If you're reading this article then you are probably on a mission to shed excess pounds, lose inches and change your appearance once and for all. What seems to often happen when we try to lose weight fast is that we drop 10 maybe 15 pounds and then we're done. Most often weight loss like this happens from starving yourself without really changing the way your body burns fat. What we need to do is change our bodies so they become a fat burning power house. Here are 3 things you need to do to accomplish this.

1) Set Realistic Goals

You need to set some realistic goals to work for. It is important for us to see results and have a sense of accomplishment. When you set goals you should set both long-term and short-term goals. First you should have a final objective like say you want to lose 50 pounds, that is obviously a long-term goal. A good weekly goal would be to lose 5 pounds. You don't want to start out with a goal that is unrealistic because if you don't accomplish it then you lose confidence and don't feel like you are accomplishing anything so you'll get down on yourself. We want to be realistic and positive to ourselves. Then you can adjust your weekly goals as you progress towards quick weight loss

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Once a week you'll want to pull out your planner and schedule your weekly workouts. Try to schedule them when you will have the most energy, obviously the time of the day you have the most energy and availability, during a weekly staff meeting at work would probably be a poor choice for your career.... You should write this down in your planner and treat it like any other important appointment you have. You may need to discuss this with your family so they know that time of the day you are busy and unavailable, if they need something during that time then they need to do it themselves. You need 3 - 5 hours a week for you; your family will need to understand. If you want to lose weight fast you will really need to stay dedicated.

2) Lift Weights

The secret to quick weight loss is building lean muscle. If you realize that and you work towards that goal then you will start to lose weight quickly. In fact lifting weights, doing aerobic exercise and having a good, healthy diet is really the only fast way to lose weight. If you think you can just run on a treadmill or elliptical machine and the fat will just melt away, think again. Lean muscle is what burns the most calories and you need to life weights to create bigger muscles that will burn more calories. Now although aerobic exercises such as running, cycling or swimming are also necessary, the fact remains that building bigger stronger muscles is the best way to lose weight fast and to keep it off. This is because you are creating a more efficient calorie burning machine by lifting weights which will ensure you success with your weight loss goals. Then the stronger and leaner you become the higher your metabolism will become so you will be able to maintain your weight loss.

If your goal is to lose weight fast then your workouts will be different than they need to be when you are just trying to keep the weight off. When you are in a weight loss routine you should schedule 6 days a week if you can. Try to do weight lifting 3 days a week and aerobic exercise 3 days a week. When you start out you will not want to over do your training, you will need to use lighter weights and less sets (number of times you perform a specific exercise). So for example you will want to start with maybe 2 sets of 10 reps of every exercise you do for the first week and then increase it to 3 sets the third week and four sets the fourth. You will want to use a weight that you can perform the exercise no more than 10 times with and increase the weight as needed to keep the reps around 10. Aerobic and strength training exercises are equally important parts of how to lose weight fast.

3) Change Your Diet

This is obviously a very important piece of the puzzle if you want to lose weight fast. Our food choices contribute directly to being overweight, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. We all know the dangers of eating fatty foods and yet Americans still get 40% of their calories from fat. So we know that exercise is important for burning calories and our nutrition is the fuel.

You need to eat the right foods to feed the machine and lose weight quick. You need to choose lean meats and poultry for protein. You need protein to build your muscles which helps you to lose weight fast because it increases your metabolism. When you are trying to build lean muscle try to eat about 1 gram of protein for every pound of your desired weight. So if you weight 160 pounds but you should weight 125 pounds then try to eat 125 grams of protein.

Change your grocery shopping list and reduce or eliminate simple carbohydrates. White flour is made from wheat but it goes through a process that removes the endosperm and outer bran casing from the plant. White flour is cheaper and easier to work with so it is preferred by manufacturer but really contains very little nutritional value. Buy breads, cereals and pasta made from whole wheat instead.

Quick weight loss is not easy but if you are over weight then you owe it to yourself and your family to lose weight and be healthy. Losing weight involves diet, aerobic exercise and strength training. You can't do just two of the three and expect to lose weight fast. No matter what people try and tell you it isn't easy to lose weight and there is no magic pill.