Without a shadow of a doubt, the most frequent New Year’s resolution in the West is to lose weight. However, it is also the first New Year’s resolution most likely to be broken! Losing weight is not hard in theory, but practice is oh, so different. This is because it involves lifestyle changes.

Our bodies change as we get older and typically our level of activity decreases too. Maybe, we get an office job with a promotion, whereas we used to work ‘in the field’. But people in general, do not adjust their diet to match their variation in circumstances. We sit behind our desks or in retirement and think we can still eat and drink like we did twenty years ago. Big mistake!

Luckily, there are dozens of diets available to help us attain our weight loss goals. There are the traditional calorie counting diets, as espoused by Weight Watchers; there are the ‘new era’ diets like Atkins, which have us counting carbohydrates and there are no end of fad diets which are frankly not worth wasting time talking about.

The choice of which diet you want to follow is all yours, of course, but it is well worth exploring the main kinds of diet to see which one will agree with you. Then you must decide whether you will require the help and encouragement of a weekly visit to a club or not, or whether you can get that companionship from an online club of slimmers, where you talk to fellow slimmers in the club forum online.

It is also worth fixing in your mind, why you want to diet. Is it to look better? Or to feel more comfortable in yourself? Or is it for health reasons? Or all three? Have a think about your reasons and let them motivate you. Whenever, you feel like packing it all in, remember your motivation. Get a book and journal your progress, but first write your motivation in bold capitals on the front page or cover. Keep it before you and read it aloud to yourself every day.

Consult some of the slimming sites online and work out a few key numbers like the typical weight people are for your height, sex and body type and your BMI or body mass index. Write these figures on the first page of your book too and use them as the eventual goals.

You could produce a graph and plot your weekly weight to see how you are doing. Set realistic goals and targets. You can get heaps of free information from the Weight Watchers and Atkins websites or / and go to see your doctor for advice and leaflets.

Aim to shed something like 10-20 pounds in the first month and eight to ten per month after that. Go slowly and aim to go slowly, because then you will hit your targets and you won’t feel like giving up. When you get within five to ten pounds of your target weight, assuming that you have lost a lot of weight, throttle back a little and allow yourself a little more leeway. Drop your target to one pound a week, so that you will get a feel for ‘eating normally’.

The dreaded exercise; you have to face it, you will have to do more exercise, but two times thirty minute walks a day is ordinarily enough. You could swim once a week too or get an exercise machine, if you are tied to the house by family.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

The race to health and fitness is raging and plenty of people are getting in on it. Some people do it in order to achieve a beautiful body, some people do it because they are ashamed of their body, while others do it just to remain fit and healthy. As such, there are hundreds of fitness programs on the Internet, in gyms, spas and fitness centres all over the world. Some are too expensive – so dear that you will lose weight quickly, just because you have to work hard to earn the money to pay for these fitness programs.

One might not have to go to the gym or the spa or any fitness center and spend a fortune just to slim down and obtain that longed for sexy body. There are many books available in the bookshops offering weight loss programs that seem convenient and cheap. However, the books are not though. These weight loss programs, or diet plans are gaining immense popularity because of their publicity, testimonials and reviews and you might be confused as to exactly which one to follow. So before choosing which weight loss plan to follow, try reading the following summaries of the most popular diet programs around today.

The Atkins’ New Diet Revolution by Dr. Atkins: This weight loss program encourages a high protein diet with fewer carbohydrates. You can eat loads of vegetables and meat, but must not eat bread, rice or pasta. You are not restricted on your fat intake so it is all right to pour on the (correct) salad dressing and freely spread on the butter. However, during the diet, some people may find themselves short on fibre and high on fat and cholesterol. Grains and fruits are also strictly limited.

The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet by Drs. Heller. This diet plan also recommends a low carbohydrate diet. It recommends eating meat, vegetables and fruit, dairy and grain products. however, advises against consuming too many carbohydrates. So-called “Reward Meals” can be rather high in fats and saturated fats.

Choose to Lose: by Dr. Goor. It recommends restricting your fat intake. You are given a “fat” budget but you are given free reign on how to spend it. It does not force people to regulate their carbohydrate intake. Eating meat and poultry as well as low-fat dairy and seafood is OK. You may also consume vegetables, fruits, cereals, bread and pasta. This weight loss plan is quite healthy, because it advises healthy amounts of fruits and vegetables and saturated fats. Watch your triglyceride levels though. If they are high, trim down on the carbohydrates and eat more unsaturated fats.

The DASH Diet. Recommends eating a fairly moderate amount of fat and protein but a great deal of carbohydrates. It was primarily designed to reduce blood pressure. The diet plan follows the pyramid food guide and encourages a high consumption of whole wheat grains and fruit and vegetables and low-fat dairy. However, some dieters think it advises too much consumption to produce a significant weight loss.

Eat More, Weigh Less: by Dr. Ornish. Primarily vegetarian food and strictly low-fat. Warns to watch out for non-fat dairy and egg whites. This diet plan is low in calcium and restricts the consumption of healthy foods like seafood and lean poultry.

Eat Right for Your Type: This diet is really unusual because it bases its recommendations on your blood type. For example, it recommends lots of meat for people with the blood type O. However, diet programs for some blood types are nutritionally imbalanced and too low in calories. Furthermore, just for the record, there is no evidence that blood type can affect dietary requirements.

The Pritkin Principle: It focuses on cutting back on the amount of calories by eating ‘watery’ foods that make you feel full. It recommends eating vegetables, fruits, oatmeal, pasta, soups, salads and low-fat dairy, which it says is OK, although it also restricts protein sources to lean meat, seafood and poultry. It is healthy since it allows low amounts of saturated fats and rather large amounts of vegetables and fruits. However, it is low on calcium and limits lean protein sources.

Volumetrics: It provides for consuming fewer calories. It advises about the same foodstuffs as Pritkin but restricts fatty food and grain foodstuffs like popcorn, pretzels and crackers. This plan is reasonably healthy given the high amounts of fruit and vegetables. It also recommends eating fewer calories and saturated fats.

The Zone: It is fairly low on carbohydrates yet moderately high on proteins. It encourages low-fat protein foods like fish and chicken plus vegetables, fruits and grains. It is also a healthy diet but short on grains and calcium.

Weight Watchers: They recommend high carbohydrate meals, but are moderate on fats and proteins. A very healthy diet plan and very flexible too. It permits the dieter to plan his own meals rather than offering recipes, although there are WW TV dinners in the supermarkets.

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