Sure, there are plenty of diets and dietary supplements that claim they hold the secret to the fastest way to lose weight. But are they healthy and do they work? Though there are diet pills that work by speeding up your metabolism and slowing down your appetite, are they safe to be used? While you may lose weight with these supplements, you may also be putting the health of your body at risk if you don’t use the properly.

If you want to lose weight fast, you have to stay healthy too. Remember that pounds that are easily lost tend to come back faster than you think. Diet pills without proper diet and exercise, and fasting are simply not going to allow you to maintain the weight loss. You cannot fast for a long period of time, and diet pills are called supplements for a reason: They supplement weight loss.

But there are ways to lose weight fast. It simply requires some dedication on your part.

Exercise is Vital to Fast Weight Loss

Fast weight loss doesn’t happen without exercise. Many people get scared and they think that by exercising, they build unwanted or unflattering muscle. We’re talking about muscle-building exercises like weightlifting or rowing. What you may not realize is that, yes, you may be building extra muscle and consequently gaining weight (muscle weighs more than fat) but that same muscle content can also help you shed those unwanted pounds by improving your metabolism. You will eventually notice that your clothes will fit nicely and snugly around your body.

The more weight you want to lose, the more exercise you will need to get. Get as much as exercise as you are determined to do. But never push it overboard to the point where you’re suffering from exhaustion or dehydration.

Drink Lots of Water

Drinking ice cold water makes your metabolism speed up because it requires the body to heat it up to a compatible temperature. Doing this, you get to burn a few extra calories. Water helps you get rid of excess body fat if you are replacing sodas and juices with water. It is recommend that you drink at least a gallon a day. It sounds like a lot, but over the course of a day it should be no problem. Always stay hydrated when you exercise!

Lastly, water can make you lose weight by making you feel fuller so you don’t have to eat more than you have to. Before you sit down for a meal, drink a large glass of water first. If this works for you, you will have spared yourself from hundreds of calories you could have consumed in that meal.

Eat smaller meals everyday

Instead of three full meals, divide your meals so you eat smaller amounts per meal but in several occasions throughout the day. Eating 5 small meals instead of just 2 or three full meals each day will help keep your metabolism up. And we all know that an increased rate of metabolism is going to help you lose those extra pounds. Combine better eating with exercise and you’re going to see results!

Also, don’t forget to pay attention to portion control. With your main meals, eat one plate and stop. Don’t let big portions from restaurants tempt you either. Choose foods that are good for you. These include those of which are high in fiber. Fiber helps with your digestion, allowing body to rid itself of excess weight. Skip foods with processed flour and sugar as these are more difficult to melt down.

These are just some of the ways to lose weight fast. Keep in mind that what’s important is that you stay healthy no matter what type of diet regimen you choose to have. After all, being healthy is still better than being thin.

However, lack of time has always been an excuse as to why people do not exercise. It may be because of work, school or other commitments. What you may not realize is the value that exercise can bring.

Why We Need Even the Smallest Amount of Exercise

Why do you need to exercise? Really, it is not just to burn those 100 calories (which you can do whenever you walk a mile!), it does so much more. When you exercise or stay active, your metabolic rate increases, hence, making you burn calories faster. This is true even after a few hours after exercising. Over the course of a few weeks, your metabolism will really speed up if you stick to an exercise program.

Don’t be Afraid of Gaining Muscle from Exercise

Walking to lose weight helps prevent the body from moving towards the starvation or hibernation response. This is where the body saves up the calories consumed for future use. By moving about, you are resisting the body’s attempt to move into this condition.

Some people may think that when they exercise, they gain more pounds because of the muscles that they get. The truth is they do gain a few pounds of lean tissue as they lose body fat. But in the end you have to be less focused on how much you weigh, but more concerned with how you look.

Still, the good thing about this is that lean tissue is required especially when you want to metabolize your body’s fat content. On the other hand, those who diet but do not get exercise lose out on lean tissue supply. Hence, they have decreased muscle tissue that could have helped metabolize fat.

How-to Walk to Lose Weight

So how do you obtain those muscles? For beginners, you should focus on the distance and time that you spend on walking. You increase the building of leg muscles (calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings) as you spend more time on walking. For those who have been walking for months or years, you will need to alter your walking style to build more muscles just from walking.

Learning to race-walk, you would be building new muscle and burning more calories per mile. For those who are not interested in race walking to build muscle, you should add some strength training to your weekly exercise schedule in addition to walking in order to build muscle.

Warm Up Before Intensive Walking

Every time you walk, you have to start with a warm-up type of exercise. It does not need to be strenuous right away. This is just to send signals from your brain to your body muscles and let them “know” that you plan to undergo something “heavy to the body” or be active for a while. A suggested warm up type of exercise is casual walking for a few minutes. Three minutes tops can do your body good. It will help prepare your body adjust to your exercise routine for the day.

If you immediately start on a high speed, your cells won’t get the signal that what you intend to do is a long term activity. As time goes by, increase the speed of your walk to be able to burn more calories. Do a cooling down walk at the end as well.

When you’re walking to lose weight for at least six hours a week, you also achieve better fitness and decrease your chance of getting heart disease, breast cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Keep in mind that having an active lifestyle truly brings a lot of benefits to you. So take your dog for a walk, the baby on a stroller, whatever it takes to get you out there!