How Can I Lose Weight Quickly?

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered and licensed dietitian with Marquette Nutrition and Fitness and I've been asked, How can I lose weight quickly? Part of this answer depends on how much weight you need to lose and just exactly what you mean by quickly. Generally what's recommended for most people is to limit weight loss to about one or two pounds a week. Usually it's best if you don't lose weight very rapidly. It makes it much more difficult to maintain weight loss if you lose weight too rapidly. However, aren't a person who is morbidly obese, so that you're at very high risk from your weight, you can lose weight more rapidly than that. And often times if you have tried a variety of methods and you've tried diet and exercise and you just can't seem to get the weight off and again, your health is at risk, your life is actually at risk, you have that potential to actually die from being morbidly obese, then that would be the point when you would want to consider something such as lap band, possibly gastric bypass surgery. That is going to be a rapid weight loss. It's not to be confused with easy weight loss. You do still have to follow a healthy diet, but you're much more restricted in what you can eat, what the portion sizes are and you do have to still incorporate exercise. You have to make sure that you drink adequate water. But again it depends on how much weight you need to lose. If it's a lot of weight that you're wanting to lose quickly, as in you're really significantly morbidly obese, that would be the way to lose it most quickly. If you're the average person who's just trying to drop a few pounds, then you really want to go to traditional weight loss methods, meaning that you're eating a healthy diet including a lot of water, plenty of fruits and vegetables, you're whole grains, your lean sources of protein, you're incorporating exercise, you're getting plenty of good sleep and really you're aiming for more like one or two pounds a week rather than trying to lose ten or more pounds in a week. So as far as losing weight quickly, it depends on how much you need to lose. If it's average weight loss for an average person, it's better rather than quickly, aim for those one or two pounds a week."