The weightlifting’s going great. You have a challenging, but not completely sadistic trainer.

You’ve carved time out of your busy schedule to hit the gym. (You even remember to run your workout clothes through the wash…hopefully, anyway.)

So now you’ll grow huge, buff, and polished in no time… True, unless you eat junk.

Shop smart and you will see the results of your fast weight loss diet.

Everyone’s got to eat. And if your goal is to build lean muscle without the fat, YOU have to eat wiser than the rest.

Get sloppy and you’ll be fighting on both sides in the battle of the bulge.

Restrict your diet too much and yeah, you’ll lose fat; but, you’ll also probably lose interest and head right for some greasy fries and a chocolate shake to burn off frustration rather than excess fat.

Shopping smart is part of a fast weight loss diet. Let’s look at what you can get at your friendly neighborhood supermarket.

Frankly, there are a few aisles no self-respecting bodybuilder will be seen in. (And I don’t mean the adult diaper aisle.)

The bad news? Cross off your list the following aisles: sodas, chips, cookies, candy, and sugary kiddie cereals.

The good news? Well, you can also cross off the catfood and dogfood aisle. Protein is great, but you don’t have to get crazy.

What’s left? Lean proteins, including fish, turkey, and chicken. Eggs are a great source of whole protein, as is skim milk and low-fat cottage cheese.

Tofu – the mystery “meat” of champions is another great option, especially for vegetarian bodybuilders.

These are all found around the perimeter of the store, which is great because you’ll get some walking in, too.

Now, head down the organic or health food aisle which is crucial to a fast weight loss diet.

If you have a great store, you’ll find some products here that are mainstays of the ultimate bodybuilding diet: whey protein and soy protein products, nuts, whole grain cereals, and soy beans.

Remember,the more ingredients on the label that you can barely pronunciate, the more processed the food. Try to stick with whole foods with low saturated fat, lean protein, complex carbs, and a good serving of fiber… It’s the way to go in order to reach your full potential and start reaping the benefits of your efforts at the gym.

Food can be your best friend or your worst enemy-it’s up to you to decide. The way you view food and the way you eat food will in large part, determine your attitude toward diet and exercise in general.

So…Shop smart, stay away from the dog and cat food, and you should start seeing some improvement.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

Traditional fast weight loss diets don’t work — here’s why…

WHY FAST WEIGHT LOSS DIETS FAIL

When you go on a fast weight loss diet (by simply lowering your calories), your brain – in an act of self-defense against perceived starvation – signals your body that you need more food (you get hungry)…and lowers your metabolism, making it easier for you to store more fat. Both actions make it virtually impossible to lose bodyfat and reach your dieting goals.

With each repeated cycle of attempted fast weight loss dieting, it takes longer to lose weight and it comes back quicker. What’s more, you are likely to accumulate extra fat pounds each time.

Important: Taking off weight isn’t the main problem — keeping it off is. Despite the best nutrition, exercise regimens and fast weight loss diet plans in the world, 90% of dieters regain one- to two- thirds of lost weight within one year and almost all of it within five years.

Getting out of the fast weight loss diet mode requires that you accept that obesity is a complex problem that requires a multi-pronged solution. Being very overweight is not a result of a lack of will-power or discipline. So stop beating yourself up for your size and stop deluding yourself that you won’t wake up hungry tomorrow. You will, because your brain sabotages your best efforts at psychological control and makes it impossible to resist cravings.

Also recognize that constant dieting can perpetuate your weight problem by adversely affecting your metabolism.

THE FAST WEIGHT LOSS DIET SOLUTION

A chronic overweight problem can only be managed, never cured. To keep your weight in “remission,” you must be constantly vigilant, eating healthfully and exercising regularly.

A HEALTHY EATING PLAN

Here’s how to start on a healthy eating plan for life…

1. STOP OBSESSING OVER YOUR WEIGHT AND YOUR APPETITE. Rather than keeping you “in control,” mental preoccupation with dieting is practically guaranteed to keep you overweight because you’re constantly thinking of food.
2. ADHERE TO THE FOLLOWING EATING GUIDELINES
   5-6 days per week eat 50% of your calories from protein sources, 30-40% from healthy fats, and only 10-20% from carbohydrates.

People that are overweight need to reduce their carbohydrate intake the majority of the time and eat mostly “fibrous” carbohydrates (brocolli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, you get the picture) along with fruits that are “tart” in taste such as apples, grapefruit, raspberries, and blueberries, to name a few.

Next, you need to up your “good” fat intake to 30-40% of your daily calories. Many dieters have a hard time eating this much fat reasoning it’s not possible to lose fat by eating this much fat.

It’s not only possible but almost certain you will. Because of your lowered carbohydrate intake you are literally forcing your body to burn fat as fuel instead of the carbohydrates it prefers.

1-2 days per week eat 70% of your calories from carbohydrates, 20% from protein sources, and only 10% from fats.

Eating this way 1-2 days out of the week can help you lose fat even quicker than if you stayed on the high protein, high fat, low-carb approach indefinitely.

Without getting too complicated into the reasons why, I’ll just say that your primary fat-burning hormones are optimized when you occasionally add higher calorie, higher carbohydrate (and lower fat) days into your dieting program. I usually tell my clients to eat this way every 3rd or 4th day. Also, try and eat about 50% more calories on these days than you normally do [that's right...eat more food on these days -- yum!].

The most important point to remember (on these 1-2 days only) is to KEEP YOUR FAT INTAKE LOW. If you don’t then this eating technique might backfire on you.

The best part about these high-carb days is you can eat a lot of your favorite foods AND STILL LOSE FAT. Bread, jelly, low-fat frozen yogurt, low-fat sorbets, spaghetti, oatmeal mixed with a small amount of protein powder (my personal favorite), rice are all acceptable – but only on these 1-2 days of the week.

This alternating way of eating can easily be applied for life. Because you’re not depriving yourself on a long-term basis, you will less likely succumb to the dreariness of traditional dieting.

3. DON’T SKIP MEALS

Not eating at regular intervals is a foolproof way to get fat – it convinces your body you’re starving and need to conserve fat. This doesn’t give you a license to pig out at each meal however. You need to practice portion control if your efforts at losing fat and weight are to be successful.

4. DON’T EAT TOO FEW CALORIES

Almost as bad as eating too many, when you go on a very low-calorie diet, your body starts to break down muscle tissue to use for energy so it dcoesn’t have to dip into its fat stores (the last thing it wants to do). You’ll lose weight, but you’ll lose muscle as well as fat, which means that after your diet you’ll end up with a higher percentage of body fat to muscle mass. That will make your metabolism slow even more.

5. START OR CONTINUE AN EXERCISE PROGRAM

In order for this eating program to work best you’re going to have to exercise such that your preferred muscle fuel (glycogen – stored carbohydrate) is depleted. The best way to do that is by moderate amounts of weight training and specific, high-intensity forms of cardiovascular exercise.

Remember, weight-training is the only form of exercise that can actually change the way your body looks. Most other forms of exercise only reduce your overall size but keep your starting “shape” the same. Cardiovascular-only training will shrink a “pear-shaped” persons size, but will not change their overall “pear-shape”.

In addition, weight-training can help you speed up your metabolism which can quicken the rate at which you burn off fat, and help you ward off osteoporosis as you age.

IMPORTANT: Unless you are willing to exercise regularly, you will not succeed in permanently keeping weight off.

IN SUMMARY:

• Don’t Obsess Over Your Weight and Appetite
• Adhere To My Recommended Eating Guidelines
• Don’t Skip Meals
• Don’t Eat Too Few Calories
• Start or Continue an Exercise Program

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

Fast weight loss diet: Add Fish

Another reason you’ll feel more energetic with protein foods is your blood sugar levels will be steadier (more in a moment why this is important for keeping energy levels high AND helping you burn more fat in the process).

When eaten alone or with low-glycemic carbohydrates like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, collard greens, green beans, etc., high-protein foods boost mental alertness and energy, and are the perfect compliment to anyone’s fast weight loss diet program.

Fast Weight Loss Diet: Add Lean Beef

However, have you ever felt just the opposite? Usually in the early afternoons not long after lunch? The cause is usually too much and the wrong types of carbohydrates. You may be surprised at what I’m going to tell you here as a lot of these foods are ”typical” diet staples.

Rice, rice cakes, baked potatoes (even without butter or sour cream on it), pasta, bread, breakfast cereals (almost every one except for oatmeal and all-bran) are all in the same category of what you may have thought were ‘complex’ carbohydrates. However, your body processes these carbohydrates as easily as plain sugar.

Wrong foods will make you sleepy and harder to achieve fast weight loss

Since the cooking or manufacturing process has turned their previously ”tough” fibers into an almost ‘pre-digested’ form, your digestive system has a very easy time processing it.

Why is this bad?

Because the lack of tough fibers allows your digestive system to process large amounts of these types of foods quickly. This increased ’speed’ of digestion causes your body to release a hormone, insulin, in larger quantities than normal in order to ”move” the nutrients and sugars from this meal in your stomach, to where it is needed in your body.

Fast Weight loss diet no-no: pasta

But, since so much sugar is being released into your bloodstream at once, this causes wildly swinging blood sugar levels in your body. Drowsiness is a result as the body attempts to clear this excess sugar by releasing a massive torrent of insulin. Insulin takes the sugar out of your bloodstream and puts it into your liver, fat, and muscle cells. Most of the time are live and muscle cells are already full of sugar (glycogen) and this excess gets stored as fat.

Can bread be a part of your fast weight loss diet?

However, like a rubber band that has been stretched too far, too much insulin causes too much sugar to be cleared from your bloodstream. This lower than normal blood sugar level causes feelings of sluggishness and lethargy.

Not only that, lowered blood sugar levels trigger hunger pangs. So not only will you feel tired after these meals, but you’ll be tempted to eat again before you should — not a good recipe if getting and staying in shape is your goal.

Finally, these types of processed carbohydrates contain high levels of another amino acid called tryptophan which triggers production of serotonin, a calming chemical.

This is not how you want to feel at work

FOODS THAT ENERGIZE YOUR DIET TO ACHIEVE FAST WEIGHT LOSS

The following protein foods produce quick mood-modifying, energy-boosting, and fast weight loss results. For most people, three to four ounces of the following will work well…

Fish, lean red meat, chicken, turkey, shellfish, cottage cheese, egg whites, whole eggs (in moderation), and high quality protein powders that have more time-released proteins (such as casein) in them.

Great fast weight loss diet addition: nuts

Also, it’s important to eat healthy fats with every meal. We’ve become so fat phobic as a society, trying to make all our meals low-fat. This is a mistake! Instead, try and add nuts, olives, olive oil, flax seeds, or flax seed oil to each of your meals.

Flax seeds or flax oil is great for your fast weight loss diet

Here’s what adding these types of fats to your meals will do:

1. Slows down the digestive process– keeps blood sugar levels steady and in the fat burning zone, increases energy levels.
2. Some fats (flax) are potent fat decouplers (help to release fat from the fat cells in your body).
3. Keeps you full longer.

WHAT TO EAT

Your body’s biological clock also plays a big part in how food energizes and helps us lose weight faster. This clock causes us to feel the most energetic and the least stressed during the first six hours after awakening.

From then on, our energy level slowly deceases until the end of the day — usually within one hour of normal bedtime — when we shut down mentally.

The key to maintaining high performance levels is to eat foods that are energizing when your biological rhythms are beginning to slow down.

MEAL GUIDELINES:

Breakfast – BEST: High protein, moderate fat, high vitamins and minerals.

example: 2-4 ounces eye of round (beef), 5 egg whites along with 1 whole egg, 1/2 grapefruit.

Lunch — same profile as breakfast.

example: 4 ounces chicken breast, salad consisting of 1/2 cup raw collard greens, 1/2 cup red cabbage, 1/2 cup kale, 1/2 tomato, 1/2 green or red pepper, 1/4 cucumber – sliced, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1/2 tablespoon olive or flax oil, lots of lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dinner –

example: 4-5 ounces of fish, lean beef, or chicken, 2 cups of broccoli, cauliflower, green beans or similar vegetable, 1 orange or plum for dessert.

For snacks throughout the day you could have:

• 3/4 cup cottage cheese (full-fat not low-fat version), 1 scoop of protein powder, 1/2 cup blueberries.
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup red kidney beans, 5-6 almonds.
• 2-3 scoops protein drink along with 3-5 fish oil capsules.

Finally, protein gives you the greatest ‘thermogenic’ effect compared to fats and carbohydrates. This means your burn more energy processing protein than the others. And when you eat 5-6 times per day this can significantly increase the amount of calories you burn all day JUST by eating more frequently. Some studies show over a 20% greater calorie burn effect from higher-protein diets.

Take Charge!

P.S. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.

P.P.S. If you like this post, and think it will help others, please help me help others by clicking on one of these “Share and Enjoy” links below.

In fact, the opposite may be true in certain situations.

Here’s the best way to judge for yourself, without having to wonder whether it’s harmful to you or not…

1. Does it “sound” right? Use common sense. If the diet has you eating nothing but grapefruit for 12 weeks, yes, you’ll lose weight, but then what? What’s the long-term plan for success? Does this fast weight loss diet pass the “smell test”? If it smells fishy, it probably is and you should throw it out.
2. Is it something you can incorporate into your daily lifestyle? Or will your kids, family, friends become alienated because you eating nothing but rice cakes (a horrible diet food, by the way) and lox (I’m exaggerating here – but you get the point I think)? If you can’t go anywhere and be able to pick and choose healthy foods from what you’ve learned are the right things to eat, then you’ve got the wrong fast weight loss diet.
3. Can you still enjoy “regular” food every once in a while? Listen, as a whole we humans are a really intelligent bunch. We’ve created these wonderfully-tasting foods that really seem to trigger our “desire glands”. Luscious cheesecakes, rich and creamy ice cream, buttery cakes, delectable pastries… none of these foods are found in nature. Yet, we were smart enough to figure out how to make them. And we ALL love to eat one of more of them, right? Is it prudent to think we will NEVER EVER eat these foods again for the rest of our lives? I think not. If your diet does not incorporate these foods into your diet ON A REGULAR BASIS then it’s doomed to failure. I mean think about it… if you had to choose between never, ever eating your favorite foods ever again, just to keep a few pounds off, do you think you could do it? I couldn’t! I absolutely LOVE ice cream, and could quite possibly live on Haagen-Daazs alone, if I could.

WHAT’S THE ANSWER THEN…

Education!

No, I don’t mean going back to school, although for a lot of us it will mean re-learning what “really” makes the body tick to allow it to lose fat effectively.

A fast weight loss diet, which really should be renamed a fast “FAT LOSS” diet – because losing “fat” should be the focus, not weight, should incorporate healthy foods AND junk food on a regular basis.

HOLD ON THERE KIMOSABE!

“Are you saying, Harry, that I should regularly put junk food into my body in order to lose weight quicker?!?”, you incredulously say? Yes, not only should you PLAN to eat junk food on a regular basis, but you should actually OVEREAT on junk food too.

“HOLY MACKERAL HARRY, YOU’VE LOST YOUR ROCKER NOW!!!”

I know… doesn’t sound right, does it.

Get this, if I was just some crazy, wacked out guy from the street, with no credibility at all, and I said that eating junk food on a regular basis would cause you to lose fat faster, you’d dismiss me quicker than a swatted fly.

But…

In 1998 I won the Body For Life contest (called the Physique Transformation contest back then), beat over 220,000+ competitors, eating junk food on a regular basis, and getting into my absolute best shape ever.. at the age of 38!

My fast weight loss diet allowed me to win the 1998 Body For Life contest

Am I an anomaly?

In fact NO, and chances are YOU have better genetics than I do to lose weight and fat. Mine are lousy!

I’ve said enough for now. Your head is likely spinning from what you’ve just read. BUT… DO NOT DISMISS IT… do so at the peril of going from one program to another… never getting the kind of results you’re looking for.

I promise details will follow very soon.

In the meantime do this:

1. Eat small meals throughout the day that consist of a healthy lean protein, fibrous vegetable or hearty salad (think lots of fiber), and a tablespoon of so of healthy fat (virgin olive oil, flax oil, UDO’s choice blended oil). This is for EVERY MEAL of the day, including breakfast.
2. Every 4th or 5th day, eat any and everything you want. No limits! Well, maybe a couple — try and stay away from fried and high-fat foods. Sugary foods are best. And read the labels – High Fructose corn syrup kind of messes this program up.
3. If you can, embark on a weight-training program. This works best to lose fat effectively.
4. Cardio should consist of short burst “interval” workouts: Choose any cardio equipment you want, warm up for a few minutes, then put the setting as high as you can comfortably take in preparation for a 30-second “almost all out” sprint. Now, watch the clock and “sprint” on this machine for 30 seconds. Then, “coast” for another 30 seconds, exerting very little effort – just try and catch your breath during this time period without resorting to stopping your movement altogether. This is 1 cycle. Start with 4 and build up to 12. This means you’ll only do 4 minutes of cardio at first, and when you’re fitter, 12. BLASPHEMY you say? “Only 4 minutes of cardio can’t possibly do me any good?!”, you yell at me. Trust me, my dear friend, trust me…

That’s it.

So, a Fast Loss Weight Loss diet could actually cause you to lose weight VERY FAST. Why? Because you’re doing exactly the things you should be doing to cause your body to lose weight and fat fast.

Check in later for more details…

Take Charge!

p.s. Want to: Learn the “Easy” way to get and stay in shape? Discover the secret to quick fat loss? How to exercise less and get better results? Discover the secret to ripped abs without doing endless crunches? Then be sure to get my “Amazing Fat Burning Formula” HERE.