HOW TO GET FIT FAST

If you're aiming to get fit fast, you need to be at a healthy weight. However, if you need to drop a few pounds, trying to lose weight too fast won't do you much good. When you restrict your caloric intake too severely -- fewer than 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,800 a day for men -- you risk stalling your weight loss by slowing your metabolism.

You need to find the right number of calories to lose at a steady rate of 1/2 to 2 pounds a week. Accomplish this by reducing your current intake by 250 calories to 1,000 calories a day. To figure out your current intake, record how much you normally eat in a food diary and add up the daily calories. Then subtract between 250 and 1,000 to get your new calorie goal for weight loss. For example, if you currently eat 2,600 calories a day, you can lose weight safely by reducing your intake to 1,600 to 2,350 calories a day. Since part of getting fit is exercising, you might want to go with the lower end of calorie reduction, say, 250 to 500 calories, and burn the rest of the calories through physical activity.