I had wanted to lose weight for a very long time – years in fact. For most of my adult life I was overweight, and the problem seemed to be getting worse as I got older, particular as got into my thirties. My weight ruled my life. So many different areas of my life were negatively affected by being overweight. My confidence was low, and I could tell that my husband was finding me less and less attractive (and I don’t blame him!). I was no longer enjoying simple things that I use to love like shopping – it was difficult finding nice clothes in my size, and I hated looking at myself in the mirror. Dieting just left me feeling hungry, weak, and depressed, and I would end up putting on more weight than I lost.

My main problem was finding a diet that I could stick to, and actually worked. I always found it difficult to get motivated with diets when there was slow progress at the beginning – it was all too easy to slip back into my old habits. I particularly hated low calorie and low carb diets as they left me feeling weak and depressed. In the spring of this year (2011) I decided that enough was enough, I had a summer beach holiday planned, and I wanted to shed lots of weight in the shortest possible time. Because time was so short, I needed to find an intensive crash diet to shed weight fast. I also knew I needed to find a diet that would have fast and visible results, as this would definitely help encourage me to keep going with my diet.

I had already tried lots of celebrity fad diets, crash diets, and weight loss regimes, which never produced any real results for me. After watching a feature on it by ABC,  I decided to try out a popular rapid weight loss supplement that they had recommended. click here to visit the recommended site This particular crash diet program involved taking a powerful natural supplement combined with following a detailed eating program which focused on changing the types of food you eat, and your eating patterns, instead of forcing you to drastically cut your calorie intake. As well as the recommendation from the ABC show, I was also attracted to it by the fact that it was something that had already been used successfully for hundreds of years, and was not just a modern day gimmick. Did I mention that it wasn’t about depriving yourself of food and starving yourself? This was a major plus for me, I hated starving myself, and diets that involved cutting down my calorie intake never worked for me. This natural African mango supplement proved to be a very powerful way to lose a lot of weight, and fast.

Looking back at it, I knew that I was on to something special early on, and this was very important for me. Within days I noticed the pounds falling off, and like a miracle, I actually felt like I had more energy than before – usually when dieting I always suffered from low energy and constantly felt weak and hungry. Incredibly I lost a total of 27 pounds in 33 days. I was so proud of myself. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to follow the diet, and the results were much more than I had imagined. The mango supplement was so easy to take, and the diet was simple – combined, the weight just fell off and I felt better than ever.

I now feel great, and am much happier with the way I look. What is even better, is that I have not put the weight back on, because my eating habits and patterns have now changed for the better, and I don’t even feel like I am making an effort to be careful with my weight, it just comes naturally.

So the moral of my story is: Yes! – crash diets most definitely CAN work! Just make sure you follow a proven system that is safe and actually works! Click here to get more information about the program I followed

You will often hear the same old clichés rehashed about how crash diets are the worst thing you can do, and how slow and steady wins the race, but in my experience this is simply not true, I lose 10 pounds in 11 days and never put it back on, and didn’t damage my health. In fact, I felt great and had increased energy. Most people who are looking for crash diets that work want to lose a lot of weight quickly, and conventional diets are unable to meet this requirement. Maybe you have a wedding to attend, a school reunion, or a holiday, and want to shed lots of unsightly pounds in just a few weeks, so that you are looking your best for the event.

Crash diets that work will normally be based around a total change to your diet, massively reducing your calorie intake. The key here is to ensure that the program is well designed by somebody who knows what they are doing, as it is vital that the diet plan includes all the nutrients your body needs – it is possible to give your body all the nutrition it needs whilst still massively cutting calorie intake. Coupled with this diet plan, a good crash diet that works will contain an exercise regime to burn fat, further increasing the amount of weight you lose. Unfortunately, drastically cutting calories can cause many dieters to faulter, simply because they get too hungry, and end up “binging” to satisfy there hunger.

The crash diet that worked for me did not include a drastic reduction in calories, and I think that it is because of this, that I was successful. Too many times before, I followed a calorie cutting diet and failed – a diet plan that focuses just on cutting calories will likely only result in water being lost – the fat will remain. The result of this is a complete waste of time and effort, as your appearance will be the same, and the water weight will be put back on within weeks. Since following my new diet, I have realised that changing eating habits and patterns are far more effective ways to lose weight than just starving yourself.

With such a drastic change to your lifestyle in a short space of time, that body adapts really fast, and you can shed pounds in just a few days – I managed to lose 10 pounds of fat in 11 days!

The main type of crash diet that you should definitely avoid, is anything that involves a prolonged period of fasting. It is well known that depriving your body of food is counter-productive, as the main tissue that is lost is muscle, and this is the one thing you don’t want to lose! Any diet that is based around fasting is doomed to fail, and can actually seriously damage your health. Any crash diet should include regular eating, but the important part is WHAT you are eating, not how much. The food should be very low calorie, but remain nutritious enough to keep your body fuelled and healthy.

Another type of diet that you should avoid is anything based around herbs and pills as replacements for food. Most of these products are complete junk, and some can even have adverse effects on your health! Unfortunately there is no magic pill for weight loss (yet) so for now the best way to achieve super fast weight loss is to massively change your eating habits, and the type of foods you are eating!

Although some crash diets are unhealthy, don’t let this deter you, and don’t listen to the naysayers. There are plenty of crash diets out there that really do work! Just use some common sense when choosing them, and you should be able to achieve the quick weight loss you are looking for.

Acai berry: I’m sure you have all received spam email offering you acai berry, proclaiming it is a wonder weight loss supplement. This celebrity fad diet received such wide coverage because of comments made by Oprah Winfrey, who praised it’s anti oxidant properties on her show. Since then it spread like wildfire, but has largely been debunked as next to worthless. A diet consisting of reduced calories and increased exercise is far more effective. I have never tried an acai berry based diet, would be interested to hear your comments if you have.

Master cleanse diet: Beyonce is reported to have dropped 20 pounds in 2 weeks after trying this drastic crash diet – sounds great right? Unfortunately it is very unhealthy, and consists of no solid food for 10 days, you survive on water, lemonade, and honey. I did think about trying this, but I don’t think I could go that long without eating solid food!

The raw food diet: This is pretty self explanatory, you simply eat raw food only, including meat – eww! Definitely not something I could try, and the benefits are very much disputed. Definitely one of the more odd celebrity fad diets in my opinion.

The juice diet: This is a three week long detox juice diet. You are limited to two juice based meals per day, with only one solid meal allowed. If you are looking for a crash diet that works this could be a good quick weight loss plan to follow.

Although I often considered trying these celebrity fad diets, the crash diet system I eventually tried offered a much better quality of weight loss in my opinion – the 22 pounds I lost in 4 weeks was mainly fat, whereas with a lot of these celebrity fad diets you will mainly be losing water, which will simply be put back on when you end the crash diet.

The cabbage soup diet: Luckily I have always liked cabbage – if you plan to try this diet, you had better like it too, as you will be eating a lot of cabbage! The main rule is that you can eat the soup as much as you want, which I liked because you never got really hungry. However the obvious downside is that it gets very boring very quickly, and I found I really craved other foods. Over the course of the first week, some other foods are mixed in as each day progresses, such as bananas, vegetables, and brown rice, however the key is on really limiting your food intake. I did lose 4 pounds in one week, however I found that it didn’t offer me any plan to stick to after that, and as such it wasn’t long before I put the weight back on. I also found this diet VERY hard to stick to.

The three day diet: Breakfast consists of coffee, grapefruit, and toast. Lunch was half a cup of tuna, coffee and toast. Dinner was lean meat and vegetables. I liked this crash diet and found it quite easy and simple to follow. At the end of 3 days I have lost 3 pounds, so not bad at all! Again the only problem is its quite limited, and there is no follow one for what to do at the end of 3 days. I imagine most people trying it want to lose more than 3 pounds, however it was good for some quick and easy weight loss.

Atkins diet: Probably one of the most famous diets, I never really did well with this, which was really disappointing. The diets main focus is on massively reducing your carbohydrate intake, therefore forcing your body to turn into a fat burning machine. The good thing about the diet is that you can eat as much meat and cheese as you want.

After trying the Atkins diet for 1 month, I never really lost much weight, and felt incredibly unhealthy. I was feeling so bad, that I was concerned that it might be damaging my health, particularly as I had already read reports about it being bad for your heart. Although it is an easy to follow diet, particularly if you like eating meat, I this crash diet just simply did not work for me.

Although this is not a complete list of all the crash diets I have tried, it does give you a good idea of what’s out there. I have to say though, that I did lose weight with all of them, and was particularly impressed with the three day diet, but I needed to lose so much more weight than what was possible is 3 days, so I continued to look for longer more detailed rapid weight loss regimes.

Crash diets can be a great way to see some instant and noticeable results. When I finished my crash diet, I was surprised at how noticeable the results were, and this really motivated me to keep up a steady diet over a longer period of time.

The basic principle of a crash diet is to drastically alter your eating habits, whilst at the same time increasing your level of activity to burn more calories. The combined effect of this is dramatic, and you can really shed a lot of weight in a short space of time, although it is not healthy to follow this kind of weight loss system over a long period of time.

The rapid weight loss program that worked for me followed this same basic principle, and it was very effective. Later on, I will write a post with more information on the crash diet that worked for me. One of the key features of it that attracted me was the professionally designed eating regime that ensured your body received all the nutrition it needed, whilst turning it into a fat burning machine.

A lot of experts would argue that crash dieting and rapid weight loss in general is unhealthy, however I would say that being overweight is far more unhealthy, and it is vital to shed the weight however you can. An intensive diet can really help an kickstart a persons diet plan, and the end result is a slimmer and healthier and happier person. As I said previously, the crash diet you follow should be designed by an expert, and have a detailed eating plan that ensures you get all the nutrients you need to stay healthy.