Fast Weight Loss Diets  I see the term in my search logs and I guess by using that search term in google, the person wants to lose weight fast, and not that they searching  for using  fasting for weight loss .So if you are here because you are looking for fast weight loss diets,  then I guess this post is for you, so let me ask you a question… ready ? OK ,  tell me what  exactly is fast weight loss to you ?

How Fast Is Fast ?

What Are Fast Weight Loss Diets ?

You see the reason I ask is, I look back at my own weight loss success, and I think losing 56lbs pounds in around 10 months can be looked at as  fast weight loss, even if I didn’t feel I was on a fast weight loss diet at any time.

Now I am quite sure that before you start on any diet, or weight loss plan, you start your search with fast weight loss diets . After all we now live in a world where we want everything now.  Advances in technology may mean we have the latest iphone or android phone, we can even have a  choice of weight loss apps for our iphones.

Yes in our modern world everything is there to make sure we have the fastest weight loss in the shortest time, well I hate to break it you, but in terms of the human body and losing weight, the thing is , and as much as I would like to tell you different. fast weight loss still won’t happen today.

Weight loss takes time. One thing to remember is how you gained the weight in the first place. In my case my weight increased steadily over the years. I didn’t go from 175lbs to 231bs in a few weeks. No it took a long time.

Now here is the thing, I lost 56lbs in 10 months, so to me that is fast weight loss, but was it a diet ?  In my mind no, but it was the fastest weight loss I have ever had.

Fast Weight Loss Diets – How Fast Is Fast ?

I know you have seen the quick weight loss diet ads, the ” lose 30lbs in 30 days ” claims, and I wish I could tell you they were true, but we both know deep down it is not possible to lose the weight that quickly.

What I want to do here is change your mind.. no your mindset, about fast weight loss diets, and more importantly about fast weight loss itself.

Change your thinking about fast weight loss diets, think of fast weight loss in terms of months , not days or a few weeks.  Start with a single step. I look back now, almost a year later since I lose the weight I set out to lose and I view my weight loss as fast. Of course I would have loved to lose 40lbs in 6 weeks, but you have to learn to block out the lies the diet companies tell you.

The fact is when we start to restrict calories, the weight comes off far quicker than it went on.

So Keep That In Mind When thinking you need fast weight loss diets

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A month since I last checked my weight, but the trend is still slow and steady weight loss.

Today my weight is 166lbs which is 11 stone 12lbs ( approx 75 kilos ) so 2lbs less than a month ago, meaning I continue to lose at a rate of about half a pound per week. I have not been under 12 stone since i played football in my mid 20′s, amazing what stopping going on diets can do for you !

The way my current lifestyle is, means losing weight more quickly than this is not possible without further changes to either my workouts or my diet ( eating less). Those are changes I don’t want to make, I am happy with the progress. In terms of my health, my weight is good, it is only my abs experiment that means I continue to lose weight in order to get them to show. Vain I know, but the reason we all lose weight is to look better, and I am no different.

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I am fond of saying weight loss is simple, but it is not easy, so today in this rather delayed post, I am going to try and explain more of what I mean, and how I believe that our mindset  plays a greater role in losing weight, than the food we eat.

Today was the first time I have stepped on the scales since my last post on April the 9th.  After the 12 week target I had set myself for losing 7lbs, I decided I was not going to keep stepping on the scales every Friday to judge progress. One reason for this was because I was losing body fat slowly ( around 0.5lbs per week ) the scales are unlikely to track this correctly, so I switched to using my clothes and the mirror as a guide.

Today my weight is 168lbs or 12 stone exactly or 76 kilos for you metric heads. My BMI is  now 24.11. The Abs ? well as I mentioned in the last post, they are close but not quite there, and I think I need to be 165lb, but this is just a guess so I will go by the mirror. The only thing I have learnt is you can be pretty sure whatever weight you think you need to be, chances are you will need to be lower.

So it actually took me 3 extra weeks to hit the 168lbs level. That means  I needed 15 weeks to lose 7 lbs of fat.  As I now look back on yet another target reached, all be it 3 weeks later than I thought, am I happy ? You bet I am, but what I wanted to highlight here is my planning, and mindset to lose this 7lbs.

First, back in January I set a 12 week target to lose those 7lbs. I did not look to lose it in one month, or even 2 months. I set 3 months because I had already lost a large amount of weight, and I had a good idea of my calorie levels. I used one diet fact, that to lose 1lb of fat you need to cut around 3,500 calories for your Maintenance calories.  Based on my current lifestyle, and my retired dieter principles, I could not  see how on a consistent weekly basis I could cut a further 3,500 calories a week from my plan. As it has turned  I needed 15 weeks, not 12.

What I am trying to say here is that many people set unrealistic goals for losing weight, then become frustrated and disheartened. It is my own personal view that this is caused by  a lack of basic weight loss understanding ( calories in v calories out ) largely caused by false advertising claims like ” lose 18lbs in 18 days ”  and reading too many conflicting weight loss theories in weight loss forums. One reason I believe this to be the case is because I was no different. Only when I stopped “dieting”, and stopped reading about different weight loss plans and health claims did I finally start to lose the weight.

How you think about weight loss, and how you approach it, will determine your success far more than what you eat.

Let me give you one example of how I failed in the past, and why this time was different.

One of the best diets I followed in terms of losing weight quickly was Atkins, and going low carb certainly brought me fast results at the start ( what I know now was a large amount of this fast weight loss was water ).  I was losing for about the first 10 weeks without a problem and was down about 24lbs, then the weight loss stopped. after 3 weeks of no changes, my mindset was…

”  I am not losing weight anymore, and I want a pizza, if I am not losing weight when I have cut out carbs, then I may aswell go and eat what I want.”

And that is what I did. I had restricted a food choice, and when the weight loss slowed down, I was missing the food I was deprived of.  The truth was I just like carbs too much to ever give them up on a long term basis.

As a retired dieter my main rule was no food was off limits, and of course there was no diet. The only focus was to eat less and move more.  I also set a realistic weight loss target of 56lbs in 52 weeks.  I didn’t hit my first weight loss plateau for 6 months but when I did, my view was very different.  This time there was no diet to come off, no food or drink had been eliminated from my diet. I also knew that for 6 months what I was doing had worked, so what was there to change ? . All I had to do was more of the same, maybe mix it up a little and accept that I had to look harder at calories in v calories out and make another cut or move more. That is all I have continued to do since, but at no time did I go searching for some magic solution. My mindset remained focused on losing steadily.

I had , and still have only a small set of things I remind myself of on a regular basis.

1 Calories in V Calories out

No matter what anyone says, your primary focus has to be calories in v calories out, if you eat less than your body needs you will lose weight, one way or another you firstly have to create a calorie deficit. In plain English, just eat less than you do now ( Not too many people who know me argue with me on this one anymore. Losing over 60lbs tends to give you a  bit more credibility with that claim )

2 Fat Loss, Not Weight Loss.

to lose 1lb of fat takes a calorie deficit of  approx 3,500 calories  from your current  requirements.  likewise to gain 1lb of fat you would need to consume 3,500 calories more than your current requirements.  If the scales show you lost 4lbs in 7 days, remember it will not all be fat, not unless you somehow created a calorie deficit of  14000 calories in a week.  You can also have a week where you lose 1lb of fat , but the scales show no change or even that you are heavier. This can be water weight, hence fat loss not weight loss. The scales are a guide, but like with most things to do with weight loss,week to week they are not always reliable.

So here is my take home message from this post.

If you have a large amount of weight to lose, make  a realistic goal. I have lost over 60lbs in 16 months, but I gained 60lbs in 20 years.  I initially lost 56lbs in 10 months. I consider that fast weight loss. If you fall for the diet hype and try and lose 30lbs in 2 months it will end with you feeling you failed. You have to understand that no matter how much we would all love to believe it,  it is just not a realistic weight loss target  and you would put too much pressure on yourself.  I know it may not be what you want to hear, but I can tell you that  1 or 2lb of fat loss per week  is hard enough , but it is possible, in my personal experience anything else is just not realistic long term.

If you are trying to lose those last few stubborn pounds of fat, remember they are going to take longer, and you will need to keep calories low, and most likely go lower than you are now, or increase how much you move. I am 5ft 10 inches and I my maintenance BMR is around 1700 calories a day, that is not many.

So my next goal is  165lbs. My next weigh in will be Friday May 28th.  Now that the weather is warmer I will be outside more and I do expect to hit the 165lbs target 4 weeks from today.

Over the next 4 weeks I will post more about my thoughts on weight loss, and the challenges we all face in reaching our goals.

As always, please feel free to leave a comment and  if you have any private questions, email me on the following  retireddieter[at]gmail.com

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They say a little of what we fancy is good for us, and I think it applies very well to weight loss.  I think  a significant reason for my own weight loss success was down to the fact that no foods were off limits. Before I became a retired dieter last year I would always be on some diet that would have something that was not allowed. No white bread, no white rice, no butter,  no pasta, or worse no alcohol !.

At the start of last year, and with  a large amount of weight to lose, I knew that I would not be able to refuse the foods I liked over a long period of time. The key to healthy weight loss is variety, and enjoying your favourite foods without guilt while just eating less. Short periods of calorie restriction is much more manageable for long term weight loss than trying to cut calories every single day.  So my weight loss tip is to restrict the amount of your favourite foods, but certainly don’t refuse them. If you eat more than you should, then compensate for it later. View your calories over a week, not by a day, it is normal that some days will be less than others, just make sure that over the longer period your calories are less than you need. No matter what many will try and tell you, it is about calories in and calories out. Eat less calories than you need and you will lose weight, eat too much, and you will gain weight. In my case enjoying the foods I love and then using intermittent fasting to restrict calories and burn body fat  has enabled me to finally get the results I have wanted. Weight loss is about the bigger picture, not trying to lose 30lbs in one month while refusing anything you like. When I accepted dieting was not the answer, and just focused on eating less, I finally started losing weight, no special plans, magic weight loss pills or diet secrets required.

Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat and John Barban’s Anything Goes Diet are  ways you can look to cut calories and lose weight  without giving up what you love.

Go Back to the Weight Loss Tips home page

Weetabix Diet – What Is It ?

So can you lose weight with the weetabix diet ?

Weetabix diet

As we start a new year, many of us are looking for one diet or another to help us lose weight. Just over a year ago  Post UpdateFeb 2010o over 2 Years Ago, I was in that same position.    With over 4 stone ( 56lbs) to lose, my situation was a little different than someone who felt they had put on a few extra pounds over the Christmas  holidays and needed to get back in shape. If you need to lose weight and keep it off, my opinion is the weetabix diet is not going to help you long term. Would I have been able to stick on the weetabix diet for the time it took me to lose 56lbs ?  No chance. I lost that weight by still enjoying the foods I love, no way would I want to be eating weetabix every day. If you love weetabix, then go ahead and eat them, but if your looking for a weight loss solution, I don’t think weetabix will the be the answer. Keep reading though, because I just may have an answer

So why are people looking for the weetabix diet ?

The advantage with Weetabix is they are an easy portion control. You can be fairly accurate as to how many calories are in each weetabix biscuit.  Calories still matter, so anything that makes measuring calories easy is going to be popular. So ease is important, but at the end of the day, you need variety with the foods you eat.

Want to know what other options for weight loss there are other than the weetabix diet ?

Ok I am going to take a guess here and figure your chances of sticking to the weetabix diet beyond a week or so are slim ( pardon the pun ) with that in mind, why not learn about an easier way to shed that unwanted body fat .. go on, I promise it’s easier than the trying to stick to the weetabix diet. Take a look at my Anything Goes Diet Review.If like me you need to beat your battle with weight loss, then It’s time you got to know what really matters, and trust me after my own weight loss success, I know it’s not the weetabix diet. If you want to finally lose weight and keep it off like I have, then at least read my anything goes diet review

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The Baked Bean Diet

Lose Bean Diet

We are snowed in today, and as my son Joe  has a snow day from School I made a quick video with his help  to talk about the baked beans diet.   Essex mechanic Neil King lost weight on a baked beans-only diet, but is it  viable for long term weight loss ?

Baked Bean Diet – Why It Works

While not the most varied diet for losing weight, if you can eat baked beans as your main calorie source, then it will be hard to overdo the calories. By the same token, you could have the cauliflour diet, or the carrot diet, but again for any long period of time we need variety. Eating the same foods over and over again, no matter how much we like them will not be an advantage in any long term weight loss plan. The easier solution is just learn how many calories a day you need, and look to eat less. Baked beans can certainly help, but not at the cost of everything else you like.

Simple fact – Only calorie restriction will help us to lose weight. It is a simple process of calories in versus calories out. Your only focus is to eat less. If the baked bean diet is your way of doing that, then good for you, but in my opinion there are easier ways.

I don’t know about you, but no way could I have done what Neil King did.  I lost 4 stone Neil lost 10 stone, so credit to him, but long term, I think I will stick with  intermittent fasting , as that is what has worked for me.

No Baked Bean Diet for me

I like baked beans, but not for every meal, if you want to do the baked bean diet, then go ahead, but I hope you love baked beans !

Want To Know More About Why I Am Retired Dieter ?

This post is part of the weight loss tips series. And was originally posted at the end of  June 2009 when I will still losing weight.

I keep getting asked about losing weight as a retired dieter and how is that possible if you are not following a diet, so I thought I would try and explain it in more detail.

As a retired dieter I do not follow any typical type of diet, this means I do not follow a low carb diet, I do not follow a low fat , high carb diet, I do not do a Paleo diet, a Fruitarian diet or a Warrior Diet. In other words I do not follow a way of eating that says a certain food group is wrong, or bad for you

I believe ( And I think a 20 kilo weight loss this year backs  up that belief ) that to lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit. In other words you have to take in less calories than your body needs.

Update September 2010  My total weight lost as a retired dieter is 30 kilos, a further 10 kilos since this post was written.

I leave the Internet arguments of what is the wrong and right way to eat to others, I do not fret over micro nutrients, metabolism boosters , super foods etc.

Diets have rules, having to follow rules set you up for failure, as a retired dieter I have no rules to follow.

I try and eat a varied number of foods and enjoy the foods I eat.

When I decided to become a retired dieter my goal was to find a way to eat less by understanding my relationship with food.

I achieve my calorie deficit by using Intermittent Fasting ( going up to 24hrs without food while still eating every day ) and a greater understanding of my relationship with food .

I was no different to most people who are overweight . The main thing I was doing was underestimating the amount of calories I was eating. To give one example,I wrote a post in march about mindless eating and eating triggers where because I was now using intermittent fasting  I realised I had been consuming 3000 calories per week in snacks from the habit of having a coffee with milk and I always had some form of cookie with it. If I had black coffee or fruit tea , I did not reach for the cookie jar. This one small change was the equivalent on almost 1lb of fat per week.

My advice to anyone wanting to lose weight is to start to keep a food diary of what you eat. Don’t start a diet and then do the diary, just start recording what you eat on a normal day, do not change any of your normal routine and do it for at least 7 days, I actually did it for 14 days. I found when I looked back at the diary, clear patterns in my eating habits.  So much of how we eat  comes from habit triggers, when you can identify those triggers, and start to understand your own relationship with f0od you will lose weight.

As I wrote earlier I don’t have rules as a retired dieter, but here are 5 tips if you want to lose weight.

1 Understand we are all different, there is no wrong or right food to eat to lose weight, it is about finding what works for you and your lifestyle. You will lose weight if you are in a calorie deficit, how you achieve that deficit is less important, so long as you can sustain it until you reach your target.

2 Start to keep a food diary. Write down everything you eat and drink for at least the next 7 days. Recording your normal eating  routine will help you identify where you can reduce the number of calories you eat.

3 Go without food for 24hrs. Do it at the time that is best for you 6pm – 6pm, 2pm to 2pm, it does not matter, you will start to learn more about your relationship with food while not eating  than at any other time. Try it at least once. You will learn a lot about yourself and your food habbits.

4 Keep your goals realistic. At the start of this year I needed to lose 56lbs , I set  a target of 52 weeks to do so. I did not gain the 56lbs in a month, so I did not expect to lose it in a month .

5 Do resistance training at least twice per week to maintain muscle. I only do body weight exercises, I am not a member of a gym, so you have no excuses, you don’t need a gym to for resistance training.

I realise Fasting to lose weight is not for everybody, so I also suggest you take a look at John Barban’s Anything Goes Diet

Want more information on using Intermittent Fasting for losing body fat ?

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Weight Loss Explained !

Many a true word spoken in jest.  I guess this is what I have been doing since January 2009. Intermittent Fasting = eat less. body weight exercises  and walking = move more.  The weight loss industry love to make things complicated, and get you dependent on their diet plans, but it really is a case of just finding a way to eat less. In my case I used intermittent fasting with eat stop eat. But it’s all about finding what works for you.

My advice is Leave the pills and the diet industry BS alone. Eat Less and Move More.

Go here for more of  my weight loss tips

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Fasting for weight loss for just over 5 weeks, I have been making some notes about my findings as I progress. Of course the fact I am losing body fat is good, I have noticed that using Intermittent Fasting as a way to reduce weight has become very easy for me to follow. I am not restricting my food choices , only the time I eat, and I have found this has meant I have not had cravings for any particular food. My view on this is , that if I have a desire for a certain food, I can look forward to eating it when my time to eat arrives. On my fasting days , I fast from evening meal to evening meal, which is  6.30pm to 6.30 pm . This way I always sit down with the family and eat the same meal. One of the benefits of using fasting to lose weight is there are  no special meals required, no problems of  I can’t eat this or that because I am on a diet. I have also realised over the last 5 weeks that, much of the way I ate, was simply habit. Intermittent Fasting has helped me notice many of my bad habits. Eating not because I was hungry, but just as a habit while doing something else.I also have started to notice health benefits from intermittent fasting. My energy levels are higher, I am not getting tired in afternoons, if anything I am even more alert on fasting days. I also have noticed an improvement with my Asthma . I am currently checking for research reports on Fasting and Asthma to see if there are any recorded benefits with it. I have read research which  has found benefits associated with Fasting and Health, such as increasing the life expectancy, but I have not read anything on Fasting and Asthma , if anyone knows of any research please let me know in the comments. With 21lbs ( approx 10 kilos ) of weight lost since January 1st, I have to say early indications are that  fasting for weightloss works. This weekend when I and the rest of the family visit my Parents I know we are having steak pie from the local farm shop, the pie is sensational, I am looking forward to it even now, I find that the most liberating thing about life as a retired dieter, instead of worrying about should I eat it, I am counting down the days, comfortable in the knowledge I have found a way to control my weight without worrying what I eat.  If you are interested on using intermittent fasting and   would like a free report on Flexible Fasting and Fasting for weight loss, then please enter your name and email in the form below.