While the desire to shed the pounds quickly is definitely strong, it's incredibly important that throughout your quest you try and maintain a healthy weight loss. Those individuals who choose to go on crash diets will lose weight, however not only is the weight loss not likely to stay off, but these crash diets are also going to severely affect their health status and metabolism.

Whenever you see a diet out there promising to help you lose ten or more pounds a week, automatic red flags should be raised on not only the safety of this approach, but also how well it will actually work.

If the truth was told, even if you ate absolutely nothing for an entire week straight, you still would not lose 10 pounds of pure fat a week, so claims such as these are completely unrealistic.

You may lose a good amount of water weight - there's no doubting that, and it could amount to ten pounds when combined with muscle glycogen losses as well, but rest assured, once you come off your starvation fast, that weight will come rushing back on to your body.

Therefore, here are some simple tips you need to keep in mind so you can maintain a healthy weight loss.

Always Include A Variety of Vegetables

The largest portion of most diets will usually be vegetables and possibly fruits (depending on the individual plan). If you're currently on a weight loss plan that restricts the amount of produce you're able to eat, you want to rethink that plan.

Vegetables are pretty much 'free foods' as far as calories are concerned (with the exception of possibly corn, peas, and potatoes), so you should be able to eat them to your heart's content.

Not only that but they are loaded with potassium, which will help you maintain your energy for exercise.

Don't Eliminate Carbs Entirely

While low-carb diets definitely are all the rage right now, completely eliminating carbohydrates from your daily diet is a big mistake.

Unless you are following a very specific keto plan set-up, which is an ultra low-carb diet but actually changes the type of fuel your body runs off of, you need carbohydrates to function.
You may be able to cut them out for three to four days, but it's almost guaranteed that after that, you're going to be craving carbohydrates so strongly that it becomes almost impossible not to include some in your diet.

A better approach is using a more moderate carb intake, so you both maintain your energy levels and keeping sanity in check.

Carbohydrates do not limit your ability to lose weight if the weight loss plan is set up properly.

Plan For Cheat Days To Maintain a Healthy Weight Loss

Finally, the last thing you must consider is your psychological relationship with food. When we diet, we often start playing mind games with ourselves and some of us actually become somewhat 'fearful' in a sense of certain foods.

You really must watch this because in the long run it can set you up for emotional eating problems associated with binging or other eating disorders down the road.

If you plan and schedule in cheat meals and days into your diet, you will help yourself maintain a good relationships with food and you will see that realistically, one meal off your diet is not going to undo all the hard work you've put in.

You can most definitely still have great results with your weight loss plan when including cheat meals and cheat days.

So, be sure you keep these points in mind so you can maintain a healthy weight loss. Taking short-cuts, eliminating too many foods, and trying to starve yourself thin will all backfire in the end, so it's much better to just avoid this in the first place.

For more information on a weight loss plan that actually incorporates a cheat meal into the diet every single day while still helping you lose weight safely and effectively, please visit the Cheat Weight Loss Program.

Shannon Clark is a certified personal trainer, fitness writer, and co-author. She specializes in helping those looking to make dramatic changes in their body reach their goals. View more information at http://www.cheatweightloss.com