Everybody knows that fad diets can mean fast weight loss, but most people don’t keep off the weight that they lose this way. All the same, most people love a quick fix, and there are a lot of reasons why you might want to follow a restrictive eating plan for a short time to get some fat off fast.

This might be for a wedding or another big event. Lots of people want to lose weight for their high school reunion! It’s motivating to think of people you haven’t seen for ten or twenty years admiring your svelte figure. Or maybe your doctor has said you cannot have an operation until you lose ten pounds.

Most of the best diets are aimed at losing weight slow and keeping it off. A fad diet can have the opposite effect. It’s effective for fast weight loss, but afterward, you will probably gain that weight back… unless you then switch to a longer term diet plan. And that is possible. Don’t rule it out!

In fact that could be the best way to lose weight – kick start your loss with a fast weight loss plan, but then instead of going right back to eating all the fast food you had before, switch into a healthier diet program.

So with all of that understood, let’s look at some of the so-called fad diets that are out there, and consider how effective they might be.

1. Fasting for Fast Weight Loss

Fasting literally means not eating anything. But there are different types of fast. The strictest is like what Muslim people do during Ramadan – they don’t let anything pass their lips from sunup to sundown, not even water. Now this would be very dangerous if you tried to do it 24 hours a day, because a person can die of thirst very quickly. But of course they eat and drink at night time.

In fact, most religions have some form of fasting in their practice, although it may be very different. Christians often fast for Lent. Lent is 40 days, almost six weeks, and of course it doesn’t mean we don’t eat anything for all of that time. For most people, it means giving up meat, following a vegetarian or vegan eating plan, or perhaps temporarily quitting “luxury” foods like things with sugar.

A “water fast” is where you consume nothing but water. Some people do this for 24 hours every month, and they say it helps their bodies to detox. Others do this with the aim of losing weight, maybe for up to 3 days, under medical supervision.

Then people talk about “intermittent fasting”. This has become popular in the last few years. But even this means different things to different people. It can mean, for example, eating nothing for a 12-hour (or more) window between dinner and breakfast – kind of like the Muslim fast, but at night instead of in the day time.

Or it can mean eating less calories on some days and more on others. For example there is the 5:2 diet where you eat your normal diet for 5 days but restrict your intake to 500 or 600 calories on the other two days a week. This restrictive diet on the two days is known as fasting in that system.

A warning: if you are on any type of medication, fasting is a bad idea because it can mess with the effects of your medicine. If you plan to try any kind of fasting, consult with a doctor first. It’s not worth risking your health, even for fast weight loss.

Ask yourself this: are you really desperate to lose weight? If yes, then you need to hang on to that thought and motivation, and you might want to follow what we call a low carb diet plan.

Low carb diet plans are well known, followed by many people with plenty of success, especially in situations where you have control over what you eat. If you are in a situation like a boarding school or hospital where every meal is provided for you, it’s more difficult. But if you are in a family home either doing the cooking yourself or with some influence over what is put onto your plate, it will be fine.

Importantly, in several studies the low carbohydrate plan has initially shown more positive weight loss than low fat diets. In fact, many people believe that the government’s emphasis on reducing fat is what has led to so many people becoming overweight and obese since the 1970s and 1980s when the population was much healthier.

This is because all of the low fat products that we see on the shelves often contain a lot of sugar in different forms and also flour. These substances convert to glucose in the body which (if we have more than we need) is stored as fat. On the other hand, fat in the diet, especially forms like fish oils and some other protective fats, is vital for the function of many organs including the brain.

What is a Low Carb Diet Plan?

A low carb diet plan is an eating system where the carbohydrates or starch in the diet is reduced to a level where the body gets most of its energy from protein and fats. Very high carbohydrate foods like rice, potatoes, and pasta are cut out completely. Other foods that contain carbohydrates, including fruit and vegetables, may be limited in quantities, or you may be following a plan that allows lower carb vegetables like broccoli and mushrooms in unlimited quantities, while not eating things like bananas or winter squash which have a higher carbohydrate content.

How does this help if you are desperate to lose weight?

There are normally five ways in which a low carb system aids in the loss of body weight. The first one is that it triggers what we call ketosis. This is a process in which the body commences to burn fats for energy purposes instead of using dietary carbs to manufacture energy. This is actually a scientifically proven and efficient way of burning fats, storing them and importantly losing weight.

When there is limited starch in the body, it longer gets its energy from the normal glucose from carbohydrates but rather fats are burned to produce energy.

Secondly, the system eliminates water weight. Normally, people who have experienced low carb diet experience a drastic body weight loss in their first couple of weeks mainly because of the draining out of the water that is connected to glycogen. Some people consider this not to be “real” weight loss because you have not lost any fat, but it is going to make you slimmer because you have lost that bloating. This a very positive thing in terms of how your body looks.

Thirdly, eating lower carb means that your body will not need the huge amounts of insulin that are required to balance our intake of sugar and refined carbs like white rice and pasta. Insulin spikes are what causes the blood sugar highs and lows that make us feel tired or “mouth-hungry” between meals, giving us cravings for more sugary, floury foods. Constant high insulin levels in the body can also lead to diabetes.

Fourthly, eating low carbohydrate foods usually means you will be eating more natural, healthy foods in their whole state. Instead of buying sauces that come in a jar, with a lot of added sugar and other additives, you will need to make your own or use plain tomatoes. Instead of making up a packet of mac’n’cheese with all its chemical ingredients, you can have steak and vegetables. It’s no harder to cook, but it’s simpler, healthier food.

Lastly, eating low carb helps you to regulate appetite and stick to three meals a day or whatever plan you prefer, because you will be eating more protein which keeps you more satisfied for longer than high glucose carbohydrate-rich foods. Moreover, proteins promote tremendous increase of the lean muscles which assists in burning of fats. All of these factors therefore makes a low carb diet a very effective way of losing weight.

Are Low Carb Diets safe?

This a common question put by millions of people who are desperate to lose weight and considering this way of eating. Of course you should run your eating plans by your doctor or dietician, especially if you have health issues. But a good low carb diet plan that is well researched and commercially produced, such as Atkins, will not have any risks for a person in general good health. So why not try it for yourself?