I get emails all the time from people asking about fast weight loss. Is it possible? Can it be done? And if so, what diet, workout, product or supplement will make it happen the fastest?
These types of questions usually come with some kind of story. You know, something like: “I just want to lose weight fast. I’ll do WHATEVER I have to do! I’m tired of trying things and watching the scale barely move. I just want to know the fastest way to do it already!”
Sometimes I even get my personal favorite story of all, a story that never fails to make me laugh. The type of story that comes from a man or woman who needs to lose weight fast because of some type of event that is coming up very soon. For example… “Hey, I have a wedding to go to in 3 weeks and I need to lose like 50 pounds fast, what can I do?” They really expect me to write back with some magical method that can make these types of crazy results take place.
And in the month before summer, I ALWAYS get at least a few dozen emails from people telling me the same hilarious story… “Summer is around the corner and I want to look good in my bathing suit this year. I need to lose 80 million pounds as fast as possible. What should I do?” Sure, 80 million pounds is an exaggeration, but you get my point.
People often need or want to lose weight fast because some kind of rapidly approaching event has placed a deadline on their weight loss goal. In my replies to emails this dumb, I often suggest that this person try to find a time machine, because unless they can travel back in time and start losing weight earlier, they’re screwed. The impossible goal they’ve set just can NOT be met.
As you can imagine, their replies back to me usually include a term that starts with an “F” and ends with a “you.” The truth hurts, I guess.
No One Wants To Lose Weight Slowly
Now, I understand why I get emails like this. We all want a quick fix. No one wants to workout and eat right and get their results slowly. They want it to happen as quickly as possible with as little effort as possible. I completely understand. Hell, I wish I could lose fat 10 times faster than I actually can, too.
The problem is, the type of fast weight loss most people are seeking just isn’t realistically possible. Even worse is that attempting to make it happen and (always) failing to do it is not only potentially extremely dangerous for your health (both physically and mentally), it’s also extremely detrimental to your chances of EVER successfully losing that weight.
What this all means is that most people are chasing a goal that A) can’t happen, and B) is just preventing them from getting the results they want.
We All Think It’s Possible Because We’ve Been Tricked & Lied To
In order to fix this problem, we need to get to the root of it. Why do we all think we can lose weight fast if we can’t?
Well, this one is easy. There are tons of terrible sources of diet and fitness information out there that are constantly putting the idea of impossibly fast weight loss in our minds. Why? Usually to sell some crappy product. This could be a diet book or program of some kind, a fat loss pill or supplement, or some sort of fitness machine or exercise equipment.
And they all make pretty compelling arguments for why these amazingly rapid results are not only possible, but why what they’re selling is the ONLY way to make it happen. Take for example before and after pictures.
Before and after pictures are one of the most common and effective ways to sell a diet or fitness product of any kind. Just show a picture of someone who looks like crap, say they used this product, and then show a picture of them looking amazing and implying they transformed their body and lost all of that weight in a super short period of time. And taaadaaa, countless people get their credit cards ready.
I mean, these pictures have to be completely legit, right? They can’t be lying. These are good people who just want to help you lose weight fast, they would never lie just to get your money… right? Ha, that’s cute. The real truth is, most before and after pictures showing fast weight loss results are total bullshit.
You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, in this case, every one of those words is a lie. Here’s a few examples:
- Sometimes the pictures are just fake. You know, like putting the same person’s head on another person’s body (it’s been done) or airbrushing the same body to look thinner.
- The results aren’t as impressive as the difference in picture quality. Did you ever notice that every “before” picture is taken the same way? It’s a person in a poorly lit room, not flexing any muscles, slouching and sticking their stomach out while making a really sad and depressed face. They also never have a tan, and if it’s a guy, he’s usually really hairy. Now, take a look at every “after” picture ever taken. It’s the same person in a room with fantastic lighting flexing every muscle and sucking in their stomach while smiling like they really did just lose weight fast. They also have an awesome tan (and shaved chest/stomach if it’s a guy). The person could have barely lost any weight (or just none at all) and it would still look like an amazing transformation.
- Sometimes the results are real, but the time frame is a lie. For example, you might see before and after pictures showing results that supposedly took place in just 6 weeks, but in reality it was more like 6 months. Hell, maybe it was 6 years. How would you know the difference? This is done so often that it’s almost funny to think it isn’t.
- Sometimes the order of the pictures is a lie. They take a person with an already great body (who got that way by working out correctly and eating right for years) and call that the “after picture.” Then they get this same person to gain weight and purposely look like crap. Once they gain enough, they take a picture and call it the “before picture.” Yes ladies and gentleman, fast weight loss at its best!
And in the VERY rare cases where someone actually did lose weight fast (although not quite as fast as most people hope for, just faster than average), sometimes the company selling the product let’s you know you probably won’t be able to get the same weight loss results. Here’s what I mean…
There are commercials on TV for all kinds of gimmick weight loss diets and pills and products that all promise fast weight loss. After lying to you about all kinds of things and using myths that are proven not to really be possible (like spot reduction) to make their product seem amazing, they begin to show you actual people who supposedly used this product, machine, diet, pill, or supplement and were able to lose weight fast.
As they show you this person, they’ll usually be telling you their story. You know… “I hated my body. I tried everything but nothing ever worked… UNTIL NOW!!!! I lost X pounds using [insert useless crap here] in just X WEEKS and look at me now!!” As funny as it already is, here comes the real best part.
At this point in the commercial, if you put on your glasses, walk all the way up to your TV, bend down, and put your face 2 inches from the screen…. if you look close enough, in tiny letters that you can just barely read, you will see writing that says something like: “These results are not typical.” No shit?
I swear I am not making this up. Most weight loss commercials do this (apparently only some of their lies require a clarification by law). Sometimes it says “these results are not typical” and sometimes it might say “Just like every body is different, so are their results. You may not get these results.” Or it will just say something that basically means…
“The person we are showing you right now who was able to lose weight fast is a VERY RARE EXCEPTION. In fact, 99% of the people who use our product won’t get results anywhere near as good. So, basically, we are lying to you. We want your money, so we are using every trick, lie and scam we can come up with to get you to buy our crappy product. Don’t expect anything as good as this to happen to you. We just wanted to show this person so you think you will get their results, even though you really won’t. We are dicks. But who cares, because we got your money. We laugh at you because you think fast weight loss is possible. Now that we have this statement on the commercial somewhere, you can’t use the product, fail to get quick results, and then try to sue us for false advertising. Sucks for you, doesn’t it?”
Again, it’s a small exaggeration, but you get the point. You’ll often see something similar at the very bottom of websites and magazine ads for similar diet and fitness products, diets, pills and supplements. It’s all just their way of hiding the fact that the ultra fast results they want you to believe are possible really aren’t.
Fast weight loss in the form most people wish for just doesn’t exist, unless of course your idea of “fast” is losing 1 or 2 pounds a week. There is no machine, no special type of cardio, no special diet, no special workout, no special pill, no special anything that will allow you to lose weight fast in a way that is safe, healthy and truly realistic. Speaking of being realistic…
How Fast Should I Lose Weight?
As I explain in my article about How To Lose Weight, the ideal rate of weight loss is between 0.5-2lbs per week for most people. The more fat you have to lose, the faster you can (and probably should) lose it. The less fat you have to lose, the slower you should lose it.
Why is this speed so ideal and recommended by virtually every nutrition expert who isn’t trying to sell you something? Well, besides it being most ideal in terms of health, it’s also what is proven to work best in terms of success rate.
What I mean is, trying to lose weight any faster than this would require too extreme of a caloric deficit for most people to sustain. You’ll be in the most hungry, unhappy, tired, annoyed and all around crappy state possible, and the potential for muscle loss (and other health issues) will be at its highest. Does this scenario sound ideal for diet adherence or long term success? No, because it’s not.
On the other hand, losing fat slower than this recommended rate would be extremely easy to do, but unbearable to stick with because of how slow it would be happening.
However, losing weight exactly as fast as I just recommended you should is the perfect middle ground. Safe, effective, easy to manage and sustain while still being fast enough to satisfy our need to actually see results. This is the rate of weight loss that allows more people to successfully lose weight and permanently keep it off than ANY other.
Stop Trying To Lose It Fast & Just Lose It Already!
So, while we all wish we could lose weight fast, the sad truth is that we can’t… at least no where near as fast as most of us unrealistically hope we could. The thing is, all of the time, effort and money you are spending searching for a way to make fast weight loss happen is just a HUGE waste.
If you put half of the time and effort you’re putting into finding a “quick fix” into actually eating right and working out correctly, you probably would have lost the weight by now.
So, let this be the minute you stop looking for something that only exists in the lies weight loss companies are telling to get your money, and start doing what needs to be done to lose it at the ideal rate you should be.
In the end, this is the way that will end up working the fastest, because it’s the only way that works.
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