How To Lose Weight Fast If Obese

I’m sure you’ve heard that weight loss is simply a matter of calories in Vs calories out, and that all you need to do to lose weight is to create an energy defect.

This article teaches you how to safely and effectively lose weight fast. It also explains how to achieve permanent and natural weight loss without resorting to extreme crash dieting or performing endless hours of exercise.

To summarise, this is an evidence-based practical guide detailing some of the best ways to lose weight as opposed to promoting the latest hokum, snake-oil, magic tricks or any other outlandish ways that for example, claim to help you lose 20 pounds in a week.

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So if you've reached a weight loss plateau, or are fed up of following fad diets and want to learn how to achieve real-world targeted fat loss, then this article is for you.

It appears that weight training is synonymous with bodybuilding, yet building muscle isn’t just a case of lifting weights. You might even think that this is a tip on how to lose weight fast for men, but you'd be wrong.

There is a misconception that if you visit the gym a couple of times a week, you’ll end up “too big”. Don’t worry, that won’t ever happen, and if you are a woman don't let this deter you from lifting weights.

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Simply put, weight training is one of the most overlooked and incredibly effective ways that you can lose weight fast. This is because muscle is the furnace where body fat is incinerated. If you don’t have enough muscle mass, then you cannot effectively burn body fat and lose weight.

For example, this is an overwhelming problem in people who suffer from obesity and have become so heavy that they can no longer walk. Their muscles literally aren’t strong enough to lift their bodies, rendering them immobile.

Unfortunately in these scenarios, where the ratio of body fat to muscle is so high, it is unlikely that they will ever lose all of their excess weight. This is simply because they do not have the muscle capacity to burn the body fat.

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If you don’t have adequate muscle mass you will never conquer weight loss either. Ergo, training with weights is an absolute must if you are serious about losing weight.

Oxidative capacity refers to the ability of your muscles to use oxygen. While this may sound simple, its implications are far reaching.

Consider a candle burning on the bench of a chemistry lab; it will continue to burn as long as its wax lasts. Nevertheless, cover the candle with a glass bell jar and within seconds the flame will cease, regardless of how much wax remains.

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This is because the flame will run out of oxygen. In the absence of oxygen, the process of oxidation cannot continue and the candle flame will be extinguished, it’s the basic premise of redox (reduction/oxidation) reactions.

In order for a substance to “burn”, oxygen must be present. Consequently, your ability to lose weight from burning fat is largely governed by your muscles ability to use oxygen.

The energy density of fat is well over twice that of protein and carbohydrates. When you burn fat, you need more oxygen and the greater your oxidative capacity, the greater your capacity to burn fat.

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Oxidation of food stuffs occurs within microscopic sub-cellular structures known as mitochondria. All cells from all tissues have mitochondria; essentially these are the “power-plants” of the human body.

These microscopic organelle structures have a fundamental role in metabolism including the oxidation of fatty acids. In biochemistry, beta-oxidation is the catabolic process by which fatty acid molecules are broken down in the mitochondrial matrix.

The oxidisdation of fatty acids generates acetyl-CoA, which is subsequently metabolised via the Krebs cycle to generate ATP as part of energy metabolism.

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Resistance training can not only increase muscle mass, but can also improve oxidative capacity (1). Therefore, weight training is essential if you want to lose weight. The greater you’re fat burning capacity, the faster you can burn the fat and lose weight.

Actionable tip: To maximise weight loss, perform 3 x 1 hour weight training sessions per week. Focus on different body parts each workout, completing your whole body every week. Tweet

Even though weight training can increase oxidative capacity, you won't just lose weight from weight training alone. Lifting weights is effective for weight loss when combined with a holistic training and nutritional plan, including all the tips in this article.

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Added sugar is pretty much everywhere and you are likely eating far too much of it. Not only is this stopping you from losing weight, it is effectively increasing your chances of becoming obese. Depending on your sugar intake, you could even risk developing a myriad of other diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome.

The trouble nowadays is that most folk have become functionally hypoglycaemic (2), that is, they have entrained their bodies to be artificially spiked with sugar and insulin. It has become the “norm” to regularly consume snacks of sugary tea, biscuits and other such treats in between meals.

Thus resulting in continual training of their bodies to feed of what’s in the gut, versus living off its structure (body fat). The key here is to feed the body effectively so that the body doesn’t crave.

Food And Diet

In terms of weight loss tips, this is one of the most important – become accustomed to reading labels and avoid added sugar as if it’s the kryptonite to your Superman.

Sugar has some profound effects on our bodies; none of them are notably good. Consuming large amounts of sugar (100 grams + per day), significantly increases your insulin level. High insulin is typically associated with fat storage.

You can think of insulin an energy storage hormone. Sugar is fast energy and if you are not burning it off quick enough, you are most likely going to store it as fat. In fact, it is proven that insulin transports sugar in to fat cells (3). Furthermore, insulin makes fat, and the more insulin you’re producing, the more fat you’ll be storing.

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Nevertheless, not all carbohydrates are your enemy because not all carbohydrates are equal. It’s true that all the carbohydrates you eat ultimately become glucose, but the route that they take to get to the glucose varies tremendously. Pure sugar (glucose) takes no digesting at all and will very rapidly increase your blood levels and spike insulin.

They key is to choose your carbohydrate sources carefully. Eat only complex carbohydrates that don’t digest too quickly and cause a rapid increase in insulin.

The ability of a carbohydrate to increase insulin is measured by its glycemic index (GI). The lower the glycemic index of a food, the less insulin you’ll get from eating it. The glycemic index uses a scale of 0-100, with 100 being pure glucose.

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Actionable tip: Make yourself consciously aware of what foods contain what macronutrients. Take note of food labels and opt for foods that are low in sugar and have a low glycemic index. Tweet

Eating less sugar will reduce insulin, less insulin means less fat storage. However, it is impossible to “spot-reduce” fat from particular areas of the body. There is no set rule for where you will lose fat from first. As you lose weight, you will notice an overall reduction in body mass.

Alcohol, fruit juices and soda are stealth calories. They tend to fly under the radar while you focus on reducing your intake of solid calories. In terms of losing weight, however, these are even worse than the latter.

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When you eat solid food, you attain satisfaction and thus your body compensates by limiting further intake. This is not the case with liquid calories, these don’t increase satiety the same as eating a meal does, but count towards fat levels nonetheless.

Sugar sweetened beverages are also a key player in spiking insulin, as I highlighted earlier, insulin instantly kills fat loss. Furthermore, steer clear of “low-sugar” and “zero-carb” advertised drinks. These are usually loaded with the artificial sweeteners such as acesulfame K and aspartame.

Despite these sweetened drinks being be low or sugar free, acesulfame K and aspartame come with their own plethora of unwanted side effects, and have also been shown to amplify insulin response in the presence of glucose.

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Although the evidence does not appear to be 100% conclusive on artificial sweeteners spiking insulin, as an added precaution I’d recommend staying away from these.

Your appetite is regulated by a hormone called leptin. Leptin is an adipokine (cell signalling protein), secreted by your adipose tissues and is directly connected to body fat because it is responsible for regulating your energy balance and body weight, by sending signals of satiety to your hypothalamus.

Since leptin is secreted from your adipose tissue, the amount of leptin you produce is directly proportionate to the amount of body fat you have. If you add body fat, your leptin secretion will also increase, and vice versa. Leptin is part of a vast array of hormones that collectively form your body’s hormonal axis.

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If your leptin negative feedback mechanism gets broken, your body will not feel satisfied and unless you