But now and then, you might get a little desperate. Maybe youre getting married. Or maybe you're sick of how things are and need a big change to jumpstart you into that slow-and-steady process.

Instead of diving down the faddish rabbit holes that crop up daily on the worldwide web, start with basic strategies most of us already know--and then do them more aggressively. Youll shed pounds while maintaining muscle and performance. Heres how to pull off warp-speed weight loss without losing your muscleor your mind:

Extreme Approach 1: Tons of Cardio

You think cardio's the answer with all weight loss, so you could spend hours upon hours running and jogging and biking. But the smarter approach is this: Increase your low-intensity physical activity throughout the day. And on alternate days, perform strength training and low-to-medium intensity aerobic work.

Too many guys still think of exercise as anti-food, hitting the treadmill in the morning in hopes of burning off last nights pasta and cheesecake.

Surprise: exercise isnt the biggest caloric burner in the average guys day. That honor goes to walking, housework, hiking with your dog, and other low-intensity movement. Scientists call it NEAT-- non-exercise activity thermogenesisbut its really just a fancy term for moving around more throughout the day, says exercise physiologist Dr. Mike T. Nelson, founder of The Flex Diet, a modular system for maximizing performance and body composition. So step one when youre looking to lose is to increase those activities.

Add in Weights for Best Results

While exercise certainly burns calories, its primary benefits play out in the longer-term. Strength work helps you build muscle mass, which helps you look better, perform better, and live longer. When youre dietingexpending more energy than youre consumingstrength work helps you maintain muscle. Aerobic work tunes up your, heart, lungs, and metabolism, helping you become a more efficient burner of fat.

Both approaches are essential when youre trying to lose fat and gain muscle, so strive to hit the weights on nonconsecutive days three times a week, and low-to-moderate intensity cardio on three other days. But if you miss a workout, never fear: for all but the most gung-ho athletes, NEAT burns more calories day to day than your gym sessions. It also spares your joints, and might even earn you a few points from the people you live with, Spot included. Score.

Extreme Approach 2: Cut All Starchy Carbs

You've seen this one before: You cut out pasta, rice, cracks, potatoes, bread, and corn, and basically never eat anything that you might actually want. Carbs are the enemy to swift weight loss, the theory goes, so you have to get them near zero.

The better approach however, is to match your macros. Every few decades, it seems, a different macronutrient gets blamed for all that ails us. In the 80s it was fat. By the 2010s, carbohydrates were firmly in every dieters crosshairs, and remain there to this day--though you can start to see the tables turning on protein of late as well.

Dont fall for any of it. We need all three of these macronutrients for optimal health, performance, and body composition. While there are no essential carbohydrates (as there are essential fats and amino acids, for example), carbs are critical when preserving muscle and strength are among your goals.

If you're going hard, you need carbs!

For high intensity activities, carbs are your friend, says Nelson. Not only are carbs your bodys preferred fuel source during strength training, sprinting, and other high intensity activitiestheyre essential for basic health as well. When they fall too low, youre actually stressing your body and reducing immunity.

As noted above, regular strength work should most definitely be on the docket when youre trying to lose fat. While youre unlikely to gain muscle if youre dieting hard, youll hold onto the sinew you have, thus keeping your metabolism and athletic performance up to par as you drop the pounds.

A smarter choice than cutting all starches, says Nelson, is to match your macros: go easy on the starches on your rest days and your cardio days, but include them before and after your strength training and high-intensity sessions. Youll perform better, feel better, and ultimately lose more fat.

Extreme Approach 3: Go Keto

In theory, if you reach a level of ketosis, your body shifts to burning fat as its primary source of fuel, exactly what you want. Thing is, it's not always easy to get to that level of ketosis. And again, you're cutting out the carbs, which hurts your muscle fuel.

For people uninterested in strength and power, a keto diet (high fat, moderate protein, super-low carbs) can work fine. But if youre trying to hang onto muscle and maintain your strength while you burn off the fat, its not your best bet: carbs and protein are necessary to perform your best and recover from activities that build and maintain muscle.

Focus on Animal Proteins, and Everything Falls Into Place

A better choice: base each meal around muscle-building animal proteins like fish, chicken, whey protein, and lower-fat cuts of red meat: Research has shown that its almost impossible to overeat protein and get fat, says Nelson. Compliment that with a wide variety of veggies, some fruit, and whole-food starches around your strength and sprint workouts.

One thing keto devotees get right: healthy fats are a good ideaso eat some nuts, avocados, and fish oil regularly. Dont run from fat, says Nelson. Still interested in going keto? Consult a doctor, he advises: its a tough one to get right.

Extreme Approach 4: Pound coffee, stay up late.

Recommending sleep to someone trying to burn off a gut seems counterintuitive: shouldnt you move as much as possible? And doesnt caffeine help in those efforts? That's why it's easy and convenient to some people to stay up as long as possible, shot up on caffeine, in their efforts to lose weight.

But that only works up to a point. Sleep and metabolism are joined at the hip. After just a few nights of poor sleep, your metabolism starts to resemble that of a diabetic, he says. Blood sugar goes up. Insulin sensitivitya measure of your ability to metabolize carbohydratesplummets. Appetite regulation spirals, too, so its harder to tell when youre hungry and when youre full.

So along with your efforts in the gym and the kitchen, be sure youre giving your body a break when the sun goes down. Read in bed instead of watching Netflix. Take an early morning stroll (the natural light helps reset your body clock so youre sleepier at bedtime). Youll beef up your fat-burning abilityand youll be more productive and alert during your waking hours too.