How to Drop Five Pounds Quickly

Of course, watching what you eat in combination with these tips will also help, but these are small things to do to jumpstart your weight loss.

Not every diet technique will work for everyone, but researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center watched over 100 overweight female volunteers for a whole year as they tried different ways to lose weight and it turns out that simple is best.

We've all heard about eating three meals a day and many people, myself included thought that eating more will prevent them from losing weight, but that's not so. Turns out, eating three meals per day helped the subjects lose eight more pounds than those who skipped a meal. That being said, it's what you eat at those meals that can really help you out, so keeping track of what you eat will make you more mindful of what you put in your mouth.

People who kept a food journal tracking their calorie intake lost six more pounds than those who didn't write down what they ate. Believe me, when you see what you consume in a day in the way of fat, protein and carbohydrates, you'll want to watch what you eat. I just ate like I normally would for a whole week and I wrote everything down. Most food guidelines show an 18 hundred calorie and two thousand calorie diet. I thought there was no way I was close to that and boy was I wrong. A couple of days with my eating habits, I was over two thousand calories and I didn't even eat fast food. Now that I've been writing everything down and looking at it in black and white, I'm very mindful of what I eat and I learned it's best to write it down when you eat it, rather than sitting down in the evening and trying to remember what you ate all day. Those fast food lunches can really add up and women who packed their lunch lost five more pounds that those who ate out for lunch once per week.

Slim down with the help of your friends. Brown Medical School did a study where subjects met with someone to talk about their weight loss and those who did it with help lost more weight than those who did it alone. It didn't have to be a doctor or anything like that. Just find someone with similar goals in mind and report your progress with each other. My best friend and I joined a gym together and working out with her was way more fun than me just angrily walking on a treadmill alone. Even if she and I didn't work out together, it was just nice to be able to talk about it with someone who was supportive.

Don't have a gym membership? No problem! There are plenty of ways to get outside (even this time of year) and get your burn on. Some winter friendly sports can really burn serious calories. Cross country skiing burns 630 calories an hour. That's the equivalent of the McDonald's five piece chicken selects premium breast strips without the fries or the soda. Ice skating burns 552 calories an hour. That's the equivalent of a Big Mac. Downhill skiing burns 474 calories an hour, cold weather walking burns 300 calories an hour and snowmobiling burns 276 calories. If it's too cold to be outside, going bowling is a fun way to spend time together and it burns 237 calories.

What's your favorite way to burn calories?