With the rise in the numbers of obese and overweight people in the United States and the world comes the continued explosion in the diet and weight loss industry. Billions of dollars are spent a year on these products, and yet people still continue to be fat and overweight. Why? Ultimately, it's not a lack of information, but rather a lack of understanding of what exactly helps people achieve quick weight loss. One of the keys to any self improvement plan is having the fundamental strategies and tactics to aid weight loss. Instead of looking for the quickest way to lose weight, uses these tips to underly your fitness goals:
(1) Your weight loss targets should be specific and quantifiable. "I want to lose weight" isn't as good as "I want to lose 20 pounds," which isn't as good as "I want to weight 150 pounds with 13% body fat." The more you can make your goals quantifiable, the better you can track and direct your progress.
(2) Keep a food diary of all the foods you eat in a week. This will tell you the specifics of your diet. If you can see a nutritionist, great, but otherwise look through your diet for high calorie and empty calorie food choices. Eliminate these one by one - this will allow you to maintain your diet changes. If you go in guns blazing, changing every aspect of your diet, you will not be able to sustain in through the long term. You want these changes to be lifestyle changes, not temporary.
(3) You will also want to work in exercise to your weekly routine, and as with diets, you'll want to work it in slowly and consistently. If you've never exercised before, start by walking three days a week. Make sure you do this consistently, at the same time on the same day through the week, in order to make the new behavior a habit.
