Everyone wants to lose weight fast. What’s the best way to do it?

A reader asked me this question the other day:

How can I lose weight quickly? I was thinking about going on a fast or an oatmeal diet. Would either one of those help?

Yes, you’ll most likely lose weight. But if you go back to your old eating habits (very likely), your weight loss definitely won’t last. And you may end up gaining back more than you lost in the first place. So it works in the short term, but it’s more like a weight gaining strategy for the long term.

Here are my top three worst ways to lose weight

Fasting – If you fast for a short time, you’ll definitely lose weight. And you may even feel better. But the deprivation frequently triggers over eating afterward – mentally, you think it’s ok to reward yourself for your good work and since you’ve been on a calorie deficit, you figure it won’t hurt anyway. But all it does is put you on a path of yo-yo dieting – going from starving to overeating and back again – which can mess with your metabolism and your overall health.

Mono-diet – This is eating one food only for a certain amount of time. The oatmeal diet would fall in the mono-diet category. There are endless versions of mono diets – the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet, etc. The problem with mono-dieting is that your body gets only certain nutrients and is missing a lot of other essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fats. You will lose weight, but you’ll probably fall off the wagon due to sheer boredom of eating the same thing day in and day out. I will sometimes recommend a mono-diet for a cleanse, but that is part of a bigger plan to change your overall eating habits. If you’re just randomly cutting out all but one food without any sort of strategy, you will eventually go back to your old habits.

Food poisoning – This is one of the worst things you can do to yourself. Yes, I know some people who have knowingly and willingly given themselves food poisoning by eating food that’s a little off or moldy just so that they will lose their appetite and stop eating for a few days. This is a dangerous and foolish method that should never be considered. According to WebMD, Food poisoning symptoms can range from mild indigestion to severe dehydration and bloody diarrhea. Depending on the type of infection, you can even die as a result of food poisoning. Any diet that can result in death is a bad idea, so don’t do it.

The best way to lose weight is to change your habits and allow your body to naturally drop pounds over time. If you want to learn how to do this in a more sane, sustainable way, contact me.

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