I’m 20 years old, female. I’m about 175 right now, and would like to (in a healthy manner) lose about 35 pounds.
Are there any good books you’d recommend for my age?
There is a book you can get. It’s called The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook by Lyle McDonald. I don’t think it’s completely “healthy” and a lot of people on here will tell you that, but if you want to lose weight fast, it really works. You literally can lose 10 to 20 pounds of weight (of which 4 to 7 pounds of it is fat) in two weeks. I tried it myself right before a trip I took last year with all of my skinny girlfriends. I dropped about 10 pounds, but my jeans were big on me and I felt a lot thinner even in my face. This book has been a blessing to me, and I have shared it with many of my friends.
Ok, so the diet sucks and is really hard to stick to, but it is only for 2 weeks, and you can do anything for two weeks. It’s those long months on end diets for me that are too hard to stick to. So now I just use this diet for “damage control”. I eat what I want (in moderation), but when I gain a few pounds, I just do this diet for a couple of weeks and then I’m back down to where I want to be.
The diet is basically a protein sparing modified fast which means you only eat about 600-800 calories a day (the book details what you need for your body weight) but most of it comes from protein. The rest comes from one piece of cheese and unlimited vegetables (not corn, potatoes, carrots, or peas. There may be a couple of other no-no’s I can’t remember). So my meals basically consisted of an egg white and vegetable omlet for breakfast, a grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies for lunch, a piece of fat free string cheese as a snack, and grilled fish and steamed veggies for dinner. I also had to take Omega-3 supplements. On the upside, you do get one cheat meal per week and one carb loading meal. You can also drink as much diet soda as you want, which helped me.
I ordered it off of Amazon a year ago, but I just looked apparently it is out of print and it is not for sale there anymore. But go read the reviews on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Fat-Loss-Handbook-Scientific/dp/0967145643/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228895987&sr=1-1. I am a total skeptic on this kind of stuff, but I promise you it works. I just googled it and he is I guess now selling it in an ebook http://rapidfatlosshandbook.com/ . You might also want to try ebay or half-priced books.
Only do this diet for 2 weeks and then take a break. Keep in mind this is not a really healthy way to lose weight, but it does work. And at least you’re eating healthy food and not completely starving yourself.
You will have to have a lot of will power on this diet, but if you can stick to it, it will work.
Anyway, I hope this helps you. Good luck!!!!!