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



None of those insane soup or celery or lemon juice diets. Those do give you results, but what a cost you have to pay for releasing a couple of lbs. And the most awful part is that when you go back to normal eating after lemon juice for 10 days, the weight seems to miraculously reappear all by itself.



But if you want to do some small modifications to how you eat; changes that you can deal with and keep going with after your original weight loss results, then listen up because here a few smart tips for you.



Tip #1 - Pay Attention



There's a reason why many famed dieting programs have you keep a food diary of everything you take in. When you pay attention and note down everything you eat, whether it's a treat or a breakfast bar or even a stalk of celery, you tend to consume less food.



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



This writing idea works in a lot of self-improvement areas, not just dieting, but when it comes to food, it really can help you pay attention to what you are doing. And being aware about precisely how you are treating your body and your well being is a very good step in the direction of feeling better and losing weight.



Another excellent tip has to do with the notion 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 % 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 major reason why they are so popular. Problem is along with two times as many calories, they don't metabolize as cleanly as many carbs and you are left with the effects hanging around your waist.



If you like butter on your toast in the morning, put only half the amount on that you typically do. Use only half the amount of oil when you're cooking on the stove. Try something such as 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 rather than frying them. Boil your eggs instead of scambling them with a tablespoon of butter. Do just a couple stuff like this and you will amazingly find that you are ingesting nowhere near the quantity of calories that you did before.



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