More and more people, all over the world, are gaining weight, getting obese and morbidly obese, and it's a health risk.
Many of use have battled with our weight, and the size of our waists or thighs, for a long time, and many of us have been on diets for the majority of their lives.
Most of us want to lose weight fast, and not have to give up those lovely calories which we pop into our mouths on a daily basis; which caused the increase in fatness in the first place.
Many diets have been discredited as faddy diets; tough routines and regime which can help you lose weight, but don't do much to re-educate you about the foods which get you fat, and when you stop the strict diet, the weight just comes back on as you return to your unhealthy eating patterns Dieting is not easy.
We like food, and there is an abundance of high fat, high sugar, food, within easy reach of the majority of the wealthy west.
Firstly, you have to commit to changing the way you eat.
These can be small changes, such as, changing from beef to Quorn for the Shepherds pie, or chili and rice.
Quorn is a meat substitute and is extremely low in fat.
Change from full sugar to Half Spoon, or a sugar substitute.
Remove butter or margarine from the shopping list, and get low fat alternatives instead.
Low-fat milk instead of full-fat milk.
Low-fat yogurt, instead of full-fat creamy yogurt.
Grilled chicken without the skin, instead of deep-fried, skin and all.
These small changes can help make a difference in the long run.
If you don't compensate with any new additions to your 'normal' diet, then you will lose weight slowly, and over a long period.
But if you wanted to lose more, you can perhaps go for a low-carbs, wholesome, sugar free diet.
It depends on how much weight you want to lose, and how fat you are, how much you eat, and what kind of food you like.
There are so many diets available these days.
Every magazine on the rack has a diet in it, often more than one.
But the main thing is, to reduce the amount of calories going in, and increase the amount of calories used in exercise.
One aspect of dieting which must be mentioned is, that we need to feed our muscles, so exercise is really essential for weight loss.
By moving about more the muscle uses more 'food' and will get it from the stored fat on our bodies, unless, of course, you are over eating, in which case it will get it straight from your digestive system, which will then go store the rest as fat, on your bones.
Muscle weighs more than fat.
Take a pound of butcher's raw beef suet, and a pound of lean beef steak and see the difference in the size.
The beef steak is much denser, and will take up far less space than the flabby fat.
Therefore, if you exercise, you might actually get smaller without losing much actual body weight.
Some tips for dieting success.
1.
Always have a good breakfast - it helps get your metabolism going.
Eat whole-grains, or protein food which are low in fat, eat low-fat yogurts and fruit.
2.
Water, is the stuff of life.
Drink plenty of water throughout the day, it helps trick your tummy into feeling full and less hungry.
Try not to drink sugary sodas and drink less coffee.
Alcohol is bad for the diet as it is full of calories and can ruin your resolve to the diet.
Water helps the digestion and is good for the skin and brain - keeps your hydrated.
3.
Keep track of the carbohydrates and keep them low.
Eat good carbs like vegetables and fruit, and complex carbs like oats, and stay away from refined stuff like white bread, white flour, white rice, white sugar.
4.
Slow weight loss is better than fast weight loss, because after the diet is over and the target weight is reached, people often do back to their old ways, and the weight comes back on, plus some more.
This is the called "yo-yo" dieting.
When we lose weight too rapidly the metabolism can slow down, so your body is making better more efficient use of the small amount of food you are consuming, resulting in a slowing down of the rate of weight loss.
This can get very frustrating.
5.
Use food supplements to make certain you get all the recommended daily vitamin and nutrients.
Healthy weight loss is about 2lbs per week.
Which is not a small amount.
Think of it as a bag of sugar or 4 packs of butter, each week, gone.
Great! However, it is not good eating the wrong things in your 1200 calorie per day diet.
A diet of buttered muffins would not be good for you.
So chose healthy foods, and get some exercise.
Increasing your exercise is easily done.
As with the little changes to the contents of the fridge, gradually bringing down the fat content of the foods you eat, exercise can be introduced slowly.
Go for a walk.
Take the dog, walk to the post box instead of driving around there on the way to work.
Polish the car yourself instead of having someone else do it.
Gardening is a good exercise and you get a tidy garden at the end of it.
Some more ideas, about keeping moving.
When taking the bus to work, get off early and walk the few stops at the end of the journey, or go further up the road and get on a couple of stops before your normal stop.
By the end of four weeks, you may have walked an extra couple of miles.
This is good.
By the end of the year, well, just think about how good your legs will look from all that walking.
And follow the weight loss tips for a healthy way to lose that excess fat for good.