"Help Me Lose Weight Faster Please!"

The other day my 40-year-old female friend called me on the phone and said this: "Help me lose weight faster please!". She told me that she'd been trying to lose 15 pounds fast -- in less than 3 weeks -- by following a typical low-fat/low-calorie diet and jogging about half an hour on a treadmill 5 days a week. After nearly 2 weeks she had only lost 5 lbs. Plus she had low energy, felt bad overall, and was having trouble sleeping due to the caffeine-based "fat burner" she'd bought at her local GNC. Needless to say, she was frustrated with her poor weight loss results, which is why she called me.

First, I told her that it was unlikely that she'd lose the other 10 pounds in the week and a half she had left before her big event (a wedding). Even if she did lose that much weight, only a small percentage of it would be from actual fat loss... most would be lost "water weight" and reduced lean muscle tissue. The good news, I told her, was that with the right strategies she could definitely drop a few pounds of flab and tone up her body in a way that would make it look like she was 10-15 lbs lighter.

Here are the 3 tips I gave her to help her lose weight faster:

1. Do a 1 or 2-day raw juice fast

This is a great way to jumpstart any weight loss program. You simply consume nothing but fresh raw vegetable and fruit juices along with large amount of pure water and/or "lemon" water for 24 to 48 hours. It'll help to cleanse and "detox" your body, boost your energy, and even help you drop a pound or two quickly and easily. Also, during this time skip any fat-burner or energy-booster supplements you may be taking and focus on "re-charging" your body naturally.

2. Get on a better diet

The low-fat "starvation" diet my friend was on obviously wasn't working too well for her. That's often the case with these kinds of diets, mainly because the lack of fat and calories causes the body to slow down its natural fat-burning processes (i.e. its metabolism) while zapping energy at the same time. I told her to immediately switch to a clean low-carb diet based around lean proteins, plenty of healthy fats (e.g. olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, oily fish, and avocado), and small amounts of "good" carbs (mainly from vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, and small amounts of fruit). This type of diet, based around healthy low-carb meals, allows most people to lose weight even faster than typical "low fat" eating plans while supporting lean muscle preservation and higher energy levels.

3. Do less cardio, more full-body strength training

While steady-state cardio (like treadmill running) can help to burn calories and speed up fat loss, by itself it's not going to give you the fastest or "best" results. A much better option is to combine your normal cardio workouts with some higher-intensity full-body strength training exercise. I told my friend to do 2 or 3 2o-minute workouts each week, based around compound bodyweight movements like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, inverted rows. I also recommended that she do some "push press" variations with relatively light weights. This type of exercise will cause her body to burn lots of fat, even for hours after the workout is completed, while also protecting and toning that sexy lean muscle tissue. By doing a total body workout that works most of the muscles in the body she'll also cause her body to pump out some pretty powerful steroid-like hormones that can dramatically speed up the fat-loss/muscle-toning processes.

So that's pretty much it: next time you or someone you know want help to lose weight faster, show them the tips outlined above. They work very well and provide quick, healthy, safe weight loss results to just about anyone who tries them!