It doesn't matter if the summer time is around the corner or it's getting towards the end of the year, if you are like a number of other people, you are beginning to think about reducing weight. And shedding pounds fast. There are some things you can do to drop some weight in a short amount of time and do it safely.



None of those insane soup or celery or lemon juice diet programs. Those do work, but what a cost you have to pay for releasing a couple of lbs. And the worst part is that when you go back to regular eating after lemon juice for 10 days, the excess weight seems to incredibly reappear all by itself.



But if you want to do some small adjustments to the way you eat; changes that you can deal with and continue with after your initial weight loss results, then pay attention because here a few smart tips for you.



Tip #1 - Pay Attention



There's a reason why many famous dieting programs have you keep a food record of everything you eat. When you take notice and write down everything you eat, whether it's a treat or a breakfast bar or even a stalk of celery, you tend to eat less.



Could be because the thought of needing to keep track of each nibble makes folks want to eat less because it's a pain to write it all down. But much more likely it's because your brain begins to think to itself "Hmm, am I genuinely hungry enough to eat this and then write in my food diary"? Often, the answer to that is a "No" and you end up eating a lot less food.



This journaling idea works in a lot of self-improvement areas, not only dieting, but when it comes to food, it really helps you pay attention to what you are doing. And being conscious about precisely how you are taking care of your body and your health is a very good step in the direction of feeling far better and reducing your weight.



Another excellent tip has to do with the idea that less is more.



Cut it down.



One of the largest amounts of calories comes from the consumption of fats. Certainly, this is not the case 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of the people. But if you live in a location that has a diet like the Standard American Diet, which is very high in animal fats and saturated and hydrogenated fats, you're eating a lot of calories from fats.



The fats on their own contain a high amount of calories per unit measurement. Basically if you took a teaspoon of a carbohydrate and a teaspoon of fat, the fat would have more than two times as many calories in it.



Fats contribute to the taste and the mouth feel of food and this is a big reason why they are so popular. Problem is along with two times as many calories, they don't metabolize as cleanly as many carbohydrates and you are left with the results hanging around your waist.



If you like butter on your toast in the morning, put only half the amount on that you usually do. Use only half the amount of oil when you are cooking on the stove. Try something like one of those cooking sprays. The food will still cook nicely and will slide out of the pan, but the amount of oil you will have added in is almost non-existent.



Bake your potatoes in place of frying them. Boil your eggs instead of scambling them with a tablespoon of butter. Just do a couple things like this and you will amazingly find that you are ingesting nowhere near the quantity of calories that you did before.



The fact remains, it doesn't take a lot of doing to change some dietary habits. And when you make those modifications to your lifestyle you will be on the right track to losing some weight quickly in a safe, simple to sustain way.