These days everyone is in a hurry. There’s no time to wait and no time to waste. Even though “fast weight loss” can be successful, if you don’t do it right, you can end up looking worse and feeling less attractive than you did when you started out. Stick with me and I’ll teach you the top 5 ways to lose weight fast and look and feel your best. No gimmicks.

No. 5: Move More

Moving more than you do now will kick start your weight loss plan. But not just any moving, I’m talking about some serious heart-pumping, sweat popping, almost-out-of-breath movements. Mainly, I’m talking cardio or cardiovascular exercise sessions. Cardio is any exercise that you do for 20-30 minutes where you work up a sweat (running, jumping, walking fast, swimming, aerobics, any of these will do). Add one of more of these exercise sessions into your weekly regimen for 5 out of the 7 weekdays and pounds will start to burn off, fast!

No.4: Eliminate Junk

Besides physical activity, nothing will cause the numbers on the scale to go down quicker than eliminating junk food from your diet. Junk food consists of prepackaged snacks like those 100-calorie packs, anything containing white flour or sugar and any foods that list High Fructose Corn Syrup or Trans Fats as ingredients, oh and anything fried in tons of grease. Believe me, once you eliminate these types of foods from your diet, you will feel better, have more energy and see a BIG dip on the scale.

No.3: Eat More

Sounds funny doesn’t it? You want to lose weight fast and I’m telling you to eat more! Don’t jump ship just yet, there’s a huge reason that I want you to eat more food, your body needs it! Your body requires fuel to work properly, the fuel it needs is food. You should feed your body 4-5 times per day to keep it functioning. Small, frequent feedings have been proven to stabilize metabolism, thereby helping your system to regulate itself and burn fat instead of storing it. When you only eat once or twice per day, your body goes into what is known as “starvation mode.” It thinks it won’t get any more food/fuel and therefore slows down ALL its processes. Your body has now gone into a holding pattern and is conserving every single bit of energy it can. Regular feedings allow your body to be confident that it will have enough energy fuel to survive.

No.2: Lift Weights

One pound of toned, sculpted muscle burns 50 calories per hour, in contrast, one pound of fat only burns 4 calories per hour. Which would you rather have more of on your body, muscle or fat? One of the best ways to tone and sculpt your muscles and turn your body into a 24/7 fat burning machine is to lift weights. You don’t have to become a world body builder, weight training exercises can be found on the Internet, in magazines and books and on TV. Choose the ones that work best for you and get pumpin’.

No. 1: Record It

Finally, the top way to lose weight fast is to record it or rather write it down. “It” includes everything that you put into your mouth; the time of day, how much and how you felt while you were eating it. This may not sound like the quickest or easiest thing to do, but once you start to track your food intake, you can analyze it and begin to see where you were going wrong or right. You can’t manage what you don’t track. You don’t have to use a fancy journal, a simple spiral bound notebook will suffice. Whatever you choose, just use it and you will be amazed by what you find out from re-reading what you recorded.

Follow these 5 strategies and you will be on your way to losing weight fast and the extra added benefit of knowing how to keep it from coming back.

If you are ready to stop being confused by the weight loss industry and take control of your weight loss journey get started now by signing up for the 31 Days of Losing Weight Loss Challenge, click here!