Fast weight loss help | Weight Loss Help and Tips

Fast weight loss help | Weight Loss Help and Tips

To lose 1 pound, you have to create a deficit of 3,500 calories. By incorporating easy ways to cut or avoid 250-500 calories a day, you can lose 1/2-1 pound a week, or 26-52 pounds a year.

Following are 15 tips for losing 3-80 pounds a year by making one small change in your diet. We've also included five tips for blasting those 3-6 holiday pounds in eight weeks before they become permanent, plus four scrumptious "batch" recipes (three from world-famous chefs) that supply several tasty, lowfat meals each. Whip them up on weekends for a week's worth of healthy, hassle-free eating.

Remember that the more consistently you follow these tips, the more weight you'll lose, even when other eating and exercise habits stay the same. See the "Weight-Loss Payoff" logo (WP) for a range of how many pounds you can lose in a year. The range reflects the variation in how often you incorporate tips into your regular diet.

For best results, choose tips that make sense for you and that you can easily slip into your lifestyle and enjoy. (The Diet Simple book offers 139 more nutrition and lifestyle tips as well as 22 additional batch recipes.

Lose 3-10 (or more) pounds in a year!

You can lose about 1 pound every two months by achieving a caloric deficit of only 60-100 calories a day. Here are four really simple, fun and delicious changes in habit that will get you there easier.

1. Beware the burger blast. Make your own burgers at home with a cut of beef called round or a round steak (the butcher can grind it into hamburger for you). The best part? It's as lowcal as skinless chicken. Or use lean ground beef (95 percent lean or better) for a skinny burger with 400 instead of about 500 calories for standard ground beef.

2. Add the whipped cream. Instead of ice cream (350-500 calories per cup), combine a cup of fresh or frozen sweet pitted cherries with 1/4 cup canned whipped cream for a sweet, creamy dessert with just 140 calories.

3. Eat more pizza. Instead of ordering takeout pizza (two slices of Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Pizza pack 720 calories, 32 grams of fat and 2,240 milligrams of sodium!), fill your freezer with healthful frozen pizzas containing no more than 600 calories and 10-15 grams of fat per pie (e.g., Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice brands).

4. Drink up. Have a glass of water with lunch or dinner every other day instead of a soda or an alcoholic drink and you can lose 7-15 pounds a year. To stay full, eat plenty of foods high in water, including fresh fruits, vegetables and healthful (lowfat, low-sodium) soups.

Lose 11-20 pounds (or more) in a year!

This will take a caloric deficit of about 100-200 a day. You can live with that! Try these three tips.

5. Fish for health. Instead of a 6-ounce steak (550 calories), enjoy tuna (250-300 calories) or salmon (350 calories). If you eat fish instead of red meat four times a week, you'll save 200-300 calories each time, or up to 1,200 calories a week. Besides being lower in fat, seafood is also high in omega-3 fatty acids, which lower cholesterol and reduce risk for heart disease. Choose grilled, broiled or steamed fish and avoid fried or blackened versions, which pack in extra fat.

6. Snack more for fewer calories. People who snack all day find it easier to lose weight because they actually take in fewer calories. Enjoy healthful snacks like apple slices spread with 1 tablespoon peanut butter (about 160 calories) or 1 ounce lowfat cheese with a piece of fresh fruit (about 130 calories.) Both snacks provide natural sugars to satisfy your sweet tooth plus fiber and protein to keep you full. Opting for healthful, filling snacks that keep you away from vending-machine versions packing 250-500 empty calories each will save you thousands of calories a month.

7. Mine sweep for calorie bombs. Losing weight is not about discipline or willpower, it's about taking charge of your environment. So get rid of all that high-fat, high-calorie junk in your kitchen and replace it with healthful, lowfat fare.

Lose 21-30 (or more) pounds in a year!

Create a 200- to 300-calorie deficit per day using these five tips and watch the pounds melt off!

8. Cook with nonstick pans and spray. Make every meal in a nonstick pan, and you'll automatically save 100 calories every time by eliminating the butter, margarine or oil used to grease the pan. When sauteing or frying, simply coat nonstick pans with a spritz of vegetable oil cooking spray (0 calories). Always use fresh, full-flavored ingredients, and you wont need fattening butter or oil to add flavor. Talk about a painless way to lose weight!

Now, once you've achieved your weight loss goals, what are you going to do to keep the fat at bay? Pick up a copy of The Worst Thing You Can Do which is something I've done countless times over: get lazy, or pick up a copy of Permanent Diet Solution ,and it keeps me from going back in the same situation I don't want to be in – ever again.