Do you know how to lose pounds fast? Perhaps you have a “big day” like a wedding or a high school reunion coming up and you want to look your best. Or, you want to get a jump start on a long term diet by shedding pounds to get you motivated. Whatever your reason, here’s how to lose pounds fast.

I’m going to share with you two programs that show you how to lose pounds fast. Neither of these programs are suitable for long term sustained weight loss, but both can help you meet temporary goals.

The first diet is alternatively known as the “Mayo Clinic Diet” or the “Grapefruit Diet.” You should know that the Mayo Clinic has said they had nothing to do with developing the diet and that they do not endorse it.

This diet claims that the specific combination of foods you eat, particularly the grapefruit, will activate your metabolism. It’s likely though that the real trick to this diet though is that it is calorie restricted.

This “how to lose pounds fast” diet consists of 2 slices of bacon, 2 eggs, half a grapefruit and coffee for breakfast. For lunch, you’ll have another grapefruit half along with as much salad and lean meat as you want. At dinner time, you can have meat or fish and non-starchy vegetables as well as the mandatory half grapefruit. Right before bed, drink 8 ounces of milk or vegetable juice.

Do not deviate from the diet plan. That means you should eat everything listed (including the bacon and the salads) but add nothing (particularly carbs) to it. You shouldn’t be hungry on the diet because you can eat the salads, meats, and vegetables until you are full. However, you shouldn’t stuff yourself. You also shouldn’t eat between meals.

Stay on the Grapefruit diet for 12 days. If you want to continue with it, take a 2 day break before repeating the cycle. You should be able to lose 10 pounds in the 12 days.

Another diet that shows you how to lose pounds fast is the Cabbage Soup Diet. On this diet, not surprisingly, you eat a lot of cabbage soup. The basic recipe is a vegetable soup broth filled with lots of cabbage and any other non-starchy vegetables you wish.

The Cabbage Soup diet is a seven day program on which you should be able to lose 5 or more pounds. Each of the seven days has a specific food combination to follow. For instance, on one day you can have all of the vegetables you want plus a baked potato. Another day brings all of the bananas you can eat and all of the milk you can drink. Another day lets you eat up to 16 ounces of beef. The nice thing about the Cabbage Soup diet is that you can eat the soup any time you are hungry.

If you want to do multiple cycles of the Cabbage Soup diet, do one week on and one week off.

I hope this article showed you how to lose pounds fast.