After taking advice from a doctor to be sure you are fit enough, you could pick out any short term diet such as the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet or even a juice fast. Some of them cost more than others (especially those that require you to live on packaged diet products). However, provided you are healthy and have enough motivation you can restrict your calories enough to achieve a good weight loss over a short time.

The problem is that most of us do not have enough motivation. In fact, that is often why people become overweight in the beginning. Our culture, which conditions us to expect to get exactly what we want the moment we want it, seduces us into stuffing another bagel into our mouths for instant gratification even when we are not hungry.

At the same time, most of the food in the standard American diet is nutritionally poor. It is loaded with refined sugars and flours that give us calories with little or no minerals or vitamins. Many people drink alcohol which is the same – high calories, virtually no nutritional content.

This means that our bodies go on clamoring for more food even while we gorge on the most fattening things we can find. We tend to assume that if we eat like everyone else or more, we will have enough vitamins and minerals in our diet, but this is not true. You may be surprised to know that even if you eat a lot, you are unlikely to come close to achieving the RDA of most minerals unless you are eating large quantities of vegetables.

Another problem with most of the quick ways to lose weight is that they restrict the food intake even further. This means that at the end of whatever period you have set aside for your diet, you will almost certainly pack on the pounds again – unless you plan your diet very carefully.

This is one reason why the cabbage soup diet is not as stupid as you might think. Cabbage is a very nutritious food along with its family members broccoli and cauliflower. Eat plenty of those plus lots of fresh fruit, completely cut out sugar and anything made with flour, and you have the basics of a good weight loss diet that will not only help you lose weight fast right now, but may help you to keep it off.

So the best of all of the quick ways to lose weight is one that has you eat a lot of fresh, raw vegetables and fruit.

Be careful of “Crash Diets”

Many people think you can get rid of excess weight by just reducing calories. This thinking can be attributed to the many low calorie food and beverage products that are flooding the market these days. What you may not know is that reducing your calorie intake below the recommended levels can be dangerous to your health as the body starts to digest its fat reserves. This may sound like a good thing, but it’s not. It takes a lot of energy to burn fat, and the body has a limited amount energy for the metabolism of fat. This slows down the body, contributing to fatigue and a weak immune system that can bring on illness. This is not a good the way to go for losing weight safely.

The body can also begin consuming muscle as a result of low cal diets. If you were to return to your previous eating habits, you could end up putting back on all the weight you lost, most of it being fat. This means you not only weigh the same as before, but you look heavier also since fat has more volume than muscle. Losing excess body fat is what you want to keep in mind when losing weight safely.

Eating smaller meals throughout the day can help keep the body from thinking it is being starved so it will not store as much fat.

Eating Properly

With the crash diet now off the table, it’s still important to watch what you eat. Getting the proper nutrients from a good variety of food is a necessary part of your diet. Stay away from fried foods by eating steamed and broiled foods. Drink lots of water through out the day and get plenty of fiber.

Pump Up lean Muscle Mass

Muscles burn calories when they work and when they rest. They burn calories all day long, while fat just sits there bulging beneath your clothing. Increasing muscle mass is one way to start losing weight safely. You can do this by working out with resistance exercises. More muscles equals less fat.

Aerobics Training

Increasing your cardio-vascular endurance through aerobics is great for your heart. Aerobics can increase lean muscle mass while decreasing body fat. Your metabolic rate increases and becomes more efficient not only while you are doing aerobics, but long after you have stopped. So you can still be burning off the fat on your drive home or while you are relaxing with a good book.

On Taking Diet Pills

You should take extra care about losing weight safely with diet pills. Over-the-counter diet pills affect the amount of weight loss as well as how long the weight stays off. You need to be aware of any potential side effects and strictly follow the instructions. It is also a good idea to talk to your doctor before using any diet pills and find out what ones what be right for you. You can also try dietary supplements.

Losing weight safely can be done without a lot of sacrifice and suffering. It’s actually quite the opposite as you will be leading a more full and healthy lifestyle without feeling terrible about your looks or being unhappy because you can’t do certain activities because of your weight issues. Of course losing weight requires a change in your daily habits, which can be very difficult for some people. But once you develop new, healthier daily habits, you will be happy you stuck it out.