How to Lose Weight Fast

Step 1: Get your attitude in check. A positive outlook is a great start to shedding the amount of weight you want to lose. Keep this in mind throughout the process.

Step 2: Look into gyms in the area if you haven’t already and select one that looks like a place you’d like to work out. Most gyms offer a free trial membership so you can see if that gym is the place for you.

Step 3: Begin a regiment of intense cardio at least twice a week for at least 45 minutes as well as a weight training program three times a week. This is a very important step as exercise is the key to weight loss.

Step 4: Research different diet options. There are a variety of options online as well as in magazines and commercials. The Special K Challenge is a popular diet option, as well as the Atkins program.

Step 5: Select a diet based on your needs and specifications. It’s important to pick a diet you are sure you can live with, because if you hate the diet it will be all to easy to quit. Programs like Jenny Craig are relatively stringent in their requirements. Some programs are also expensive and require you to buy specialized foods. The South Beach diet program is a relatively inexpensive program that is very popular.

Step 6: Stick with your diet and workout regiment. It takes time for weight loss to become visible and apparent. Good luck.

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Easy Ways to Lose Weight: 50+ Ideas: 27-58

Discover New Motivations

27. Find ways other than eating to express love, tame stress, and relieve boredom. For instance, you might make your family a photo album of special events instead of a rich dessert, sign up for a stress-management course at the local hospital or take up an active hobby, like bowling.

28. State the positive. You've heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Well, if you keep focusing on things you can't do, like resisting junk food or getting out the door for a daily walk, chances are you won't do them. Instead (whether you believe it or not) repeat positive thoughts to yourself. "I can lose weight." "I will get out for my walk today." "I know I can resist the pastry cart after dinner." Repeat these phrases like a mantra all day long. Before too long, they will become their own self-fulfilling prophecy.

29. Discover your dietary point of preference. If you work hard to control your weight, you may get pleasure from your appearance, but you may also feel sorry for yourself each time you forgo a favorite food. There is a balance to be struck between the immediate gratification of indulgent foods and the long-term pleasure of maintaining a desirable weight and good health. When you have that balance worked out, you have identified your own personal dietary pleasure "point of preference." This is where you want to stay.

30. Use flavorings such as hot sauce, salsa, and Cajun seasonings instead of relying on butter and creamy or sugary sauces. Besides providing lots of flavor with no fat and few calories, many of these seasonings -- the spicy ones -- turn up your digestive fires, causing your body to temporarily burn more calories.

31. Eat fruit instead of drinking fruit juice. For the calories in one kid-size box of apple juice, you can enjoy an apple, orange, and a slice of watermelon. These whole foods will keep you satisfied much longer than that box of apple juice, so you'll eat less overall.

32. Spend 10 minutes a day walking up and down stairs. The Centers for Disease Control says that's all it takes to help you shed as much as 10 pounds a year (assuming you don't start eating more).

33. Eat equal portions of vegetables and grains at dinner. A cup of cooked rice or pasta has about 200 calories, whereas a cup of cooked veggies doles out a mere 50 calories, on average, says Joan Salge Blake, R.D., clinical assistant professor of nutrition at Boston University's Sargent College. To avoid a grain calorie overload, eat a 1:1 ratio of grains to veggies. The high-fiber veggies will help satisfy your hunger before you overeat the grains.

34. Get up and walk around the office or your home for five minutes at least every two hours. Stuck at a desk all day? A brisk five-minute walk every two hours will parlay into an extra 20-minute walk by the end of the day. And getting a break will make you less likely to reach for snacks out of antsiness.

35. Wash something thoroughly once a week -- a floor, a couple of windows, the shower stall, bathroom tile, or your car. A 150-pound person who dons rubber gloves and exerts some elbow grease will burn about four calories for every minute spent cleaning, says Blake. Scrub for 30 minutes and you could work off approximately 120 calories, the same number in a half-cup of vanilla frozen yogurt. And your surroundings will sparkle!

36. Make one social outing this week an active one. Pass on the movie tickets and screen the views of a local park instead. Not only will you sit less, but you'll be saving calories because you won't chow down on that bucket of popcorn. Other active date ideas: Plan a tennis match, sign up for a guided nature or city walk (check your local newspaper), go cycling on a bike path, or join a volleyball league or bowling team.

37. Order the smallest portion of everything. If you're ordering a sub, get the 6-inch sandwich. Buy a small popcorn, a small salad, a small hamburger. Studies find we tend to eat what's in front of us, even though we'd feel just as full on less.

38. Switch from regular milk to 2%. If you already drink 2%, go down another notch to 1% or skim milk. Each step downward cuts the calories by about 20 percent. Once you train your taste buds to enjoy skim milk, you'll have cut the calories in the whole milk by about half and trimmed the fat by more than 95 percent.

39. Take a walk before dinner. You'll do more than burn calories -- you'll cut your appetite. In a study of 10 obese women conducted at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, 20 minutes of walking reduced appetite and increased sensations of fullness as effectively as a light meal.

40. Substitute a handful of almonds in place of a sugary snack. A study from the City of Hope National Medical Center found that overweight people who ate a moderate-fat diet containing almonds lost more weight than a control group that didn't eat nuts. Really, any nut will do.

41. Eat a frozen dinner. Not just any frozen dinner, but one designed for weight loss. Most of us tend to eat an average of 150 percent more calories in the evening than in the morning. An easy way to keep dinner calories under control is to buy a pre-portioned meal. Just make sure that it contains only one serving. If it contains two, make sure you share.

42. Don't eat with a large group. A study published in the Journal of Physiological Behavior found that we tend to eat more when we eat with other people, most likely because we spend more time at the table. But eating with your significant other or your family, and using table time for talking in between chewing, can help cut down on calories -- and help with bonding in the bargain.

43. Watch one less hour of TV. A study of 76 undergraduate students found the more they watched television, the more often they ate and the more they ate overall. Sacrifice one program (there's probably one you don't really want to watch anyway) and go for a walk instead. You'll have time left over to finish a chore or gaze at the stars.

44. Get most of your calories before noon. Studies find that the more you eat in the morning, the less you'll eat in the evening. And you have more opportunities to burn off those early-day calories than you do to burn off dinner calories.

45. Close out the kitchen after dinner. Wash all the dishes, wipe down the counters, turn out the light, and, if necessary, tape closed the cabinets and refrigerator. Late-evening eating significantly increases the overall number of calories you eat, a University of Texas study found. Stopping late-night snacking can save 300 or more calories a day, or 31 pounds a year.

46. Sniff a banana, an apple, or a peppermint when you feel hungry. You might feel silly, but it works. When Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, tried this with 3,000 volunteers, he found that the more frequently people sniffed, the less hungry they were and the more weight they lost -- an average of 30 pounds each. One theory is that sniffing the food tricks the brain into thinking you're actually eating it.

47. Order wine by the glass, not the bottle. That way you'll be more aware of how much alcohol you're downing. Moderate drinking can be good for your health, but alcohol is high in calories. And because drinking turns off our inhibitions, it can drown our best intentions to keep portions in check.

48. Watch every morsel you put in your mouth on weekends. A University of North Carolina study found people tend to consume an extra 115 calories per weekend day, primarily from alcohol and fat.

49. Stock your refrigerator with low-fat yogurt. A University of Tennessee study found that people who cut 500 calories a day and ate yogurt three times a day for 12 weeks lost more weight and body fat than a group that only cut the calories. The researchers concluded that the calcium in low-fat dairy foods triggers a hormonal response that inhibits the body's production of fat cells and boosts the breakdown of fat.

50. Order your dressing on the side and then stick a fork in it -- not your salad. The small amount of dressing that clings to the tines of the fork are plenty for the forkful of salad you then pick up.

51. Brush your teeth after every meal, especially after dinner. That clean, minty freshness will serve as a cue to your body and brain that mealtime is over.

52. Serve individual courses rather than piling everything on one plate. Make the first two courses soup or vegetables (such as a green salad). By the time you get to the more calorie-dense foods, like meat and dessert, you'll be eating less or may already be full (leftovers are a good thing).

53. Passionately kiss your partner 10 times a day. According to the 1991 Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, a passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. Ten minutes a day of kissing equates to about 23,000 calories -- or eight pounds -- a year!

54. Add hot peppers to your pasta sauce. Capsaicin, the ingredient in hot peppers that makes them hot, also helps reduce your appetite.

55. Pack nutritious snacks. Snacking once or twice a day helps stave off hunger and keeps your metabolism stoked, but healthy snacks can be pretty darn hard to come by when you're on the go. Pack up baby carrots or your own trail mix made with nuts, raisins, seeds, and dried fruit.

56. When you shop, choose nutritious foods based on these four simple rules:
Avoid partially hydrogenated oil.
Avoid high-fructose corn syrup.
Choose a short ingredient list over long; there will be fewer flavor enhancers and empty calories.
Look for two or more grams of fiber per 100 calories in all grain products (cereal, bread, crackers, and chips).

57. Weed out calories you've been overlooking: spreads, dressings, sauces, condiments, drinks, and snacks. These calories count, whether or not you've been counting them, and could make the difference between weight gain and loss.

58. When you're eating out with friends or family, dress up in your most flattering outfit. You'll get loads of compliments, says Susie Galvez, author of Weight Loss Wisdom, which will be a great reminder to watch what you eat. For more info visit: http://www.rd.com/

Easy Ways to Lose Weight: 50+ Ideas 1-26

Simple Slimming

Spring is right around the corner and retailers have already begun stocking their floors with warm-weather goods -- including swimsuits. Besides looking great on the beach, commonsense tells us that one of the best things you can do for your overall health is to drop a few pounds. Or maybe more than a few pounds.Being overweight significantly increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer ... the list seems almost endless. Plus, if you do get sick or need surgery, being overweight can make any treatments riskier.

You know the drill when it comes to losing weight -- take in fewer calories, burn more calories. But you also know that most diets and quick weight-loss plans have about as much substance as a politician's campaign pledges. You're better off finding several simple things you can do on a daily basis -- along with following the cardinal rules of eating more vegetables and less fat and getting more physical activity. Together, they should send the scale numbers in the right direction: down.

1. Once a week, indulge in a high-calorie-tasting, but low-calorie, treat. This should help keep you from feeling deprived and binging on higher-calorie foods. For instance:
Lobster. Just 83 calories in 3 ounces.

Shrimp. Just 60 calories in 12 large.

Smoked salmon. Just 66 calories in two ounces. Sprinkle with capers for an even more elegant treat.

Whipped cream. Just 8 calories in one tablespoon. Drop a dollop over a bowl of fresh fruit for dessert.

2. Treat high-calorie foods as jewels in the crown. Make a spoonful of ice cream the jewel and a bowl of fruit the crown. Cut down on the chips by pairing each bite with lots of chunky, filling fresh salsa, suggests Jeff Novick, director of nutrition at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Florida. Balance a little cheese with a lot of salad.

3. After breakfast, make water your primary drink. At breakfast, go ahead and drink orange juice. But throughout the rest of the day, focus on water instead of juice or soda. The average American consumes an extra 245 calories a day from soft drinks. That's nearly 90,000 calories a year -- or 25 pounds! And research shows that despite the calories, sugary drinks don't trigger a sense of fullness the way that food does.

4. Carry a palm-size notebook everywhere you go for one week. Write down every single morsel that enters your lips -- even water. Studies have found that people who maintain food diaries wind up eating about 15 percent less food than those who don't.

5. Buy a pedometer, clip it to your belt, and aim for an extra 1,000 steps a day. On average, sedentary people take only 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day. Adding 2,000 steps will help you maintain your current weight and stop gaining weight; adding more than that will help you lose weight.

6. Add 10 percent to the amount of daily calories you think you're eating, then adjust your eating habits accordingly. If you think you're consuming 1,700 calories a day and don't understand why you're not losing weight, add another 170 calories to your guesstimate. Chances are, the new number is more accurate.

7. Eat five or six small meals or snacks a day instead of three large meals. A 1999 South African study found that when men ate parts of their morning meal at intervals over five hours, they consumed almost 30 percent fewer calories at lunch than when they ate a single breakfast. Other studies show that even if you eat the same number of calories distributed this way, your body releases less insulin, which keeps blood sugar steady and helps control hunger.

8. Walk for 45 minutes a day. The reason we're suggesting 45 minutes instead of the typical 30 is that a Duke University study found that while 30 minutes of daily walking is enough to prevent weight gain in most relatively sedentary people, exercise beyond 30 minutes results in weight and fat loss. Burning an additional 300 calories a day with three miles of brisk walking (45 minutes should do it) could help you lose 30 pounds in a year without even changing how much you're eating.

9. Find an online weight-loss buddy. A University of Vermont study found that online weight-loss buddies help you keep the weight off. The researchers followed volunteers for 18 months. Those assigned to an Internet-based weight maintenance program sustained their weight loss better than those who met face-to-face in a support group.

10. Bring the color blue into your life more often. There's a good reason you won't see many fast-food restaurants decorated in blue: Believe it or not, the color blue functions as an appetite suppressant. So serve up dinner on blue plates, dress in blue while you eat, and cover your table with a blue tablecloth. Conversely, avoid red, yellow, and orange in your dining areas. Studies find they encourage eating.

11. Clean your closet of the "fat" clothes. Once you've reached your target weight, throw out or give away every piece of clothing that doesn't fit. The idea of having to buy a whole new wardrobe if you gain the weight back will serve as a strong incentive to maintain your new figure.

12. Downsize your dinner plates. Studies find that the less food put in front of you, the less food you'll eat. Conversely, the more food in front of you, the more you'll eat -- regardless of how hungry you are. So instead of using regular dinner plates that range these days from 10-14 inches (making them look forlornly empty if they're not heaped with food), serve your main course on salad plates (about 7-9 inches wide). The same goes for liquids. Instead of 16-ounce glasses and oversized coffee mugs, return to the old days of 8-ounce glasses and 6-ounce coffee cups.

13. Serve your dinner restaurant style (food on the plates) rather than family style (food served in bowls and on platters on the table). When your plate is empty, you're finished; there's no reaching for seconds.

14. Hang a mirror opposite your seat at the table. One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly one-third. Seems having to look yourself in the eye reflects back some of your own inner standards and goals, and reminds you of why you're trying to lose weight in the first place.

15. Put out a vegetable platter. A body of research out of Pennsylvania State University finds that eating water-rich foods such as zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers during meals reduces your overall calorie consumption. Other water-rich foods include soups and salads. You won't get the same benefits by just drinking your water, though. Because the body processes hunger and thirst through different mechanisms, it simply doesn't register a sense of fullness with water (or soda, tea, coffee, or juice).

16. Use vegetables to bulk up meals. You can eat twice as much pasta salad loaded with veggies like broccoli, carrots, and tomatoes for the same calories as a pasta salad sporting just mayonnaise. Same goes for stir-fries. And add vegetables to make a fluffier, more satisfying omelet without having to up the number of eggs.

17. Eat one less cookie a day. Or consume one less can of regular soda, or one less glass of orange juice, or three fewer bites of a fast-food hamburger. Doing any of these saves you about 100 calories a day, according to weight-loss researcher James O. Hill, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado. And that alone is enough to prevent you from gaining the 1.8 to 2 pounds most people pack on each year.

18. Avoid white foods. There is some scientific legitimacy to today's lower-carb diets: Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. But you shouldn't toss out the baby with the bathwater. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, you should eat plenty of whole grain breads and brown rice. One Harvard study of 74,000 women found that those who ate more than two daily servings of whole grains were 49 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate the white stuff.

19. Switch to ordinary coffee. Fancy coffee drinks from trendy coffee joints often pack several hundred calories, thanks to whole milk, whipped cream, sugar, and sugary syrups. A cup of regular coffee with skim milk has just a small fraction of those calories. And when brewed with good beans, it tastes just as great.

20. Use nonfat powdered milk in coffee. You get the nutritional benefits of skim milk, which is high in calcium and low in calories. And, because the water has been removed, powdered milk doesn't dilute the coffee the way skim milk does.

21. Eat cereal for breakfast five days a week. Studies find that people who eat cereal for breakfast every day are significantly less likely to be obese and have diabetes than those who don't. They also consume more fiber and calcium -- and less fat -- than those who eat other breakfast foods. Of course, that doesn't mean reaching for the Cap'n Crunch. Instead, pour out a high-fiber, low-sugar cereal like Total or Grape Nuts.

22. Pare your portions. Whether you eat at home or in a restaurant, immediately remove one-third of the food on your plate. Arguably the worst food trend of the past few decades has been the explosion in portion sizes on America's dinner plates (and breakfast and lunch plates). We eat far, far more today than our bodies need. Studies find that if you serve people more food, they'll eat more food, regardless of their hunger level. The converse is also true: Serve yourself less and you'll eat less.

23. Eat 90 percent of your meals at home. You're more likely to eat more -- and eat more high-fat, high-calorie foods -- when you eat out than when you eat at home. Restaurants today serve such large portions that many have switched to larger plates and tables to accommodate them!

24. Avoid any prepared food that lists sugar, fructose, or corn syrup among the first four ingredients on the label. You should be able to find a lower-sugar version of the same type of food. If you can't, grab a piece of fruit instead! Look for sugar-free varieties of foods such as ketchup, mayonnaise, and salad dressing.

25. Eat slowly and calmly. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite. Sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food.

26. Eat only when you hear your stomach growling. It's stunning how often we eat out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration -- so often, in fact, that many of us have actually forgotten what physical hunger feels like. Next time, wait until your stomach is growling before you reach for food. If you're hankering for a specific food, it's probably a craving, not hunger. If you'd eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you're truly hungry. For more info visit http://www.rd.com/

The Biggest Loser: ‘I am a whole new woman’

Ali Vincent, the first female winner of the hit show, shed half her weight

Ali Vincent reveals a new formula to the world, after winning season five of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” on Tuesday night. The hairdresser from Mesa, Ariz., lost more than half her body weight, but gained a whole new perspective on life.

“I am a whole new woman,” Vincent told TODAY’s Lester Holt on Wednesday. “There are no limits. There are absolutely no limits and I started to dream big again.”

Vincent, 32, started the show tipping the scales at 234 pounds and ended it weighing 122 pounds. Although her overall weight loss of 112 pounds was less than second-place Roger Schultz (164 pounds), “The Biggest Loser” winner is determined by weight-loss percentage.

By shedding 47.86 percent of her weight, Vincent became the first female winner of “The Biggest Loser.”

Said her trainer, Jillian Michaels: “She’s a dream come true for me. I just think she’s inspiration incarnate and she’s sending a message to women out there that when you connect your mind and your body and your attention, anything is possible.”

Second chancesIn her youth, Vincent, then a synchronized swimmer, said she was “the one everyone wanted to date.”

But in her 20s, she saw that she “literally got fat five pounds at a time.” She was prompted to do something about it when she started “not getting as much affection.”

She decided to try out for “The Biggest Loser” with her mother, Bette-Sue Burkland. Despite some early success, Vincent and her mom were voted off the show in the fourth episode.
Vincent, however, remained undaunted.

“I was like, ‘Nobody can take this away from me,’ ” she recalled. “I’m going to do it. I’m going to go back there and I’m going to stand on that stage, even if it’s with the at-home people, and I am going to be the Biggest Loser.”

Fortunately for Vincent, the show, in an unforeseen twist, was bringing her back.
Even better for her, she lost 33 more pounds on her own — while no longer a contestant for the show.

She teamed with Michaels upon her return to the show. Michaels described their workouts as “beatings — eight hours a day. Sometimes 10 toward the end.”
And Vincent was in for the long haul.

“The tears ended after about week three,” Michaels told Holt. “It was just, ‘Tell me what I need to do.’ She just took every single order. She did everything that I asked for.”

Continued rewardsVincent pocketed $250,000 for her losing ways. After taking a red-eye flight from California to New York, one of the first things she saw was a copy of USA Today with a “Got Milk?” ad featuring her chiseled self.

“That is, like, strength, you know?” Vincent said of the picture. “I feel like that’s what beauty is — to feel strong and confident. And I feel like in that picture. When I saw that [picture], I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I’ve been going for.’ ”

Vincent hopes her dramatic weight loss will put her in a better position to achieve her goal of becoming a platform artist for a large corporation. Until then, she is enjoying her role as an inspirational figure for those looking to lose weight.

“I’m going to continue to go for what I want,” she said. “My physical being is a direct representation of what I feel inside, which is strong and confident and beautiful.”
“This show is not only a piece of pop culture,” Michaels added. “It’s doing real good in the world and it’s because of people like Ali inspiring millions.”

By Bob Considine

TODAYShow.com

contributorupdated 9:58 a.m. CT, Wed., April. 16, 2008

Lose Weight Fast - 3 Ways to Lose Weight Fast

Are you tired of spending money on diets and pills that don't help you reach your weight loss goals? Do you want to lose weight fast, but you just are not sure where to start? There is a way to naturally lose the weight you want and do it very fast. Read further to discover three ways you can lose weight.


First, you will need to exercise. Weight loss cannot happen without putting in your time doing some form of aerobic exercise. It is said that you need to do 1 1/2 hours of aerobic exercise each week in order to maintain your current body shape. So in order to make your weight loss happen faster you need to do much more.


You should be doing a minimum of 4 hours of aerobic exercise each week to speed up your weight loss. You can run, jog, swim, play tennis, bike, hike, climb stairs, speed walk, hit the treadmill, use the stationary bike, join an aerobics class, play basketball, or anything else aerobic. Just make sure that you get your 4 hours a week in.


The second way to cut the weight quickly is to change your daily eating habits. Eat a big breakfast and consume the majority of your carbs at breakfast. Don't eat any carbs after noon and avoid bad carbs like white bread, white sugar, and anything else that is made from white sugar or flour.


Make your dinner your smallest meal of the day and only eat a protein and a vegetable. Cut out the sweets by skipping dessert 6 out of the 7 days of the week. Use the other dessert to reward yourself and stick to dark, natural chocolate and natural ice cream. Also, avoid pop or soda at all costs, even diet pop or soda because it makes you crave sweets and anything else with high frutcose corn syrup in it.


The last way to lose weight fast is to do a 3,5 or 7 day juice fast once every 8 weeks. A juice fast is basically cutting all the solid foods out of your diet for a period of time and drinking only 100% natural fruit and vegetable juices. The best way to do this is to buy a juicer and make your own juices. This is a great way to help your body recover and cut a few quick pounds in the process.

Now you have three solid ways to help you lose weight fast. Make sure that if you choose to do a juice fast that you consult your doctor first and get more information on how to do it properly. Use all three of these methods and you will be able to melt the weight right off your body quicker than you could imagine.


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