The Best Fast Diets

When you go on a diet, it's frustrating to wait for months before seeing results. Seeing little change on the scale is demotivating and depressing. The allure of quick weight loss fuels a billion dollar industry. But doctors warn that losing weight too fast is dangerous for your health. There are no magic methods to lose weight overnight. But the good news is there are ways to lose weight fairly quickly without endangering your health. The Atkins Diet, the South Beach Diet and the Scarsdale Medical Diet are all plans in which people have consistently reported losing weight quickly.

General Advice

One piece of advice that may seem counterintuitive to fast weight loss is to eat more often. Doctors and diet experts agree that starvation and denying yourself food for long periods of time will not result in more weight loss but less, as the body will begin to hold on to what nutrients it does get for longer amounts of time, in fear that it may get no more. Eating several smalls meals during the day is not only more effective for weight loss than starving yourself, it's a healthier eating habit than the standard three-meals-a-day tradition as well.

The Atkins Diet

In the Atkins diet, you practically eliminate carbohydrates and increase protein, getting your body to a state called ketosis. Dieters who eat more protein have been shown to feel more satisfied and to lose weight quickly. But you also reduce intake of fruits and vegetables, which isn't healthy in the long run.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is a similar program to Atkins, but is a little less restrictive, especially in its initial phase. South Beach allows more foods and does not have a carbohydrate limit like Atkins does. The South Beach Diet is a good plan if you want to lose weight quickly but you find the rules of the Atkins plan too restrictive.

The Scarsdale Medical Diet

The Scarsdale Diet is a low-calorie, fixed-menu diet. Meals are dictated by a strict weekly plan. The Scarsdale Diet promises it is possible to lose twenty pounds in fourteen days. The Scarsdale diet is a good choice for someone who wants to lose weight quickly and who doesn't want to worry about which foods to choose and which to avoid.

The Master Cleanse

The Master Cleanse is a popular option for people wanting to lose weight fast. It is a very short-term option, however, as the entire diet consists of drinking nothing but water with a few tablespoons of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup.

Warning

It can be very tempting when trying to lose weight to embark on a severely reduced calorie diet or a diet in which you eat one food to the exclusion of almost all others. These may result in very short-term weight loss, but the loss will be almost assuredly be short-lived. These diets also deny the body essential vitamins and proteins, which can result in serious health problems such as fatigue, depression, insomnia and hair loss.