"How Do I Lose Weight Fast?"

I got the call late last night - "I'm all yours, how do I lose 60 pounds as quickly as possible?" Well my best friend, who live 13 hours away, really wanted to lose it in 2 months - which is not happening - but it's totally possible to lose 60 pounds in 6 months, it's just difficult to do. There are a few things that you need to focus on to lose weight and tone up as fast as is healthy:

1) Metabolism Boosting Foods - that's right food is a major factor in the speed of weight loss. I always tell my clients - "You must first burn through the calories you ate today before you can get to those stored from yesterday." You would think, from this statement, that eating very little would get to those fat stores faster - but this IS NOT TRUE! It's the old catch 22. If you don't eat enough calories to feed the muscles - those amazing fat burning machines - then the machines will shut down entirely, even turn to eat healthy materials in the body. It thinks you're stuck on a deserted island with food being scarce, and to save your life it wants to save those fat stores to the last possible moment. This is why obese people don't have to eat very much to remain obese. Their metabolism has pretty much slowed to non-existence. To correct this problem -
*Eat all natural foods - that's right, if it isn't grown then don't eat it. No processed, no fast food, etc. I know this is difficult, especially in today's busy society. But Food is the fuel for your body - you wouldn't use cooking oil as gas for your car, don't put sub-standard fuels in your body.
*Eat every 3-4 hours - I know, I can hear the gasps echoing, but eating every few hours will kick start your metabolism. This means you'll be grazing or snacking all day long without the traditional 3 square meals a day. Keep healthy snacks within reach all day long - fruits & veggies, multi-grains, etc. Even string cheese makes a good snack, just don't eat much as it's technically a processed food.

2) Metabolism Boosting Exercises - Strength in the lower body. Many women think weight loss is only about the Cardiovascular exercise but in truth you need to kick up the muscles eating strength. Remember muscles eat fat. So the more muscles you have the more fat will be 'eaten' during a workout. Cardiovascular health is important - in it you use many muscles all at once, but you need to make those muscles with strength training. So balance your workout - 30-60 minutes of Cardio every single day. Making sure to stretch a lot. 3-6 Core exercises, for which you can check out my article Trouble Spots: The Core , every single day. 3-4 days a week you'll want to focus on total body strength training - 15 repetitions with 2-3 sets - with special exercises for fat loss - these include:
*Squat overhead press - holding dumbbells at your shoulders, sit back like there's a chair 2 feet behind you. Lower until knees are bent at 90 degrees. Then push up through the heels as you push weights up overhead.
*Lunges - holding a pretty heavy weight (as heavy as you can) step one foot about 2 feet behind you. Keep torso tall and abs sucked in tight. Bend rear knee lowering toward the floor until the front knee is bent to 90 degrees. Push through the lead heel to straighten leg.
*Clean and Press - Holding heavy dumbbells (or a barbell) in front of you stand tall with shoulders rolled back. Tip over at the hip, lowering weight toward the floor. Keep your back straight, don't hunch. Squeeze your bum to straighten back up tall. Bend elbows bringing weight to shoulders in a reverse curl. Push weight over head, as you keep your abs super tight - don't lean back.
*Burpees - stand tall. Squat down touching hands to the floor just outside your feet. Hop your feet back, landing in a strong push-up position. Hop feet back in between your hands. Pop up off of the floor, arms over head as if shooting a hoop in basketball.
*Drop Squats - Stand tall holding dumbbells straight down by your sides, feet shoulder width apart. Sit back again, lowering weights down the outside your legs toward your ankles. Push through your heels to straighten back up.

3) Weight loss lifestyle - this is very important. If you jump into the deep end without learning to swim you'll go down. The same is true for weight loss. Set up your environment. If you have kids, don't let them eat junk foods either. Don't let them keep a snack cabinet. Or else put up pictures of your goal (like a swimsuit model) on the door to keep you from going in there. Drink lots and lots of water, until you think you'll burst then drink a little more the next day . Water is the amazing weight loss tool. Drink it all day long. Furthermore, keep stress to a minimum. You can visualize the stress of lift shucking off of you while doing cardio (try a kick-boxing class). But you NEED to keep stress low or else learn better ways to deal with it.

Keep your eyes on the goal. Don't start off exercising 3 hours a day, you'll never be able to maintain. Ease yourself into it. Keep focused either with a weight loss journal or paying for a personal trainer. But don't look at little snacks as a complete derailing of your entire plan. If you fall off the wagon, then add another 30 minutes of cardio to the next day. You'll cheat much less often when you have those kind of consequences!