How To Actually Lose Weight Fast – The Ultimate Fat Loss Guide

You’re here because you want to know how to actually lose weight fast, and that’s completely understandable.

The fat loss process sucks and you want to get it over with as fast as possible.

But keep in mind, you have to be careful when treading down this road, because if you do it incorrectly (like most people do) you could end up looking skinny fat.

And how do you avoid ending up skinny fat? Don’t do what most people do:

• Starve yourself (eating like a bird)
• Do a bunch of cardio (hopping between each cardio machine for hours on end)

Yes, you’ll lose weight, but you won’t be too happy with the results you see in the mirror or the hell you’d be putting yourself through.

The reason for this is because most rapid weight loss protocols (also known as “crash diets”) put you into a severely calorie restricted state and you end up losing just as much muscle as fat.

The end result?

You end up looking thin, weak, and still soft. Which isn’t exactly what you’re aiming for: lean, toned, and defined.

Why?

Because these protocols focus on losing as much weight as possible when the goal should be to lose fat while maintaining as much muscle as possible.

And when your focus shifts from losing as much weight as possible to improving your body composition (ratio of lean body mass to fat mass), you’ll stop spinning your wheels and find that you’ll finally start achieving the look you want.

But in order to do that, you’ll have to do things differently. However, the good news is that it’s definitely not nearly as sucky as a crash diet protocol and there are ways to do without suffering and you could even end up enjoying the process.

And here’s what you can expect from this article:

• You’re going to learn why you should or shouldn’t lose weight fast
• You’re going to learn the top 3 worst mistakes people make that prevent them from losing fat.
• You’re going to learn how to actually lose weight as fast as possible without losing muscle with one simple rule.
• You’re going to learn the 5 steps to follow in order to lose fat without losing muscle as quickly as possible.

Why You Should or Shouldn’t Lose Weight Fast

Now, if you’ve read my other articles or have been following me on social media for a while, you’ll know that I do not like to promote rapid weight loss. Mainly because:

• The faster you lose weight, the more likely you will lose muscle during the process
• The faster you lose weight, the more your emotions and motivation get tied up with the number on the scale (rather than other factors such as your performance, body composition, etc.)
• The more your emotions and motivation get tied up with the scale, the more likely you’ll do stupid, unsustainable shit to lose weight
• And the more you do stupid, unsustainable shit, the more likely you’ll give up, rebound, and gain the weight back (and then some)

That being said, there are some groups of people with exceptions to these recommendations (but ultimately, do what you want to do. I’m just some random dude on the internet, what do I know?):

• The first group include those who are athletes or competitors who need to cut weight for an upcoming competition or event

Rapid weight loss makes the most sense for individuals who compete in forms of martial arts, wrestling, powerlifting, bodybuilding, or any other sport that requires them to be in a specific weight class.

However, if these individuals are following a well-designed weight loss program, they wouldn’t necessarily have to do any rapid weight loss phases, but I digress.

But, in most cases, athletes or competitors who do need to use a rapid weight loss approach are generally being coached knowing that the method they use is unsustainable and not long term.

• The second group include those are extremely obese to the point where their extra body fat is actually detrimental to their health

Rapid weight loss makes sense for these individuals because they carry so much fat mass that they must lose weight as fast as possible in order to improve their health markers.

And again, the initial diet of losing as much weight as quickly as possible is for these individuals is unsustainable and not for long term use.

Now, for the majority of you out there, you have literally NO reason to lose weight as quickly as possible. Because often, we like to set invisible “deadlines” for ourselves and try to rush the loss. And when you rush it, the more likely you are to regain.

And if there’s anything that I’ve learned from Professor Oak (Pokemon reference), it’s that…

How to Lose Weight Fast the Wrong Way (DON’T Do These!)

Open up any magazine, book, or random blog on the internet – except this one of course 😉 – on “how to lose weight fast” and the first things you’ll see are:

1. Eat an obscenely small number of calories and protein
2. Do tons of cardio
3. Do high-rep, low-weight resistance training

But, credit is where credit is due. It works. If you follow that plan you’ll lose weight faster than the year 2020 breezed by.

However, what won’t happen is getting the results you were really after. Instead, you’ll end up being “skinny fat”, like this:

And look, I’m not body shaming in any way. If you’re fine with this look and are happy in your body, then that’s completely okay. But this isn’t the look that 99% of you out there want to achieve in order to turn heads at the beach. Like these men and women:

Now, you’re probably asking, what’s the secret? What’s the one hack/pill/potion/ancient ritual they did that everyone else didn’t??

Let’s start with what they stayed far away from. They did not…

1. Eat an obscenely small number of calories and protein

The truth is, most popular weight loss diets make the same two mistakes:

1. They tell you to eat like a bird (very few calories)
2. Which also includes eating very little protein

And it’s not that this plan doesn’t work…it does and you will lose weight fast.

But if you want to improve your body composition, this plan won’t work so well…

The fact is, when you’re cut calories and protein like you’re rationing for a food shortage. While yes, you’ll lose fat, but you’ll also lose just as much muscle which, in turn, slows down your metabolism.

And worst of all, your hunger levels go through the roof and will most likely lead you to binge back all, if not more, of the weight you initially lost.

The reality is, as with everything else in life, there will be a point where cutting more calories will do more harm than good. If you reduced your calorie intake moderately, you would lose weight with low effort without the side effects of ravenous hunger, cravings, or losing muscle.

However, when you slash them to the bone, these problems will keep slapping you in the face every waking moment.

And of course, when you don’t eat enough protein, these problems only get worse. Here are not one or two, but three studies all confirm that people who eat a high protein diet result in less muscle loss, experience less hunger, and burn more calories in a calorie deficit.

These are the two biggest mistakes people make in regards to dieting.

But it gets worse when we look at how people train and exercise for weight loss…

2. Do tons of cardio

If you’ve ever stepped foot into the gym, you’ll notice that the gym is more or less 50% cardio equipment. That’s because it’s a supply & demand issue but also serves as a self-perpetuating cycle.

It’s simply because the first solution many people think will “fix” their weight loss struggles is to do cardio and they assume that the more they do, the more weight they’ll lose.

While yes, cardio does burn calories and in turn fat, but when you combine that with a bird food diet, in the wise words of Thumper from South Park…

More specifically, this will lead to:

1. Faster muscle loss
2. Ravenous hunger levels and increased appetite
3. Increased chances of burnout or overtraining

Now, let’s dive deeper into these three side effects.

Cardio and Muscle Loss

As a result of your body’s cellular adaptations in response to long duration, endurance exercises versus short duration, strength training exercises, going too hard on the cardio end of things can interfere with your strength and muscle building capabilities.

Simply put, the more cardio you do, the harder it will be to build strength and muscle. (Think about it, observe how marathoners versus weightlifters train and look. You can’t perform and look the part at both of these sports.)

In addition, the longer you slave away on the cardio, the greater the interference effect will be.

In short, it’s no surprise that too much cardio coupled with an excessive calorie deficit will increase muscle loss, especially it already decreases anabolic (cellular growth) hormone levels and muscle protein synthesis rates.

Cardio and Appetite

In contrast to what most people think (and do), the research shows that doing cardio alone won’t result in fat loss. In fact, ironically, people end up even fatter than before they started doing their cardio routines.

You’re probably thinking, “What?? There’s NO way…”

And before you say it, no, it’s not some metabolic magic of “mY hOrMoNeS” or anything like that…

It’s simply this:

For many people, doing lots of cardio increases their appetite. Which in turn, makes it easier to overeat (and will lead to the lack of fat loss progress or even fat gain).

And this process is worsened if you’re not paying attention to your calorie intake. Your cardio session that burned a few hundred calories can be easily eaten back. To put that into perspective, that’s only a couple handfuls of nuts, a few servings of fruit, or even a protein bar.

Cardio and Overtraining

As you’ve probably guessed by now, calorie control is a huge component of fat loss. There’s no way around it. It’s just how the universe works.

And unfortunately, a training-related side effect when dieting to lose weight, is that your body is just unable to recover as quickly.

Now, what happens when you combine an extreme calorie restriction with endless hours of cardio?

Yes, you’ll burn tons of calories, but your body’s ability to recover from the stress of dieting and working out will suffer and lead to overtraining symptoms such as…

• Reduced strength and performance during workouts
• Chronic fatigue
• Poor sleep
• Muscle and joint aches and pains
• Loss of libido

And all of that didn’t sound bad enough, research shows that too much cardio while dieting can speed up muscle loss.

And these are all of the reasons why I recommend much less cardio than what other “experts” and “gooroos” might say. (More on this later…)

3. Do high-rep, low-weight resistance training

The main reasons behind this recommendation are usually to increase calorie expenditure and “improve the muscle tone and definition.”

Eh…not really.

The fact is, lowering the weight and increasing the reps won’t magically make your muscles more “toned” or “defined”. And truth be told, it doesn’t burn that many more calories versus high-weight, lower-rep resistance training.

Instead, the best way is to do lots of heavy, compound weightlifting. Which we’ll touch on in just a second.

The Moment You’ve Been “Weighting” For…

The Best Way to Lose Weight Fast (Actually)

I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted trying different weight loss diets and training routines over the years…

But, it was through those same experiences that allowed me to find what methods worked better than others. And over time, it has allowed me to find the driving mechanisms of certain diets and routines and combine only the best parts and turn that into an extremely effective and efficient weight loss method.

With this method, you can expect to lose about a pound of fat per week (more if you’re overweight, less if you’re already lean but want to be more lean) and be able to maintain (and even gain!) muscle.

And if that’s not enough, you get to ditch the extreme hunger and cravings, your energy levels won’t take a nosedive, and your workout performance will be minimally affected.

Here’s the simple breakdown:

1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) calorie deficit of 20-25%.
2. Eat a high protein and high carb diet.
3. Do lots of heavy, compound weightlifting.
4. Do SOME (but not tons) of cardio
5. Make use of fat burners (jk)

1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) calorie deficit of 20-25%.

In order to lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit. This is a simple concept of consistently eating less calories than your body burns.

And when you underfeed your body, your body still requires a certain amount of energy to maintain its bodily functions and keep you alive, it will pull the extra energy from your fat stores.

Truth is, most weight loss “experts” and “gooroos”, magazines, or diet books won’t even address this fact because, well, it’s boring, repetitive, and unsexy. Most people would rather hear “this one simple weight loss hack will change your life!”

So instead of educating you on how your metabolism actually works, these “experts” pick one outlandish thing to blame as the cause of making you fat, whether it’s insulin, carbs, or sugar, and that all you have to do is eliminate it from your life and the pounds will melt off within the next week.

While this kind of highly restrictive dieting will result in weight loss, it’s not because of the “one thing” that most people think.

The truth is, the weight loss wasn’t a result of eliminating carbs, meats, sugars, or the fasting or ketosis. It’s because of just this:

When you eliminate all of your high calorie, sugary, and fat-filled treats (usually chock full of carbs, sugars, and fat) and replace them with lower calorie foods, you naturally lower your calorie intake.

Which, in turn, causes you to lose weight.

Although following this approach can work for a short while, it usually stops working for a number of reasons.

First, it’s unsustainable.

The complete elimination leads to large calorie deficits and will trigger the problems we mentioned earlier (hunger, cravings, fatigue, and muscle loss). Plus, using willpower to eliminate your favorite foods will only carry you so far before you lose control.

Secondly, it’s easy to “screw up.”

It doesn’t matter how restrictive your diet is, if you eat too many calories, your weight loss will stall.

In fact, research has shown this is exactly what happens to many people who do these types of diets: the over restriction leads to, slowly but surely, eat more and more of the foods they’re “allowed” to eat and the weight loss stalls.

And these are the exact reasons why I recommend an moderate calorie deficit that’s both aggressive, but not reckless. Which usually ends up in the 20-25% range.

To put that in perspective, you want to be eating 75-80% of your maintenance or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) calories.

There are a few studies that discuss this, but one in particular that stands out conducted at the University of Jyvaskyla.

The participants were high-level, lean (10% body fat and under) track & field athletes split into 2 groups:

1. The first group was assigned a 300 daily calorie (or 12%) deficit from their TDEE.
2. The second group was assigned a 750 daily calorie (or 24%) deficit from their TDEE.

Both groups maintained a high-protein diet and trained as usual.

After four weeks, the group less calories lost 4 pounds of fat and little to no muscle, while the group that maintained a smaller deficit lost only a little fat.

Basically, doubling their calorie deficit resulted in more fat loss, but not muscle loss.

Furthermore, the group that followed the larger calorie (750) deficit wasn’t starving either. They still ate over 2,000 calories daily.

And this makes sense and works in practice with both myself and people I have worked with.

Long story short, if you intelligently apply a moderately aggressive calorie deficit (of 20-25% below TDEE), you can lose fat faster with little to no sacrifice to muscle mass. (And I’ll show you how you can estimate your calories in just a second)

2. Eat a high-protein and high-carb diet.

While there is no “best diet”, the one that most people I’ve worked with and myself have had the most success is one that involves a lot of protein.

But don’t just take my word for it, here are three more studies to support the claim that high protein diets are light years better than low protein diets in every way, shape, and form.

In short, eating more protein yields:

• Faster fat loss
• More muscle gains
• Increased calorie expenditure
• Less hunger sensations
• Higher bone density (strength)
• Generally better moods

And this is especially more important when fat loss is the focus because adequate protein intake ensures the maintenance of lean body mass.

And how much protein is the magical number?

Most research points to 1 gram of protein per pound of current body weight per day.

However, if you’re very overweight (20+% body fat for men and 35+% for women), then set protein at 1 gram per pound of goal body weight per day (or 40% of your total daily calories, whichever is easier to calculate).

Now, you’ve most likely heard about a high-protein diet for weight loss. No surprise there, but a high-carb diet??

Yes, that’s not a typo.

No matter how much some people might say “carbs are the devil”, but numerous studies show that when total calories and protein are equal, a low-carb diet is not superior, and can actually be worse for muscle preservation.

Simply put, restrict carbs when dieting will not only make you lose fat slower, but you also lose muscle faster.

There are many reasons for this, but long story short:

Low-carb diets can be effective for sedentary and overweight individuals because they aren’t expending a ton of calories.

However, for those of you who are lean (or relatively lean) and physically active, especially those of you who resistance train regularly, carbs are important because they:

• Help you gain muscle and strength faster
• Improve your mood and reduces fatigue
• Allow you to train harder during your workouts

In addition, when you’re in a calorie deficit and exercising regularly, your body is better primed to store the carbs you eat as muscle glycogen rather than body fat.

That being said, I recommend that you should set your carb intake at 1 to 2 grams per pound of body weight (or about 30-50% of your total daily calories).

This is generally the sweet spot to maintain workout intensity, maintain lean mass, and reduce stress, fatigue, and hunger.

3. Do lots of heavy, compound weightlifting.

There are millions of different ways to work and train your muscles, but when you want to build strength and muscle size as quickly as possible, heavy, compound weightlifting will give you the “most bang for your buck.”

Sorry, but workout machines, “sculpting” classes, bodyweight exercises, yoga, pilates, and every other stereotypical gym class won’t work as well.

But what exactly are “heavy compound” weightlifting movements?

Firstly, “heavy” means that you are primarily doing exercises with weights that are challenging you in the 6 to 10 rep range.

Secondly, “compound” means exercises that work several large muscle groups simultaneously. Think exercises like the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, dips, and rows rather than bicep curls or lateral raises.

You may or may not be concerned with building more muscle, but it can help you lose fat faster.

It might not have the same effect of putting you in a sweaty, heart-racing, breathless state as high-rep, low-weight workouts or cardio, but it can still burn just as many calories through other mechanisms.

In a study at Ball State University, they had two groups of women doing two different training programs:

1. The first group did high-rep, low-weight, superset style workouts with minimal rest between sets.
2. The second group did a periodized, high-weight strength training routine working with weights between 70-90% of their 1 Rep Max (1RM).

After 12 weeks, both groups lose 20 pounds (meaning an equal calorie expenditure), but the second group that did the heavy strength training gained three times more muscle mass (7 lbs vs 2 lbs) and lost over twice as much body fat.

In a separate study, men who trained with heavy weights had an increase in metabolic rates for three days after their workouts and burned more calories than the group that trained with lighter weights.

More research shows that compound lifts (same as mentioned above) results in the largest increases in metabolic rate.

In summary, if you want to preserve the most muscle while burning the most fat you can, then you want to do a lot of pushing, pulling, and squatting exercises.

4. Do SOME (but not tons) of cardio.

The truth is, you don’t have to do cardio to lose weight. You can lose a significant amount of weight with proper dieting.

That being said, you should still do some for its health benefits related to cardiovascular disease.

But back to the main point, cardio alone will not guarantee fat loss. The irony is that many people end up even fatter than before beginning their routine.

While you don’t have to slave away for hours on the treadmill or stairmaster, doing some cardio still has many benefits both overall health and for fat loss.

When done properly, cardio can accelerate your fat loss without burning your hard earned muscle.

Here, personally I was able to get extra lean (around 10% body fat) by only doing an extra 1.5 hours of cardio per week:

5. Make use of fat burners (jk)

The not so honest truth about the supplement industry is that 99% of what you see, hear, and read about fat loss supplements is pure bullshit.

And you might have heard these names being thrown around like “garcinia cambogia, green coffee bean extract, and raspberry ketones” to name a few. Even Hoodia (which actually turned out to be toxic)...

But it sounds so much sexier and appealing say “take this one supplement and your dream body and weight loss goals will be hand delivered to you on a silver platter!” Right?

The truth is, there is no magical supplement that will replace your hard work, patience, and consistency.

How Much Weight Can You Actually Lose in 30 Days?

The truth is, most people have the misconception that you can lose weight much faster than you actually can (or should).

This isn’t surprising given how many supplements, magazines, and programs promise you (in bold, highlighted text) 10, 20 or even 40 pounds in just 30 days.

But what they aren’t telling you is that while some people (the extremely overweight and obese) can lose up to 40 pounds in 30 days, most people can’t. And even for those who can, need to go through a dreadful process to attain that.

The truth is, according to research, when you have everything dialed in, a safe, healthy, and realistic goal to lose weight is 0.5 to 1% of your current body weight per week.

For most people, this is about 1 to 2 pounds per week or 4 to 8 pounds per month.

That might sound like a slow rate, but as mentioned above, when you pursue extreme weight loss protocols (eating like a bird) in order to lose weight faster, you’ll run into problems like muscle loss, fatigue, overtraining/burnout, and others.

For most people, losing 1 to 2 pounds per week is largely determined by your starting body weight and body fat percentage.

Basically, the more you have to lose, the faster you can safely and healthily lose it.

Furthermore, those who are very overweight and/or obese (men at 25+% body fat and women at 35+%) can get away with losing 2 to 3 pounds per week versus those who are lean (men at ~10% and women at ~20%) will only be able to lose one half to one pound per week while maximizing muscle retention.

As an example, I’m at 160 pounds at about 10% body fat, so my goal rate should be 1 to 2 pounds per week. And I am relatively lean, I’d aim for the lower end of that range at about 1 pound of loss per week.

However, if I were 300 pounds, I could safely aim for 1.5 to 3 pounds of loss per week.

The Best Diet for Losing Weight Fast

In contrast to what the majority of the fitness industry says, the best diet for rapid weight loss isn’t complicated, expensive, or difficult to crack.

But to be honest with you, it does require you to learn, be patient, and be consistent. And if you can apply these three things, it will guarantee results.

And you just need to follow these four steps:

1. Determine your daily calorie intake.
2. Determine your protein intake.
3. Build your meal plan based on these numbers.
4. Adjust based on your personal preference and bodily response.

Let’s break these steps down:

Step 1: Determine Your Daily Calorie Intake

For most individuals, your maintenance or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is your current body weight (in lbs) x 15.

For example, if you currently weigh 200 lbs, your estimated daily maintenance calories would be 200 x 15 = 3,000 calories.

Now, this is not a perfect equation by any means. If you are a fairly active individual (working a manual labor job or on your feet for most of the day), then your maintenance may be higher. However, if you are more of a sedentary individual (desk job or working remotely at home), then your maintenance may be lower.

Next, as humans, we aren’t a precise piece of machinery that requires the same number of calories every single day, so set your calorie target for a range. For most people, I recommend a range of above and below ~10% to account for changes in daily activity, nutrition label error margins, and fluctuations of daily hunger levels.

Using the above example, if your calculate maintenance is 3,000 calories, 10% of 3,000 is 300. So you want your range to be between -10% (2,700) and +10% (3,300).

Step 2: Determine Your Protein Intake

For your protein, it’s a simple calculation. Just take your current body weight (in pounds) and multiply it by 1 to get your protein intake in grams.

For example, if you are 200 lbs, your protein target would be 200g per day. Side note, no range for this, just aim for 200g per day.

As for carbs and fats, it is totally up to your personal preference. For some people I’ve worked with, they prefer higher carb and lower fat diets whereas some individuals prefer higher fat and lower carb diets. As mentioned above, when calories and protein are equal, there are no inherent benefits to specific higher carb or fat diets. As long as you aren’t eating ridiculously low levels of each (<20% of total calories).

Now that we’ve discussed the macronutrient breakdown of your diet, let’s discuss meal planning, because it’s better to get the majority of your diet from healthy, whole, and minimally processed foods such as lean proteins, fruits and vegetables rather than fast food, high calorie, highly processed, and highly palatable foods such as pizza, burgers, fries, cakes, and pies.

Step 3: Build your meal plan based on these numbers.

The easiest way to lose weight is to build yourself a personalized meal plan because:

1. It takes out the guesswork of having to constantly choose foods that “fit” into your diet.
2. It reduces the number of excuses you have to “go off plan” and not adhere to your diet.
3. You know that you’re hitting your calorie and protein targets without constantly and meticulously tracking 24/7 (although you might need to do this initially to get an idea of the calorie/macro breakdown of certain foods)

And while there are an endless number of ways to meal plan, the two most effective and efficient ways to meal plan are:

1. If you’re someone who doesn’t mind eating the same meals everyday, create a single day of meals that match your calorie and macro targets and follow that plan everyday.
2. If you’re someone who prefers more variety in your plan, create multiple days worth of meals and rotate them out every so often to break up the monotony and repetitiveness while still hitting your targets.

Regardless of what method you choose to do, make sure you have these five things in check:

1. Your meals all add up to stay within your daily calorie range.
2. Your protein intake is spread out as evenly as possible (for example, eating 40 grams of protein with every meal versus 20 grams for the first two and then 100 for the third meal).
3. The size of your meals are relatively similar so that it’s easier to substitute/swap meals out.
4. Be specific about the amount of each food in each meal to make sure you’re nailing portion sizes down.
5. Provide many options of whole, minimally processed, and nutritious foods to manage overall health and satiation.

And lastly, some tips on what I’ve found to work best with most people and myself:

• Make sure you’re eating 3 to 5 meals per day with each meal containing between 20 to 40 grams of protein.
• Incorporate the 80/20 rule when dieting: 80% of your foods should come from whole, minimally processed, and nutritious sources and 20% of your foods can come from “fun” not-so-nutritious sources such as your favorite treats, desserts, etc.

Step 4: Adjust Based on Your Personal Preference and Bodily Response.

And most importantly, any diet and exercise routine should have these two considerations for maximal results:

1. Does it work for you and your lifestyle?
2. Is it sustainable?

The first point is obvious.

It doesn’t matter how optimal or good a diet or exercise program actually is, how famous its creator, how many Hollywood stars it’s helped, or how many book copies its sold, if it doesn’t work for you or if it doesn’t yield the results that you are looking for, then you gotta ditch it.

The second point is less obvious but just as crucially important.

It can be the best program that yields the best results, but if you can’t sustain it over the long term for any number of reasons, you gotta ditch it.

Sure, if you followed a crash or starvation diet, you’d lose a ton of weight, but what happens next? For most people, they regain all the weight (and then some!) right back.

And it’s for these reasons we want to be in the sweet spot of allowing you to be consistent while yielding motivating results, but without also eliciting pain and suffering that most other diets and routines do.

The sweet spot for sustainable, safe, and healthy weight loss is losing 0.5 to 1% of your body weight per week (or 0.5 to 2 pounds per week for most people).

As mentioned earlier, if you have a lot of weight to lose then you’d aim for the upper end (2 pounds per week). If you’re at fairly lean, aim for the middle (around 1 pound of loss per week). And if you’re already lean, but want to be really lean then aim for the lowest end (0.5 pounds per week).

And as long as your results are close to these rates, keep at it. Don’t try “fixing” the program to speed up results or you will not have a good time.

Make sure to stick to your targets for at least 3 weeks. Reason being is explained in my other articles regarding weight loss plateaus.

However, you don’t want to swing things the other way and lose too fast either. If you are, make sure to double check your calorie intake and expenditure.

Although, regardless of how lean you are, when you initially start dieting, you can expect rapid weight loss the first couple of weeks. This is totally normal as your body loses water and glycogen. And then after that, things should slow down.

A common beginner mistake here is overestimating/underestimating calorie intake due to eyeballing food portions rather than weighing it. Some people also make the mistake of thinking they’ve burned more/less calories than they actually are. (Fitness trackers aren’t accurate at all!)

So when things aren’t going as planned, rather than adjust your intake or exercise right away, always make sure to double check your consistency with tracking.

If you’re ever confused, frustrated, or hung up on any part of the process we’ve covered so far and would like some professional help (and guaranteed results), click here to learn more about my coaching service.

The Best Exercise Plan for Losing Weight Fast

The best exercise plan for rapid weight loss should prioritize…

• Preserving or even building muscle to improve your body composition
• Burn a significant number of calories to support your weight loss goals
• Challenge your body enough for adaptation but not so much that you risk overtraining/burnout

And when you want to accomplish these 3 goals, one kind of exercise stands out the best among the rest, heavy compound weightlifting.

Cardio can help as well, if done correctly. Done incorrectly, and it can hinder your fat loss goals.

Now, let’s break each type of exercise step-by-step.

Doing Heavy, Compound Weightlifting for Rapid Weight Loss

Many “experts” and “gooroos” recommend that you should follow a high-rep, low-weight routine to “improve muscle tone and definition.”

This is a load of bologna (baloney looks more grammatically correct lol).

The only way to increase your muscle tone and definition is to gain muscle and/or lose body fat. There’s no “hack” or special exercise or diet routine.

Furthermore, when you’re in a calorie deficit, your risk of losing muscle mass increases significantly. Couple that with training with lighter weights, and you’ll be in a prime spot to lose strength and muscle. (Think about it, if you don’t challenge your muscles, they’ll be signaled “doesn’t seem like the body needs me around.”)

This is the exact reason why you should do the opposite of what “they” recommend. You should be training just as hard with heavy weights and striving for progress (which is the primary driver of muscle growth).

Doing a Cardio Routine for Rapid Weight Loss

As mentioned before, you’ll want to limit the amount of cardio you do in order to:

• Decrease risk of overtraining/burnout
• Create too steep of a calorie deficit
• Lowered risk of losing muscle mass

However, this doesn’t mean you should avoid cardio altogether. Even though you can get away with not doing any cardio for fat loss, you should still do some cardio for the health benefits related to cardiovascular disease and as well as the extra calorie burn (but that one doesn’t really matter as much).

For cardio, I recommend 2-3 sessions of 20-30 minutes max, (at a moderate-intensity pace).

You can choose whatever form of cardio you enjoy and can adhere to, but ideally, you want to choose lower impact forms of cardio.

This ensures you don’t cause too much muscle damage which can impact your recovery for your resistance training sessions.

Some example forms include walking, rowing, cycling, swimming, and elliptical.

Final Thoughts on How to Lose Weight Fast

Losing weight fast without losing muscle isn’t as complicated or difficult as many people make it out to be.

Yes, there’s a learning curve, and it takes some patience and consistency, but if you follow the advice in this article step-by-step, you’ll be surprised at how smoothly it goes and how much you will be able to accomplish.

And as a quick recap…

The top three biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight fast are:

1. Eat an obscenely small number of calories and protein
2. Doing tons of cardio
3. Doing high-rep, low-weight resistance training

In contrast, the best way to lose weight fast is to incorporate these:

1. Use an aggressive (but not reckless) calorie deficit of 20-25%.
2. Eat a high protein and high carb diet.
3. Do lots of heavy, compound weightlifting.
4. Do SOME (but not tons) of cardio

Follow these step-by-step and I guarantee you’ll be able to lose weight fast all while being able to simultaneously maintain your strength, muscle, and sanity.

Hope this helps you get at least one step closer to achieving your physique goals!

Talk soon,

-Aus

Coaching Opportunity

I am currently taking on new clients for online coaching.

A few benefits of this program include:

• Customized nutrition plan tailored to your individual needs and goals
• Customized training plan to help you build muscle, lose fat, and get fit
• Daily accountability and support to ensure that you never feel “alone” or “stuck” on your journey to bettering yourself.

The best part: you can do this from anywhere in the world.

You can apply here for more info.