighten these muscles by doing specific focused exercises. You need to do these exercises with little to no weight and you will need to do a lot of reps. The goal here isn’t to build muscle, but to make the muscle that you have long and lean.

For your legs and butt, there are two great exercises that you can do. The first exercise is a lunge. Start by standing up with your feet together. Without bending your left knee, step your right foot out so that your right leg is at a 90 degree angle. Next, stand back up by bringing your left foot up to your right foot. Repeat on the other side. This is one repetition. Do as many of them as you can while keeping good form.

The other exercise you can do are squats. With your feet shoulder width apart, squat down, keeping your knees over your heels. Do as many of these as you can while keeping good form.

For your arms, do curls to work the front of your arms and arm extensions for the back of your arms. For curls, start with your arms at your sides, palms facing forward. Without moving your elbows, bring your hands up until they touch the top of your shoulders. Bring your hands back down and repeat. For arm extensions, start with your arms straight up above your head, palms facing back. Without moving your shoulders or elbows, let your hands come back until your elbows are at 90 degree angles. Extend your arms again and repeat. You can use a towel or very light weights. Do as many of each exercise as you can while keeping good form. You should be able to do at least 25.

For your abs, good old crunches and sit-ups work fine.  You don’t need to do anything fancy here.

Another great exercise for looking thinner is jogging. Jogging works every muscle from your abs down. The repeated motion works really well for tightening up your muscles and making you look leaner. I know when I first started jogging, I lost 4 inches around my waist.

Other Tips for Quick Weight Loss

A lot of quick weight loss programs advocate starvation. They put you into a huge calorie deficit. The problem with this is, your body goes into starvation mode. You may actually gain weight this way! On top of this, you don’t have any energy to exercise and you are much more likely to go on a fast food or sugar binge. Extreme low calorie diets are one of the worst ways to lose weight.

Try to eat a lot of fresh vegetables. They are filling and very low calorie. They also contain all kinds of nutrients that help your body to operate at its full potential. A body operating at its full potential will burn more calories with less effort.

You should also eat more often. Right after you eat, you get a little metabolism boost as you digest your food. The more often you eat, the more often your metabolism will be working to digest something. This means that you will burn more calories just by eating. Now, that doesn’t mean you should pig-out 6 times a day. You should take your normal calorie budget and split it over 6 meals.

When you do eat, look for high-protein and high-fiber foods. These types of foods help you feel full and you are less likely to over-eat. Also, avoid empty calories like soda, Starbucks and sugar-loaded desserts.

Quick weight loss diets really do work. They can also be healthy if done right. Avoid diets for quick weight loss that promote starvation or dehydration. These are incredibly unhealthy and can cause serious health issues including organ failure and death. Now, go and get after it and meet your weight loss goal!

Posted on: December 31st, 2010 by Jeremy Waller

Filed under: Weight Loss

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