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When I became serious about my weight loss, I did a lot of reading over the internet on the best ways to go about doing that.
I think I've learned a lot, and that it has helped me. Maybe some of the things that I've
learned can be of use to someone else as well. If you have any disagreements with these tips, or
wish to add one of your own, email me with the link below and I will consider changing or adding it to this page.
* Beware of diet solutions that involve you having to buy something, other than the food you are actually eating: Regardless of what anyone tells you, you do not have buy a book, plan, pills, exercise gadget, or medical procedure. Some of these things might be useful to you, and worth the money, but decide that for yourself, rather than letting someone talk you into it. * Beware of absolutes: If you hear someone say something like "Never consume any dairy!", "Stay away from all sodas period!" or "You can't eat at McDonald's, ever!" this should be a red flag. Different things work for different people. The only absolute I absolutely believe in is the equation Calories in < Calories burned = Weight loss. * Have realistic goals: You didn't gain the weight in a month, and you aren't going to lose it in that amount of time either. Don't get impatient! In the same vein, don't freak out over your daily weigh ins. Take the long view. Losing weigh is a victory, even if you feel like you should be losing it faster than you are. * Pick a diet you feel you can live with for a long, long time: Like, forever. I think a lot of people go on a diet, lose their weight, then celebrate by having a blow out meal, and then going back to eating exactly the way they did before they lost weight. I know I've done this a couple of times. I've got the mindset now that this this diet of mine is the new normal, and I have to just change my old eating habits. * Be flexible: Have a bad meal? Day? Week? Month? Life happens. Pick up where you left off, and soldier on. * Accept that you might feel some hunger from time to time: Yeah, it sucks. But so does being fat. On the other hand, don't let yourself get to that "I'm starving" feeling. Do that and you're much more likely to binge and blow yourself out of the water. * Consider exercise: Yes, you can lose weight without it. But it is much harder. As you lose weight, your body will try to conserve it's fat reserve by burning off muscle tissue. The problem is that muscle tissue is much more metabolically active than fat. Lose some of what you have and you'll burn calories more slowly, making it harder to lose weight. Also, I've read about recent studies which suggest that the people who are successful in keeping off weight in the long run are the ones that make exercise part of their daily life even when they are at goal and in maintenance. Making it part of your life as you are losing weight just makes good sense to me. * Get into portion control, even if some of the ways of it seem ridiculous: I've taken to measuring out my salad dressings. When I first started my diet this would have struck me as being anal beyond words. Yet I have a problem with portion control. I have to measure it out, least I just glop on what would normally be considered two or three servings. Learn to be friends with measuring cups and spoons. * Consider logging your foods into Fitday, or some other calorie counting program: Yeah, this seemed real anal to me too. But it really is an eye opener how 100 calories here, 200 there really add up. Before I started doing this, I didn't really realize how much I was actually eating. Logging it, though a pain in the behind at first (it gets easier as you input more and more of your custom foods), has been a real benefit to me. Logging your weight is a good thing too. I sometimes feel that I'm not really doing that good, but then I pull up the graph of my weight loss, see the downward trend, and really believe that I am making progress and all this bother is really worth it. * Talk to other people who are dieting: In my Links section I have listed some of the sites I go to for support. There are many knowledgeable folks out there who are happy to help out with support and information. Consider joining a few weight loss web based forums or usenet newsgroups. Misery really does love company! * The Great Water Debate: Almost every time you see a list of diet tips like this one, you will see somewhere listed on it the advice "Drink lots of water" usually followed with a suggested amount, typically at least 8 cups a day. I am of two minds on this this issue. On one hand, yes, it really is very important to stay properly hydrated. Not drinking enough water might very well have an adverse effect on someone's weight loss efforts, as well has having plenty of general bad effects on the body in general. Drinking enough water is a Good Thing. On the other hand, I don't think that over hydrating oneself is going to do any good either, unless you consider having to take frequent potty breaks a good thing. I believe that the water one consumes as part of one's food counts towards the total hydration level. I often have a big leafy salad, couple cups of soup, and a large chunk of watermelon for dinner. On days when I do, do I still need to drink 8 cups of water a day? Some would say yes, but I say no. I think that it is best to be guided on how much water to drink by simply going by how thirsty one is. I've heard from people who report that they feel guilty for not following their diet by failing to choke down whatever amount of water it is that they've been led to believe they need to drink in order to lose weight. Dieting is stressful enough without worrying over something like this. So in short, I believe that drinking enough water is important, but the practice of drinking lots of water even when one is not thirsty in order to lose weight is gimmicky and unproven to work. I do drink lots of water, but only as much as I actually want.
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