The Fastest Way To Lose Weight

Whenever I tell people I’m a personal trainer this is usually the question they ask, and if you're reading this then it’s likely you want to know how to lose weight as quickly (and safely!) as possible too.

Before we get into it I will say that the speed at which you drop weight is different from person to person, and without knowing your exact circumstances it’s impossible to know how quickly you’ll lose weight, this is one of the many benefits of personal training, it takes into account your individual needs and any underlying health conditions.

In the simplest terms you need to understand that food (energy) consumed has to be less than energy burnt, you need to create a daily deficit.

You don’t need to cut out carbs, go running every morning, or go on a heavily restricted diet.

What can you do to lose weight quickly?

I have narrowed this down to three key elements. There are more variables than that, but this is to keep it simplified so you can follow it, and you do need to follow for any result!

1. Food intake. Most people overeat, it’s easily done living in an age with food and drink with such high calorific value (for example a Cappuccino from a coffee shop can easily be 450-600 calories, if you add other ingredients like caramel that can go up to 1000 calories, for a coffee!). I’m not saying you need to give up what you enjoy, but you need to be realistic with what you’re currently putting in your body, awareness is key. I find using a free food tracker like myfitnesspal (https://www.myfitnesspal.com/) is a great way to learn how much you can eat on a daily basis without going over your daily intake. After 4-6 weeks you will know how much you can eat without really needing to use the food tracker any longer, it’s great to give you that initial idea of how much to eat in order to hit your weight loss goals.

1. Stress Management. This is often overlooked, if you’re highly stressed your body will shut down certain functions, including digestion, as it’s constantly in a fight or flight response. Short term stress is fine, we can cope with it, but long term stress is not healthy and it will slow any weight loss, and actually lead to weight gain as the body lays down and stores fat. Write a list of things, or places, that relax you and take you away from the stresses of daily life. Also consider starting a journal to get thoughts and emotions out of your head and onto paper, whether it makes any sense or not, it means you’re not holding onto the emotional charge - which keeps the body in that fight or flight response. A lot of my clients find the boxing we do in personal training sessions a great release of stress, I can usually tell how stressed they are based on how hard they’re hitting the pads!!

1. Movement. Notice I said movement, not exercise. For now just consider how you can get more daily movement in your life. Maybe a walk around the block at lunchtime, or after work. Park further from work, or from the shops so you walk that bit further, take the stairs instead of the lift, do the gardening, wash the car etc. All these may seem like small acts, but it’s the small daily actions that add up over a month, or over a year. The clients I’ve seen get the best results, and the quickest results, are the ones that embraced the daily actions, and did them consistently.

There is enough here to start your weight loss journey, I see too many articles and social media posts that over complicate it, or try and sell a magic pill - there isn’t one, I’ve been into health and training since I was 16 (I'm now 41), and a full time trainer since 2009, if there was a magic pill I would have found it and sold it, and probably retired by now!

Make a commitment to yourself today to follow through on these three points and I can tell you your health will change quickly, but you will have built a solid understanding of how to do it properly, and that means you can maintain it.

Most diets lead to rapid weight gain because the person still hasn’t learnt how to eat “normally” and maintain a healthy way of being. If you do use a diet then view it as a short term kick start, and learn how to live a healthy life that will set you up in the long term.