Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.

Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle

Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.

Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.

Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism

Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.

When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.

What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.

A Graphic example

For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.

In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.

Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.

Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are simply losing water in the sort term.

The dangers of crash dieting

Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.

This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.

They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.

Your goal should be long term weight loss

Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.

If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.

The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.

The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.

Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy

Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of starvation.

Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.

In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.

This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.

If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.

This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.

Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly

In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us

Appearance of Loose Skin

If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.

The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.

Gallstones

Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.

Lack of energy and illness

Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.

Lose weight slowly

Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.

You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.

Sacha Tarkovsky
http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/lose-weight-fast-dont-its-unhealthy-56147.html

What person doesn’t yearn to lose their belly flat and get a flat stomach? The thing about accomplishing this goal is that it does take hard work and you can’t get a flat stomach from sitting on the couch  watching television and eating potato chips. Don’t get discouraged though, as just making some small healthy changes into your lifestyle, can help you to see some big results in the flat stomach department. Here is how you can lose the belly fat and get your flat stomach of your dreams.

The number one thing that you have to know is that a flat stomach is not accomplished with exercise alone. You need to have a healthy diet in order to lose the belly flat. The reason why most people never see a flat stomach is because they have a layer of fat that has built up over their abdominal muscles. This fat can only be burned off through a healthy diet and exercise. Keeping your body fat low by watching what you eat can greatly increase the chances that you will have that flat stomach that you desire. Try to stay away from processed food and sugars that signal the body to hold onto the body fat that you already have.

Along with the healthy and balanced diet, comes exercise. Some people are just naturally blessed with a lower percentage of body fat, while 98% of the population has to exercise to get a lower body fat percentage. In order to burn body fat you have to do cardiovascular exercise that raises the heart rate and gets your body into calorie burning mode. As mentioned before, if you have a layer of fat over your stomach muscles, you are never going to see the flat and toned stomach that you may have underneath.

If you really want to speed up the process of getting a flat stomach and losing belly fat, then look for workouts like Hip Hop Abs and circuit training that strengthen and tone your muscles while giving you a cardiovascular workout. These types of workouts are able to focus on the abs to get the tight muscles and also get your body into fat burning mode.

If you don’t want to to circuit training or a workout program like Hip Hop Abs, then you can do your cardiovascular workouts and your strength training workouts separately. This will take more time from your schedule, but some people may find this works better for them.

The key to losing belly fat and gaining a flat stomach is not a magical formula. It is actually very simple: regular exercise and a healthy diet.

Tiffany Brunskole
http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/how-to-lose-belly-fat-and-get-a-flat-stomach-936722.html

I specifically need it for the lower section of my stomach but exercises or diet tips for the entire core will do.

Throw Out The Junk Food – Belly Fat Rule 1

To lose stomach fat you have to throw out the junk food! You are what you eat, so don’t eat junk. Do not keep junk food like cookies, chips, sweets and other similar products in your house. If you do not have these bad foods lying around, you will not think about them and after sometime, you will break the bad eating habits. But, why is junk food so bad? Mostly it is due to the high sugar content of junk food. Most junk food consists of refined carbs and sugar, which when eaten quickly raise blood sugar levels, leading to reduction in fat burning and increase in appetite.

Carbohydrates and Losing Belly Fat – Belly Fat Rule 2

Consumption of carbohydrate is essential, but there are good carbs and bad carbs. Refined flours and the foods that they create, such as white bread, pasta, donuts, cakes and biscuits should be avoided. They can cause bloating, poor digestion, and lead to accumulation of fat. “Good carbs”, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, should be eaten instead. Slow release carbohydrates are also beneficial, such as oats, brown rice, some pulses and sweet potato. A diet that takes most of its carbs from fruits and vegetables, as opposed to refined flours, is healthier. Ideally granary or wholemeal bread should be eaten instead of white bread, and biscuits and cakes should be avoided. Consuming too much carbohydrate can bump up your insulin level, which can slow down your metabolism. Your body cannot metabolize too much carbohydrate at once because the body doesn’t need so much energy at once. The excess sugar from the carbohydrates will just turn into stomach fat.Avoiding carbs increases the fat burning metabolism (lipolysis), which helps to reduce stomach fat.Combine your meals with a good mixture of protein, carbohydrates and vegetables. Your source of protein should be in the size of a deck of cards; the carbohydrates in the size of your palm and the major bulk of your meals should come from vegetables.

No More Late Night Snacks – Belly Fat Rule 3

Try not to have late night snacks. The main problem with late night snacking is that there is not much activity done afterwards. People go straight to bed right after the late night meal because they are tired. So, this will cause high sugar levels in the blood stream and no energy spent after that. The excess sugar will just turn into fat. Losing stomach fat requires a strict diet.

Boozing Leads to Fat – Belly Fat Rule 4

Decrease alcohol consumption. If you drink a lot, you will accumulate fat around your waist. Although most people know that alcohol can lead to weight gain, many do not know the degree of impact that alcohol can have. Excess alcohol consumption can really give you a belly. Have you seen people that are slim all over but have a beer belly sticking out? Well, that is the effect of excess alcohol consumption. One gram of alcohol, which can be calculated as one ml of alcohol contains 7 calories. Even thought the amount of calories is smaller than the amount of fat, alcohol calories are completely useless. Alcohol does not contain any nutrients at all. So, the entire amount of calories consumed through alcohol will be stored as fat! If you want to lose weight fast then you need to stop drinking for a while.Alcohol is also in the form of liquid. That means you can really consume a lot of it in one sitting! It is not to say that you should avoid alcohol completely, but just go for moderation. Do not drink everyday and limit yourself to just one glass of wine or one bottle of beer.To give your body a kick start you may want to consider a lemon cleanse / maple syrup diet.

Exercise for Weight Loss – Belly Fat Rule 5!

ast but certainly not least, Exercise, Exercise, Exercise! Get up the couch, put down the beer and head on to the gym. If you do not know how to get started, hire a personal trainer to kick off your new healthy lifestyle. If you want to exercise by yourself, get some books on weight loss and exercise to help you start off on the right track.There are many exercise routines that will help you to get a 6 pack. However, the most important thing is to combine different workouts. Weight training is essential, as building muscle speeds metabolism. Intensive exercise, such as interval training and circuit training burns fat fast. Keep it varied, and you will lose weight.Remember this fact: Belly fat is natural. Its main purpose is actually to protect the vital internal organs. To lose belly fat is to defy nature. This is why it is so difficult to achieve. But you can do it if you stay focused and work hard. If you are working out, you could consider taking a fat burner supplement.

I like the rest of my body the way it is, i just want to lose the belly fat without losing anything else is that possible if yes let me know how.

Exercise that targets the stomach area is the only way of toning one specific body part at a time. When we diet the part of our anatomy that is the slimmest tends to be the part where we lose weight first, which is not very convenient. So you would probably lose weight up top, on your back side and your legs, even your face, before you lost any on your stomach. Try an ab work out, but be sure to exercise the rest of the body too, at least a little.