"That's it. I've had enough. I'm going to diet and finally get rid of these pounds!"

Have these words or something similar ever passed your lips before?

And once those words become official, for many of us, something else happens; we want to get rid of those pounds just as soon as possible.

Before we take a closer look at this, I want you to know that I understand. I've been there myself. We are a nation of "zero tolerance" people when it comes to patience. Our society moves fast and we expect fast results - that's just how it is.

Usually when we start considering how to lose weight fast, the tactic that comes first to mind is eating a calorie reduced diet.

If losing body fat is the goal, then the logic of calorie reduction is basically correct. The calories we take in must be less than the calories required to maintain the weight we have.

As an approach to how to lose weight, this method is fine. The issue of interest in the quick weight loss diet is not the "how", but rather the "how fast." A sharp reduction in caloric intake leads the body to fear that it is facing starvation. It then takes measures to save itself.

It is a curious fact that as conscious beings, we sometimes disagree with nature's view of what's important. In situations where the survival is the focus of attention, this disagreement takes on a much heavier consequence.

Take for example hypothermia. This is a condition where the body's temperature becomes abnormally low; as when ill dressed for harsh winter weather for example.

The body keeps a kind of emergency plan for various types of life threatening situations. For hypothermia, the plan is to conserve heat. One way to help achieve this end is to shut down the blood supply to non-essential body parts (saves on having to heat the blood). We are probably in agreement with the body about legs and arms as non-essentials. But the body's "non-essential" list includes the head!!

In response to aggressive dieting, the body also makes some decisions that most of us are unlikely to agree with. In its attempt to save us from starvation, the body takes a couple of steps that plagued dieters from the day diets came into being.

1) The body adapts to the lower number of available calories by lowering the metabolism. This way, it can conserve its inventory of fat.

2. Cannibalization: Muscle is expensive to have around in the body's view. That is because muscles burn calories just by being there. So the body eliminates this problem being cannibalizing its own muscle tissue!

It would appear that we have been outsmarted by our bodies. By becoming more frugal about spending fat and evicting much of the muscle population, the body transformed our fast weight loss diet into keep weight at all costs diet.

Truth be known, the body transformed itself into a fat champion . . . defending the rights of fat cells everywhere.

The lesson here is to avoid aggressive diets if you can.

So how should we approach dieting safely?

Here are the least number of features an effective diet should have:

1. A conservative caloric reduction of not more than 20%.

2. A strength training component to increase muscle mass.

3. An aerobic component to help raise the metabolism.

Remember, if the diet you are considering doesn't have these components, you can add them yourself.