How to Lose Weight Fast: 4 Simple Science-Backed Steps
Fast weight loss is something I’ve been preaching against for the past 10 years. Everything changed when I met Juanita, who was able to lose over 35 pounds in a short period of time.
She had confirmed my research that most fast weight loss programs leave you feeling hungry, tired, frustrated, and more damaged than when you started.
I’ll tell you a little bit more about how this busy mother of 2 lost a ton of weight (and got a flat belly) after I reveal the 4 simple steps to lose weight.
As “normal” as hunger is, we (humans) weren’t meant to be hungry, so unless you’ve been training for being on a deserted island for 3 months, hunger wins the day and you’ll end up binge eating on fast food and/or just give up on dieting forever.
You should give up on dieting, because the program outlined here isn’t a diet at all. I’m going to help you:
- Improve your metabolic health
- Accelerate your fat-burning hormones
- Block your fat-storing hormones
- Kill your cravings and reduce your appetite
- Lose stubborn fat and weight quickly, without ever being hungry or even having to count calories
Here is the simple 4-step plan to lose weight fast.
1. Limit Carbs and Fat…But Not In Way The You Think
The first step behind fast weight loss that lasts is to get rid of inflammatory foods.
The top inflammatory foods are specific carbs and fats, like sugars, hfcs, refined vegetable oils, trans-fats, some starches, processed flours, gluten, GMO corn, etc…
Inflammatory, poor-quality foods is the number one cause of weight gain.
If you didn’t know yet, the most important fat storage hormone is insulin, so it stands to reason you’re number one priority when losing weight is to balance and regulate insulin.
Insulin is a fat storing hormone. And the easiest way to increase your insulin levels is to eat more carbohydrates. The easiest way to lower insulin levels is to eat fewer carbohydrates. (See study here)
Some carbs stimulate insulin the most and some fats block the use of glucose (our primary fuel source) in the cells.
By lowering insulin levels, it’s not uncommon for you to lose 4-9 pounds in the first week on a low glycemic carb, low unsaturated fat, high protein diet.
If you want effortless fat loss, limit inflammatory carbs and fats.
Healthy Fat Loss Summary: Removing sugar, HFCS, processed flours, gluten, canola/soybean/safflower/corn/peanut oils, and trans fat from your diet will help lower insulin, improve cellular energy production, reduce your appetite, and “force” your body to release body fat without starving yourself.
2. Increase Your Protein, Fat, Fruits, and Vegetables
Protein increases satiety (fullness), stabilized blood sugar levels, and is necessary for building metabolically active tissue (muscle.)
High-Quality Protein Sources:
- Meat: Grass-fed beef, organic chicken, lamb, turkey, etc…
- Seafood: Wild-caught salmon, shrimp, cod, haddock, tuna, etc…
- Eggs: Organic pastured eggs
- Dairy: Organic cheese
High-Quality Fruit Sources:
- Apples
- Pears
- Mangoes
- Papaya
- Pineapple
See a full list of fat loss fruits here.
High-Quality Vegetable Sources
- Spinach
- Carrots
- Kale
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Squash
See a full list of weight loss friendly vegetables here.
High-Quality Fat Sources
- Coconut Oil
- Olive Oil
- Avocado
- Grass-fed butter
- Ghee
- Tallow
If you’re thinking these fats are high in satuated fats and are “unhealthy”, then you’d only be half correct. While the fats listed above are high in saturated fats, studies prove saturated fats don’t raise your risk of heart disease at all.
The best fat to cook with is coconut oil or butter, since they are more stable and don’t oxidize, unlike refined vegetable oils, which oxidize immediately. The MCT fats in coconut oil have been shown to boost metabolism and protect your cells from free radical damage.
Eating 80-110 grams of protein every day is probably the most important “tip” I could give, since it will have the biggest impact on your ability to lose weight.
Protein is the most thermogenic of all nutrients and studies have shown by increases your metabolic rate by as much as 100 calories.
When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of all macronutrients.
Healthy Fat Loss Summary: Start your meals with a high-quality organic protein, an anti-inflammatory fat, 2-3 servings of vegetables, and a fruit (for snack or dessert). Protein and fat help keep you full and balance your hormones and fruits and vegetables provide minerals and nutrients to stimulate fat-burning hormones and a fat-burning metabolism.
3. Do 3-4 Metabolic Resistance Training Workouts Every Week
I’ve coached over 20,000 metabolic workout sessions and I made a living telling people to exercise, so this is going to be hard for me to admit, but you don’t HAVE to exercise to lose weight fast.
You can lift weights at any age and at any fitness level, but if it is not currently an option for you, try swimming, bodyweight exercises, and/or walking until you’re able to do some type of strength training.
The awesome underrated characteristic of metabolic workouts is their ability to burn a significant amount of calories DURING a workout. Most people discuss only the “after-burn” effect of these type of workouts, allowing long bouts of cardio workouts to swoop in and shout “I burn more calories during your workout.”
The best type of workouts focus on what happens while you are at rest, instead of what happens physiologically during your routine. However, if you look at the numbers, metabolic workouts can and often do burn just as many if not more than traditional cardio.
If you ask me, I’d much rather work out hard for 30 minutes, instead of spending an hour and half on a treadmill.
Healthy Fat Loss Summary: Limit the amount of cardio you do to lower cortisol levels. Lifting weights or performing “metabolic resistance training” 3-4 times per week is the fat-burning sweet spot.
4. Learn How to Balance Your Meals
Each one of your meals and snacks should contain a protein, a fat, and carbohydrate. Creating what I call metabolic meals (or healthy fat loss meals) this way automatically helps you lower your insulin levels, regulate your hormones, and boost your metabolic rate.
When you eat carbs, your digestive system breaks them down into sugar. Then, insulin is released to move the sugar from your bloodstream to your cells.
Eating too many carbs by themselves, like a bagel for breakfast causes your insulin to rise to high, which can cause insulin resistance.
By consuming fat and protein with carbs you can put the brakes on the amount of sugar entering your bloodstream.
Balancing your macronutrients is a metabolic MUST if you need to lose weight, since if you’re the least bit overweight you probably have some form of insulin resistance.
Remember, low-glycemic carbs, protein, and fat for maximum weight loss in mininum time.
Healthy Fat Loss Summary: To properly maximize fat-burning hormones and minimize fat-storing hormones you should balance your meals with equal number carbs, protein, and fat.
10 More Lose Weight Fast Tips To Speed Fat Loss
1.) Avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners. Eating sugar has been shown to increase body fat, slow down metabolic rate, and increase insulin resistance and diabetes. (See the 65 Different Names of Sugar)
2.) Eat whole, unprocessed, “real” foods. When you consume high-quality foods, you’re less likely to overeat, crave sugar, and/or binge eat.
3.) Focus on healthy fat loss, not weight loss. Even though, I refer to losing weight throughout this article, what I really mean is losing fat. Most weight loss programs, help you lose weight…which could be water, muscle, your youth, your metabolism, etc…health-focused programs give you stratagies for getting healthy, balancing hormones, regualting blood sugar, and cleansing your body of built up toxins.
4.) Eat fat loss promoting foods/foods that boost your metabolism. Certain foods tend to promote fat loss by being easily digestible, detoxifying to the liver, and boostng thyroid function.Here is a list of the 99 Foods That Boost Metabolism and Promote Weight Loss.
5.) Get 7-8 hours of good quality sleep. Lack of sleep is one of main causes of hormonal related weight gain. The ideal times for high-quality hormone balancing sleep is 10 p.m to 6 a.m.
6.) Avoid drinking too many calories. You already know that most peope are getting much of their added sugar from beverages, including soads, energy drinks, sweetened teas, and fruit juices. There are low-nutrient food choices that not only drive your weight up, but overload the liver, inflame digestion, and slow down your thyroid/metabolism. Drink water, tea, coffee with a pinch of organic sugar (if any) or honey and organic milk, coconut milk, or rice milk. Limit alcohol intake to 1 or 2 drinks per week. Learn to enjoy water again and try carbonated water to replace your sodas and diet sodas.
7.) Slow down your eating. Eating fast is directly correlated to having a slow metabolism. You’re food isn’t going anywhere. Slow down to speed up…your fat-burning metabolism.
8.) Spice up your foods. Healthy food doesn’t have to be bland and boring. 10 of my favorite healthy fat loss herbs and spices (aside from sea salt and pepper):
- Turmeric, found in curry, contains Curcumin which has been shown be a potent anti-inflammatory and effective at stimulating metabolism.
- Cinnamon has been shown to be effective at stabilizing blood sugar and it very high in antioxidants
- Thyme, Oregano, and Sage contain antioxidants and have been shown to boost memory (so you can remember to follow the 9 healthy fat loss rules)
- Garlic is a potent anti-inflammatory agent. Garlic boosts cellular metabolism, which causes your energy levels to increase, boosting thyroid/metabolic function.
- Ginger soothes digestion, helping with mineral and nutrient absorption.
- Paprika, Lemon Pepper, Cayenne are metabolic boosters because of their high levels of capsaicin and piperine
9.) Manage your stress. Sure stress doesn’t have calories or sugar, but it has a HUGE impact on your ability to lose weight. Stress is cumulative, meaning our body has the same “stress response” not matter the stressor. If you’re constantly stressed because of finances, work, family, your weight, your eating, etc…you’ll eventually fatigue your adrenals, overload your liver, and overwork your thyroid. The trifecta for gaining fat and making it near impossible to lose weight.
10.) Stay consistent. I know, you want to lose ALL of the weight ASAP. Question…did you gain ALL of the weight in 1 week? No. You gained weight consistently over the years, so now you have to lose weight consistently. If you follow this program you’ll not only lose weight fast, but you’ll keep it off.
How Much Weight You’ll Lose (and More Importantly)
Using this method, you can expect to lose 3-9 pounds in the first week, then you’ll be able to see consistent weight loss every week, depending on how much weight you need to lose.
Technically, you’re eating “low-carb,” but that doesn’t mean you’re avoiding carbs. It just means you’re avoiding inflammatory carbs, cutting back on carbs to lower insulin, and revving up your fat-burning metabolism to burn stored fat.
This healthy, metabolism-focused approach to dieting will not only leave your feeling positive, energetic, motivated, and healthy, but there are other “hidden” benefits, like:
- Lowered blood sugar
- Lowered trigylcerides
- Increased good cholesterol
- Decreased bad cholesterol
- Lowered blood pressure
- Improved insulin sensitivity
- Lowered cortisol levels
Healthy Fat Loss Summary: Expect to lose a significant amount of weight using this approach. Remember, sometimes the scale doesn’t tell the whole story, so consider measuring progress multiple ways.
How Juanita Lost 35 Pounds By Eating MORE and Exercising LESS
By reducing carbs and lowering insulin levels, you change the hormonal environment and make your body and brain “want” to lose weight.
This leads to drastically reduced appetite and hunger, eliminating the main reason that most people fail with conventional weight loss methods.
This is proven to make you lose about 2-3 times as much weight as a typical low-fat, calorie restricted diet.
On this plan you get to eat whole foods, without ever feeling hungry. You’ll enjoy carbs and plenty of fat, AND you won’t have any trouble losing weight.
This is the plan that saved Juanita from a lifetime of struggle and it’s the plan that will help YOU.
Of course, you have the choice to try this plan on your own, without any guidance or support. I believe in you, so I know you can probably do it.
However, I also believe in the power of coaching and structure. Which is why when you invest in one of my programs, I include 24/7 access to my private Facebook group and my personal email address.
If you found this post helpful, you can imagine how amazing one of my programs you invest a few bucks in would be.
The Flat Belly System is my most comprehensive program that GUARANTEES fast weight loss that helps you keep the weight OFF, forever. But don’t take my word for it, click the link and read about how I discovered this unique formula and see the success stories.
Your friend and coach,
Nick