How to lose weight quickly?

How to lose weight quickly?

This seems to be a very popular question on the internet.

Well, firstly, there is an answer to this question. But more importantly, there are several caveats to remember after you've learnt the answer.

Weight loss, put simply, happens when you consume fewer calories than you spend consistently over a period of time. When your body needs the excess calories, it uses the excess fat stored in your body (but that’s not the first to happen), depleting these stores and hence leading to an overall loss of mass in our body.

While there are 1000s of articles on this question, Ill stick purely to my own experiences.

Firstly, there are two ways in which you end up consuming fewer calories than you use in a day.

1. Number 1 is the most elegant solution - Eat less. This increases your chance of being in a caloric deficit (difference between caloric intake and outtake is negative)
2. You "work" more and utilise more energy than you eat in a day

One can choose to mix up the above to go into a state of sustained caloric deficit over a period of time and will definitely lose weight.

Now the question arises. All this is good.. But how do I lose weight quickly /as fast as possible.

Well, let’s answer that by explaining the factors to consider in order to do so.

1. Not all bodies are the same metabolically. Even if the caloric deficit is the same for 2 individuals, both will not see the same rate of weight loss (what is certain is that both will definitely lose weight). So you need to understand your body quite well so that you can assess what "quickly" would mean to you. A month to lose 5 kg /11 lbs? or 2-3 months. In the long term, both are a good place to end up in.
2. Considering the end goal of being in a caloric deficit, understand what is easier for you to sustain - being super strict with your diet or having the energy and strength to work out harder at the gym. This can have serious repercussions to your weight loss journey if you’re not careful. If the answer to this was like mine - easier to eat less, then you’re in luck - Intermittent Fasting offers probably the best way to eat less while still making sure you’re eating well. The link attached is a good place to start (https://www.pradhyumna.com/intermittent-fasting-a-do-it-yourself-guide/). If you're more comfortable with a more balanced mix of exercise and food restriction, then I feel you may not lose weight as quickly as you want (though some may argue that this is indeed the better way to go about it).

Based on the above 2 points, I think that the best way to lose weight quickly (I'm talking ~15 lbs /8 kg in a month) is to go into a drastic food cut. Yes, again this is not optimal for most people, but this answers the question through my own experience undergoing a One Meal A Day (OMAD) schedule as highlighted in the tweet thread below.

But if you're looking to lose weight albeit a lower range (say 2 kg /5 lbs) in 2-3 weeks, then a regular Intermittent Fasting Schedule with light exercise would work wonders for you ( https://www.pradhyumna.com/intermittent-fasting-schedule-whats-the-best-way-to-go-about-it/)

Beware:

Drastic Weight loss is not necessarily sustainable weight loss (in most cases you will gain up to 50% of the weight lost through an extreme cut within a week or 2). So the best way to sustainably lose weight is to lose weight over a couple of months rather than a couple of weeks.