Health Tips, Health Care Tips, Pregnancy, Baby Care, Men and Women Fitness Care Tips

If you want to lose weight, you're not alone. Almost half of all Americans are trying to lose weight at any given time.^[2] While there are many things you can do to shed pounds, losing weight too quickly can be dangerous. Fad diets, diet pills, and fasting may help you reduce the number on the scale, but these methods can cause severe health complications. However, if you are generally healthy and you're determined to drop several pounds quickly, there are some techniques and tips you can adopt to help you reach your short-term goals.

Steps

Fad Diets

The purpose of most fad diets is to promote rapid weight loss that you can see almost overnight. Fad diets are short-term solutions; if you stay on a fad diet for more than a few days, you could cause your body serious harm. You should always consult your healthcare provider before beginning any kind of weight loss program to make sure your body can take the added strain to its system. Here are some popular fad diets with simple instructions that claim to result in fast, short-term weight loss.

1. 1
   The Water Diet^[3]. This diet involves drinking a daily total of about 64 fluid ounces (8 cups) of cold (preferably refrigerated) water, at regular intervals.
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   • Drink a glass of water before each meal and before each snack to suppress your appetite by making you feel fuller.
   • Do not add sweeteners or flavorings to your water.
   • Do not replace meals with water.
   • Take a daily multivitamin to replenish the nutrients lost through more frequent urination.
2. 2
   Juice Detox Diet, Juice Fast, or Hollywood Diet^[4]. Although there are many variations on a juice detoxification fast or crash diet, they generally last for one to three days.
   • You can only drink fruit and vegetable juices on this type of fad diet.
   • Some variations of this diet involve taking vitamins or nutrients along with the juices, while others let you have a single meal per day.
   • The juices are meant to help your body flush out toxins and eliminate several pounds of (mostly) water weight from your system.^[5]
3. 3
   The Master Cleanse, Maple Syrup Diet, or Lemonade Diet^[6]. This fad diet is a liquid-only diet.
   • Drink between 6 to 12 glasses of a special mixture of lemonade, cayenne pepper, water, and maple syrup each day.
   • You will also drink a cup of herbal laxative tea twice a day.
   • There is an optional period of easing into this fad diet, as well as an easing-out process.
   • It should only be done for very short-term weight loss and is supposed to function as a detoxifying cleanse rather than a strict weight-loss routine.
   • There is also an optional salt-water flush that can be incorporated into this diet.
4. 4
   The Cabbage Soup Diet^[7]. This diet claims it can help you lose up to 10 pounds in one week.
   • It involves eating a low-fat, high fiber diet.
   • You mainly eat a special type of cabbage soup, but you can also have moderate portions of certain fruits and vegetables, occasional meats and rice, a minimum of 4 glasses of water and a multivitamin each day.
   • This diet lasts 7 days and is not recommended as a permanent solution for long-term weight loss because of the lack of nutrients you consume on it.
5. 5
   The Salt-Free Diet^[8]. This diet helps you lose water weight by eliminating water retention in the body.
   • On this diet, you cannot have any salt, which includes not only table salt, but also all the added sodium found in pre-packaged and prepared foods.
   • This involves preparing sodium-free products at home or avoiding processed foods all together, which also means avoiding to eat out at restaurants.
   • It also involves drinking up to 2 liters (about 8 cups) of water each day to replenish essential bodily fluids, although green tea is also allowed in moderation.
   • Many prepared foods have as much as 30% of your daily value. You get your daily requirement of sodium from a healthy diet; too much can cause you to retain water weight.
   • Because some dietary salt is essential for good health, the Salt-Free Diet should not be followed for more than one to two weeks.
   • It's important to note that this diet is more effective for those people who tend to retain water more easily than others. If you're not sure whether you're particularly prone to water retention, pay attention to your hands and feet the next time you eat something salty. If your rings are more difficult to take off, or your shoes become tighter after a salty meal, those are signs that your body is sensitive to sodium.
6. 6
   The HCG Diet^[9]. This diet combines injections or supplements of HCG (human chorionic gondadotropin) with a severely restricted calorie intake.
   • The calorie restriction alone (only 500 to 800 calories per day) is enough to promote weight loss in most people; it is significantly under the recommended daily calorie allowance, even for people attempting to lose weight.
   • HCG is not monitored by the FDA, and can have unpleasant side effects in many people.
   • Those who follow this diet typically gain the weight back immediately after stopping it.