The fitness industry today portrays weight loss as something that’s tough to accomplish. Without the use of their specific fat burner or special workout or whatever it is they’re trying to sell, they want you to think you can’t reach your goals. Obviously, when you step back and think about it, this isn’t true, but the idea of some way to lose weight quick and easy is alluring to most people without a perfect body. Sadly, there is no magic pill or supplement that transforms you over night, but by following these easy principles, you can accelerate the process and achieve results in much less time.

1. Eat Clean

There’s truth behind the phrase “you are what you eat.” Fast food, while tasting great, is densely packed with empty calories, so even though you may not eat a large amount of food, you’re still consuming more calories than you need to. The same applies to drinking soda. Unless you’re about to do an intense workout, the sugar in soda is stored as body fat. Cutting both of these from your diet, alone, can lead to very quick changes. Try to prepare all of your own food. If you make food from natural ingredients, it’s much healthier, and easier to know exactly where your calories are coming from.

2. Restrict Calories

When combined with clean eating, calorie restrictions are one of the top most effective methods of weight loss. Your body is a machine, and this machine needs a certain amount of fuel to keep running. If you take in too much fuel, what you need is used, and the excess is stored away as body fat for later. If you take in too little, your body doesn’t have enough to maintain its operations, and turns to other sources like fat and muscle. The key to maximum fat burning is to find what your daily caloric need for maintenance is, then eat about 250 under this number. Following this strategy, you’ll minimize muscle loss and keep fat burning at a high. Depending on speed of progress, this number can be raised or lowered accordingly.

3. Eat Low Carb in the Last Half of Your Day

While today carbohydrates are demonized, they’re actually an essential dietary component in having a healthy body. Before any intense exercising, it’s a good idea to eat some carbs to provide you with fuel throughout your workout. However, without any activity to burn the carbs, they often end up being stored as fat. Eating carbohydrates in the morning is a good idea to get your body’s systems going, but in the latter half of the day, carbs should be cut to a minimum with the exception of green vegetables. Most importantly, don’t eat carbs before going to bed. These calories will not be used up, and are guaranteed to be stored as body fat. Don’t eat that spaghetti for dinner – have it for lunch instead.

4. Increase Your Daily Activity

In conjunction with the above, or even on its own, increasing your activity levels can do wonders for the body. More movement means more fuel is needed, which means you need to eat more to maintain your weight. The simple act of exercising daily will allow you to maintain, or even lose weight, on the same diet that formerly did the opposite. Combined will all of the above principles, you’ll be a fat burning powerhouse.

The process of losing weight quick may seem hard to do, but by utilizing the above principles it will become effortless. It’s important to ease into using all of these in your daily life if you’re coming from an inexperienced background, because too drastic of a change from your normal habits can lead to burnout. Try any of the above, slowly working up to using them all everyday, and see changes.

For a lot of newcomers, taking that first plunge into the fitness world can be a daunting task. Many are intimidated by the wide variety of fitness info out there and aren’t sure what steps to take first. For somebody who’s either never been, or is just getting back into shape, rather than jumping head first into a complicated diet or workout plan, it’s best to instead simply apply a set of basic fitness principles to your everyday life.

1. Exercise Five to Six Days a Week

Consistency is key when it comes to changing your body. Above all else, one of the most effective ways to change your body is to exercise more. Moderate, daily exercise, whether it be weight lifting or cardio, will help you burn more calories each day. Over time, with consistency, your exercise will become easier, and you’ll have to increase the intensity for it to be as hard as it used to be in the beginning. As long as your exercise sessions are always moderately difficult and increasing in intensity over time, you’ll make tremendous progress. Consistency is key. Working out fewer times a week will produce slower results, but if you’re consistent nonetheless, you’ll see changes.

2. Listen to Your Body — Don’t Over Train

This may seem like a contradiction to the last point, but it’s really quite simple. Expanding the idea of keeping a workout at a moderate intensity, you have to make sure not to push too hard if you’re working out five to six days a week. If you’re cutting weight, cardio twice a week at a medium pace for thirty minutes, along with a three day a week, beginner’s weight lifting program will evoke drastic changes in one’s physique over time. However, pushing too hard will only lead to form breakdown and injury. Don’t be that guy who tears a pec trying to show off. If you’re grinding out every rep or can’t lift a weight without a spotter, you’re doing something wrong. Do it right, listen to your body, and the results will come.

 3. Rest Well — Get Eight Hours of Sleep Every Night

These days everyone is busy trying to get ahead and it may be hard to find the time to get a full night’s sleep. You have to make the time. Exercising hard throughout the week takes its toll on your body, and sleeping is what repairs you and makes you stronger. Poor sleeping habits lead to poor results. Not only that, but a good night’s sleep  Ideally, shoot for eight hours of sleep every night.

4. Eat a Clean Diet

Drinking 64-ounce sodas and eating fast food everyday isn’t going to get you that fit body you’ve always dreamed of. Cutting out all liquid calories and drinking only water will be a drastic reduction to your daily caloric intake if you’ve been a big soda drinker. Likewise, replacing fast food with at-home alternatives can also drastically reduce calories on similar dishes just due to differences in cooking methods. Above all else, try to eat a major of lean meats and green vegetables, don’t eat any wheat or starchy carbs in the second half of your day, and pay attention to calories. Likely, if you’re eating clean this won’t be a problem anyway.

5. Flexibility Work

This is optional, but is highly advisable should you come from a sedentary, non-athletic background. If you’ve never done any consistent stretching or mobility routine in your life, it may be a good idea to find a basic full body routine and practice it everyday for a few weeks. Many beginners lack the basic mobility and flexibility to do harder exercises like squats and deadlifts, so some people may not even be able to do them right until these problems are fixed. Improved flexibility can help with improving form, will lead to better posture, and generally make the transformation process easier.

When these basic fitness principles are applied, a person can experience a radical change in physique and general well-being in only a few weeks. Work up to practicing these principles everyday and you’ll be shocked at the changes.