While the best weight loss plans include an overall diet and fitness regime that you maintain over a long period of time, the truth is, most people want to learn how to lose weight fast. If you have an upcoming special event or vacation, and want to lose weight fast, the key is to find a diet that suits your body type and lifestyle.

Contrary to the belief that drastically reducing your caloric intake (by dramatically minimizing how much you eat) will help you lose weight fast, this is not only incredibly unhealthy and potentially dangerous, it’s actually counter-productive. When you severely limit your daily caloric intake, it can actually force your body to go into ‘survival mode’. This means your body thinks it’s going to starve, so instead of burning fat, it ends up holding on to it longer.

Instead of eating just celery all day long, considering trying a diet that not only helps you lose weight fast, it is also easy and enjoyable to live with. With that said, featured here are three popular diets that help you lose weight fast.

3 Easy Ways To Lose Weight Fast

The South Beach Diet

When people think of South Beach (Miami), they often envision a population of svelte, in-shape people walking around in bikinis all day long. While this is not completely accurate, there is truth to it. Developed by renowned cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, The South Beach Diet is founded on the premise of understanding the glycemic index values of foods, while presenting a weight-loss program that includes meal plans and recipes.

Touted for being a “foolproof plan for fast and healthy weight loss”, The South Beach Diet first started as a New York Times Bestselling book (which quickly gained popularity due to its effectiveness), and has since expanded into a product line filled with tasty snack bars and smoothies.

The diet has various phases, and restricts certain types of foods (such as sugar, alcohol, bread, rice, etc.). The diet focuses primarily on lean protein sources (like grilled chicken, eggs, nuts) and lots of low-carb vegetables. “The South Beach Diet teaches you to rely on the right carbs and the right fats… and enables you to live quite happily without the bad carbs and bad fats. As a result you’re going to get healthy and lose weight – somewhere between 8 and 13 pounds in the next 2 weeks alone.”

The Alkaline Diet

Have you ever had a case of heart burn after eating certain foods? While your first reaction might be to pop some antacids, you might consider eating a handful of almonds instead. (This works for me everytime!) The reason has to do with the higher alkaline level contained within almonds.

Foods are divided into two primary categories, relative to their pH-levels: Alkaline vs. Acidic. That’s where the foundation of The Alkaline Diet came into play. The book Honestly Healthy (written by nutritionist Vicki Edgson and vegetarian chef Natasha Corrett) discusses the benefits of consuming a diet that is mostly made up of alkaline foods (vegetables predominantly) and avoiding foods that create acidity in your body (such as red meat, dairy, and bread). They claim that this type of diet will not only help you lose weight fast, but it will also result in better skin, improved digestion, and a stronger immune system.

The Alkaline Diet requires you to eat a recommended 80:20 alkaline-acid diet. This diet asks you to mostly consumer foods such as asparagus, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, spinach, grapefruit, lemon, papaya, apples, pears, herbal teas, almonds, wild rice, quinoa, etc. The foods that you have to avoid on this diet are beef, white rice, beer, soft drinks, homogenized milk, chocolate, and coffee. Not only will your overall system be functioning better both short-term and long-term, this is a relatively easy diet to incorporate into your life (to lose weight fast), that doesn’t require drastic changes.

A Juice Cleanse

Juice cleansing has become a recent diet trend that is not only being endorsed by countless celebrities and supermodels (such as Naomi Campbell), but has quickly become part of our mainstream culture as well. A number of different juice cleanse companies have been popping up on the market. Some juice cleanse lines (such as the BluePrint Cleanse) can be found at your local Whole Foods supermarket, while others can only be ordered online.

The idea behind a juice cleanse is to ‘reset’ your body. A juice cleanse (which is primarily a blended mix of raw fruits and vegetables) is designed to help your body eliminate toxins while getting the vital nutrients it needs to operate efficiently. Not only do juice cleanses claim to help you lose weight fast, you’ll also gain renewed energy and vitality, it also leaves you with clear glowing skin. Juice cleanses are not meant to be a long-term diet. Rather, they are meant to be a short-term (1-21 days) program.

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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only. Consult with a Doctor before doing any diet.