How to Lose Weight Fast

How to lose weight must be one of the questions most asked particularly by women. The marketing efforts of all the diet pill companies not to mention programs like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, South Beach etc have added to the confusion. If you head into any book store, you will see shelves of books covering the subject of weight loss.  They all say that their way is the way to success yet the nation’s obesity problem is increasing.

So how do you answer how to lose weight?  We all need to re-educate ourselves and re-establish our relationship with food.  For example, did you know that portion sizes have increased dramatically since the end of World War II?  We often overeat without even realising it.

Another huge change in our diets is the fact that we rely so much on packaged and processed food.  Almost nobody cooks their own cakes and buns preferring to buy inferior products at the supermarket.  These pre-packaged cakes are not only filled with more sugar but also contain lots of bad fats.  Often these fats are added to increase the shelf life or improve the taste of the original product.  Consuming these foods will not help you lose weight.

We need to go back to basics.  If you were to make every meal from scratch you would lose pounds within a month without having to significantly curtail your food choices.  Obviously if you decided to concentrate on baking cakes rather than making soups or stews, your waistline would reflect this.

We also need to eat more fruit and vegetables.  Yes we are buying more products than in the past but they are generally going into our garbage.  Rotting fruit and vegetables do nothing for our environment so you can go green by eating them.   They contain few calories and can be very filling not to mention tasty when properly prepared.

Think about how you cook your food.  Try and bake it or steam it with frying as a last resort.  Frying adds fat to any meal. If you must fry, then use a non stick pan as you will use less oil. Foods such as bacon do not need any extra oil as they will fry in their own fat. You should blot them dry with paper towels to save yourself some calories.

Reduce the quantity of sugar and salt you consume as both are very bad for your health.  Too much salt will cause water retention and thus make you look even more overweight.  Reducing the amount of sugar in your recipes even slightly will help to keep calories down and help to shed those pounds.

In order to lose weight fast, you can often trick people by standing straighter and choosing your clothes with care. Go shopping with a trusted friend and ask her for her honest opinion on new outfits. Don’t buy something that you are going to diet into. It may not suit your new shape if you do manage to lose the extra pounds.