Last updated on February 7, 2022 at 11:41 am
What’s the fastest way to lose weight? It’s one of the most asked questions on earth, and fair enough. People want results quickly.
Contrary to popular belief, losing weight fast isn’t necessarily unhealthy (as long as it’s not too fast).
Losing weight fast can be extremely motivating as you see the results quicker, which keeps your motivation at an all-time high.
We recommend a primarily plant-based diet for weight loss, as it’s filling, healthy, and scientifically proven to work. We also recommend using intermittent fasting for weight loss, as it helps you control your caloric intake, making weight loss easier.
Try Intermittent Fasting
Using intermittent fasting correctly is one of the best ways to lose weight fast.
Intermittent fasting is a popular dieting method that is commonly used for weight loss. It involves restricted eating on certain days of the week or the consumption of food between particular hours of the day.
Many people find intermittent fasting to be more of a lifestyle change than a diet and find it easier to stick with over traditional calorie-restrictive diets (1). There are three primary forms of intermittent fasting, which all follow the same general idea. These three methods include the 5:2 diet, the 16/8 method, and the Eat-Stop-Eat method.
The 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 diet is structured to allow you to eat as you usually would five days a week and restrict your food intake for two days. On the two days of your choice, you restrict your calorie intake to 500 calories per day for women or 600 calories for men, meeting approximately a quarter of your usual daily needs.
People often find it easiest to have the fasting days at the beginning and end of the week (e.g., Monday and Thursday) and begin by making meals on these days smaller than usual. For this style of fasting, you do not want to make up for calories you did not consume on your calorie-restricted days. Binge eating or eating more than usual on the five normal days will defeat the purpose of this fasting method.
The 16/8 Diet
This method is the most popular method of intermittent fasting, as the majority of the fast occurs while you are asleep.
One study in 2016 concluded that when paired with resistance training, the 16/8 method can cause you to gain muscle and lose body fat (2). In this fasting style, the 24 hours of the day are split into fasting and feeding sections. For 16 hours, you fast, and for the other 8 hours, you can consume food as you usually would.
When you sleep, your body burns calories from the last meal you consumed as its source of energy. However, once the calories from that meal have been used up, your body then switches to burning fat to provide energy. By prolonging the amount of time your body is burning fat in place of calories, you can achieve weight loss.
An easy way to implement this style of fasting is to have your last meal before 8 pm and skip breakfast, having just a coffee or tea. This way, you can have your first nutritious meal of the day at noon and eat as you usually would until 8 pm.
During the time you eat, make sure you are still consuming healthy choices.
Eat-Stop-Eat
This method follows a similar structure to the 5:2 method. However, instead of restricting calories for two days of the week, you omit food completely for two days.
A full day fast is a great way to reset and detoxify your body after an indulgent weekend. Like the 5:2 method, during this style of fasting, you can eat as you normally would for five days of the week.
Things to Consider for Intermittent Fasting
The success of intermittent fasting rests almost solely on the food that is consumed on normal days.
An important way to look at intermittent fasting is to eat well most of the time, indulging only on a few occasions, and fast for extended periods now and then (3). Having this outlook and treating intermittent fasting as a lifestyle rather than a diet can have a positive effect on weight loss.
To achieve weight loss, stay away from junk food, processed food, and calorie-heavy beverages on the days where your calorie intake is not restricted. These kinds of foods are known to promote weight gain.
Go Plant-Based
There is a wealth of evidence indicating that adopting a plant-based can have several health benefits. This is largely due to the increase in fruits and vegetables and subsequent reduction in processed foods and fatty meats.
There are several ways a plant-based diet can help you lose weight quickly.
Most plant-foods contain a lot of water, and they have low-calorie density. The low-calorie density can promote weight loss through a reduction in the calorie density of your meals.
This means you are eating the same quantity of the food as you usually would but replacing processed meats with plant-based sources of protein. If you make this change and continue to exercise, your calorie intake will be reduced while your energy expenditure remains constant.
A 2019 study looking at the role of plant-based diets in weight loss suggests that adapting to a plant-based diet can reduce your body fat by various mechanisms (4).
This study highlighted the potential effect of a plant-based diet to improve satiety, meaning you feel fuller for longer. It also suggested that plant-based diets may also improve insulin sensitivity and may act to slightly reduce the symptoms of diabetes.
Avoid Processed Foods
The key to weight loss is to eat healthy, balanced meals, and avoid junk as much as possible. It is often thought that salt, sugar, and fat are the main contributors to weight loss; however, processed foods can contribute just as much to weight gain.
A healthy diet is one that contains fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy, lean meats, nuts, and seeds. Eating this way can help you lose weight fast and have several positive long term health benefits.
Avoiding processed foods is a great way to lose fat quickly. Approximately 60% of energy intake in the American diet comes from processed food, making it a leading contributor to obesity and diabetes (5).
Processed foods are made cheaply and designed to be high in fat, salt, and sugar. Cutting them out of your diet could help you get quick weight loss results.
Replacing processed foods with whole, unprocessed options is an easy way to lose weight without drastic changes. For example, you can switch processed meats such as salami and processed chicken for more lean meats like chicken breasts or fish.
The Bottom Line
By adapting your lifestyle to incorporate intermittent fasting, a plant-based diet, and cutting out processed food, you’ll feel fuller for longer while reducing the caloric-density of your meals.
These changes will help you to live a healthier lifestyle and cause you to lose weight.
Test out these options and see what works best for you. Remember, to see weight loss results fast, eating well-balanced, complete meals, and regular exercise is important.
And if you want guided support to help guide you in terms of what to eat and when, try our 21 Day Weight Loss Challenge and see how your pounds melt away:
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