How to Lose Weight Effectively

First off, let me say I am not a qualified dietitian and I have no formal training in this field at all. Everything I am saying is found through personal trails and errors only. The only reason I am writing this is that I know there are many people who have a problem with weight gain just as I do.

There is no secret to losing weight, no special pill, no secret food that sheds pounds and not even surgery will work for permanent weight loss. Let me say it now before I get all the nasty letters, the various surgeries for weight losses seem to work at first. I mean it makes sense that if your stomach is now smaller you will eat less and get full faster. The problem comes from not changing your life style. If you are use to eating until you are stuffed then every time you stuff yourself you will stretch your stomach a little bit more and before long, you are right back where you started. Losing weight has to begin with a lifestyle change and just like most goals it takes commitment. You have to decide that you want to be slimmer more than you want that slice of chocolate cake.

Once you make that decision to be a healthy slimmer you, the rest comes down to simple mathematics. Every time you burn off 3500 more calories than you consume you lose one pound. You can do this by eating less or exercising more or by what I feel is the best way a combination of the two. It doesn't take a math genius to see if you just cut 500 calories (one Big Mac is 540 calories) per day from your diet you could easily lose one pound per week. Now if you included something like an hour a day riding your bike (that is 300 calories per 26 minutes of vigorous pedaling) you could easily make that two pounds per week. OK so you don't have the time or maybe the energy to pedal hard for an hour a day, then just do a half-hour and eat 1000 calories less than you do now. Does all this sound to simplistic? Yeah it probably is but that is the basic rule for losing weight. Still all things being equal, if you just followed those two things you would lose eight pounds a month. Let's say you started in January by summer you could be down fifty pounds with a waist that is five inches slimmer.

I personally have been on a diet and lifestyle change for over nine months now. I have managed to lose over seventy pounds and almost ten inches off my waist. I know I look better and my wife agrees with me but what is even more rewarding is I feel so much better. I'm even sleeping better now that I don't have that big belly to try to sleep around. One other reward that I just noticed the other day is I no longer need antacids. I found myself suffering from heartburn almost every day and I was taking something before bedtime or I would suffer the consequences.

Allow me to include a few hints I have discovered along the way. Do not, I repeat do not weigh yourself every day. There are too many dally variables for accurate recording to allow you to weigh daily. If you just happen to have a meal with too much salt in it, you can throw off the scale by a couple of pounds with water retention alone. Once a week is plenty and if you want, twice but do not weigh yourself more than three times a week. Many people don't believe in using a scale ever, just letting their clothes tell them where they are. Personally, I find it rewarding to see that scale drop as you get on it. Water is very important in all weight loss regimens. You need to drink at least eighty ounces of water per day. Unbelievably drinking extra water helps you from retaining water and it flushes the ketones (basically the ash left from consuming calories). I fill five one-liter bottles with water every day and I have found that it is much easier to drink and easier to keep track that way. As far as exercise, I would advise joining a gym just because there is more equipment and therefore more diversity. However if you don't wish to go that way, there is plenty of exercises you can do at home. There must be a hundred websites with both home and gym exercise tips on them. Cardio exercise is the most important as you need to raise your heart rate in order to burn more calories. Strength training is also very helpful in weight loss as muscle burns calories faster than fat.

Another thing to keep in mind is that we are all human and eventually we will slide off the wagon. A party or a night on the town it doesn't really matter what causes it. The thing is you have to keep the faith so to speak, if you have a wild weekend and eat and or drink too much come Monday you have to get back on that wagon. As I have said, this is a lifestyle change but it is still a life. There will be times when you will need or simply want to overindulge, just remember it is OK as long as you go back to your routine.

Well I hope my ramblings will help someone make the commitment to take that first step so to speak. The one thing that helps is that when you start you will lose weight faster than at any other time on your diet. Although most of this loss is just water it is still encouraging to a new dieter. So here is to your new lifestyle and your new look and believe me, I know you will enjoy it.