By Russ Howe


Our instructors recently compiled a list of the most commonly asked fitness questions they received in the gym and the overwhelming winner came from women asking how to lose weight fast and, more importantly, how to keep it off afterwards. Today we answer this with five simple yet extremely effective steps for you to apply.

In a world where hype is king we all get misled at some point by celebrity gossip magazines claiming we can all lose five stones in a week without going to the gym, or bodybuilding magazines claiming a new supplement is going to help you build muscle in your sleep. This causes disappointment, depression and ultimately no results.

It's our job to get folks out of that mentality and ensure they stop believing that it's impossible to reach their target bodyweight. That false belief creates yo-yo dieters and they get nowhere. If you're ready to ditch that loser mentality, let's do that right now.

The trick to a long term diet is within it's foundation. The following rules will help you set these foundations:

1) A calorie deficit is necessary to lose weight but it must be done correctly or it will not work. This means cutting your daily calories by around 100-200 per day until you reach your target number each day as opposed to suddenly dropping your food by 50% and hoping for the best. The former will increase weight loss and make your diet far easier to stick to, whereas the latter will force your body into starvation mode where it stores fat. That's right, drop your calories too drastically and you'll be storing more fat even though you are eating way less. This step is where so many 'yo-yo' dieters and celebrity magazine followers go wrong.

2) Consume more protein to hang on to your muscle. You may be thinking 'but I want to lose weight, not build muscle', right? The truth is no matter what your goal is you certainly don't want to be losing muscle. When you cut your calories your body will look to do this, combat it by increasing protein as you drop fats and carbs.

3) Protein has far less effect on the body's fat storage systems than both carbohydrates and fat. So when you fancy a snack it makes sense to first look at the available protein sources such as chicken or fish. This is also why protein shakes are increasingly popular.

4) Our favorite weight loss technique is tried, tested and endorsed by just about every personal trainer worth his salt. The next time you head off to work simply pack your bag with a few small containers alongside your lunch. These containers are snack boxes and should be only large enough to pack in a light meal of about fifty calories. This isn't enough to impact your overall diet, whereas it is enough to help you avoid the craving for the quick carbs and bad fats of the vending machine. There are fantastic long term weight loss results to be had here.

5) A day off is not just important, it's essential! For two reasons. Firstly you don't want to become so distanced from any bad calories that your body cannot process them the next time you need to grab some fast food or chocolate, and secondly you do not need to punish yourself for wanting a better body. Having a day off usually helps you avoid the common mistake of believing that all your favorite foods are bad and crashing off your diet in spectacular fashion after a couple of weeks.

Having one day off each week is a great way to reward and recharge yourself ahead of the next week and the fact is there is nothing wrong with this at all. You may take on board some bad foods, that's a given, but ultimately if it helps you to stick to your goal for ten times as long as you ever could before then there is no problem!

Always remember that losing weight gradually is far superior to losing weight drastically, because once it's off it will stay off. These five tips today will help you to begin enjoying those effects.




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