How to Slim Down Quickly & Safely

You have to make small adjustments to your current lifestyle if you want to slim down safely and quickly. Incorporating the correct type of exercise and eating a proper diet will help contribute to your success. Avoid lowering your caloric intake drastically in the hopes of losing weight quickly. Weight lost quickly is often water weight and lean muscle tissue instead of excess fat. You are also more prone to gain the lost weight back.

Instructions

• 1

  Watch what you put in your mouth. Avoid eating fattening, processed and sugary foods since they will make you gain weight. Enjoy vegetables and fruits, fish and chicken and unsaturated "heart-healthy" fats. Stay away from junk food and cook, bake or grill your own meals so you can control portion size and ingredients.

• 2

  Forget about eating three large meals daily; instead, have small meals every two to three hours of the day. Eat often to keep cravings away, stay satiated and keep your metabolism burning fat.

• 3

  Combine strength training and cardiovascular interval exercise three days of the week. Lift weights to create muscle, which burns more calories than fat even when you are resting. Perform interval cardio where you toggle between low and high intensity exercise for 30 to 45 minutes. Jog 4 minutes at a maintainable pace and accelerate to a fast running pace for up to 4 minutes. You will burn calories faster with interval training than you will with regular cardio.

• 4

  Drink three cups of green tea daily. According to "Redbook" magazine, catechins substances in green tea speed up your metabolism resulting in quicker weight loss.

• 5

  Consume at least 18 milligrams of iron daily. Take a multivitamin, iron supplement or eat lean red meats, soy nuts and fortified cereals. Iron increases oxygen to your cells resulting in a speedy metabolism.

• 6

  Avoid alcohol because it affects your nervous system resulting in slower metabolism and it lowers your energy level. Drink eight glasses of water instead, because water promotes digestion and flushes toxins from your body.

• 7

  Give your body at least 7 hours of sleep each night so that it can restore itself fully and keep appetite influencing hormones in check. According to the Public Library of Science, lack of sleep stimulates the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases your appetite, and it decreases production of leptin, a hormone that suppresses your appetite.