Five Tips for Quick Weight Loss

Is your 2016 calendar starting to fill up with special events—weddings, vacations, birthday parties, graduations? And are you starting to panic about the extra pounds you need to lose so you can look great on these red-letter days?

If so, here’s a secret I know as a weight-loss specialist: It’s not as hard as you think to lose five, ten, or even fifteen pounds in just a few weeks. Here are my favorite tips for trimming down fast.

Do bone broth mini-fasts.

Bone broth is a broth you make by simmering bones for hours and hours until they literally start to dissolve, releasing deep nutrition. It’s loaded with nutrients that help reduce inflammation, which is one of the biggest causes of weight gain. And it’s hearty, satisfying, and low in calories, so it’s a sin-free way to melt away pounds without experiencing cravings.

In my practice, I prescribe two days per week of bone broth mini-fasts for jump-starting weight loss. On these days, my patients eat nothing but bone broth all day, and they lose weight like crazy. And here’s a bonus: bone broth is rich in the building blocks of collagen, so it helps erase wrinkles!

Here’s a recipe for this simple broth from my new book, the Bone Broth Diet: Load a pot with lots of beef, chicken, or turkey bones. Toss in some roughly chopped carrots and celery, along with any seasonings you like. (For instance, thyme and bay leaves work well with beef, while poultry seasoning is good in chicken or turkey broth.) Add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to help dissolve the bones, cover everything with filtered water, and simmer a long time—around six hours for chicken, and up to 24 hours for beef. Voila—you’re done.  You’ve got a seriously nutritious (and filling) way to have small fasts that don’t  leave you feeling deprived, while giving you a serious nutrient  and collagen boost.

Cut down on grains.

I know you’ve heard that “healthy” carbs like whole wheat bread are good for you. In reality, however, your body treats these grains just like sugar. (In fact, two slices of whole wheat bread contain as much sugar as a candy bar.)

The sugar in grains jacks up your blood glucose and causes your insulin levels to spike continually. That’s bad, because insulin lays down fat. So in addition to cutting out sugar, cut way down on grains—or cut them out entirely if you can.

Eat healthy fats.

One of the worst health myths is that fats are bad for you. In reality, the healthy fats in foods like avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, clarified butter, nuts, and salmon help to optimize your metabolism. In addition, they keep you feeling satisfied longer, so you’re less tempted to give up on your diet.

And here’s more good news: These fats strengthen your cell membranes, making your skin smoother. This means that you’re adding still more wrinkle-fighting power to your diet!

Eat eggs and pastured beef.

Eggs are one of the healthiest foods you can eat—and eating eggs doesn’t raise your cholesterol. What’s more, eggs are loaded with choline, a natural fat-burner. Choline is lipotropic, meaning that it helps carry fat away from your liver so you can break it down. This is the same way that banned diet drugs like ephedra work, only lipotropic foods like eggs do it in a healthy way.

As for pastured beef, it’s loaded with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which reduces body fat mass. Pastured beef contains much more CLA than non-pastured beef, so it’s worth paying a little extra for it.

Allow yourself to be beautifully imperfect.

Here’s how diets often go. You start out doing fine, hit a little road bump, and maybe cheat with a cookie or a doughnut. And then you say to yourself: Well, so much for that. I failed at another diet. It’s over.

Here’s what I want you to do instead: Realize that you’re beautifully imperfect! Many of my patients have two or three “oopsies” before they succeed in sticking to their diets, and you know what? That’s perfectly fine. If this happens to you, just start over again. You’ll still reach your goal in just a few weeks—and you’ll do it more easily if you lighten up on yourself!

Want to learn more?  You can learn more about the science behind bone broths, and pick up a free Bone Broth Resource Guide filled with tasty recipes  by clicking here.

—Kellyann Petrucci, M.S., N.D., is the author of Dr. Kellyann’s Bone Broth Diet (Rodale, 2015). A weight-loss and natural anti-aging transformation expert, Dr. Petrucci has a private practice in the Birmingham, Michigan area and is a concierge doctor for celebrities in New York City and Los Angeles. She is a board-certified naturopathic physician and a certified nutrition consultant. Visit her website at drkellyann.com.