Top Ten Ways to Lose Weight and Keep it Off

Go see your doctor. There are certain conditions medications (antidepressants, birth control, etc.) that will cause you to gain weight or make it very difficult to lose weight. Before you do anything crazy (running a marathon for the first time, starting p90x from couch potato) check with your physician.

Set a reasonable goal. Many people start off with some huge number in mind. In my experience it's much easier to say, "I want to lose about 5lbs. this month", instead of aiming to lose 50 lbs at some undetermined time. You Dr. can help you determine a reasonable goal but around a lb or two a week is healthy for most people.

Use a mental image to help you see yourself. Get an outfit in the size you want to end up. You can also use the website at mvm.com to setup a virtual avatar of yourself. You create an account punch in some basic measurements and it gives you a semi-realistic portrayal of your self. Then you can adjust the models weight to see what you would look like at various stages of weight loss. It's not going to be accurate down to the inches but it will get you in the neighbor hood.

Watch what you eat for a week. If you're not logging your food intake you will be surprised at how much food you are actually putting away. Sugary drinks are the worst! One 20 oz bottle of soda can be over 200 calories easy. Drink 3 or 4 of those and that's a large meal you have consumed extra per day.

Figure out your resting metabolic rate. Using the tools on Calorie Count's website you can figure out what your current activity level is and what you're currently burning a given week.

Exercise, it's not a four letter word and you don't realize it but your actually doing some already. Make exercise work for you by tracking what you currently do. Maybe you take a stroll, maybe you chase your kids around, whatever, monitor it. Get a heart rate monitor and start watching your exertion level. Use a website like http://www.triathlontrainingblog.com/?page_id=483 this one to calculate your calories burned.

Add to your exercise routine, a little. Peoples biggest failure in dieting and fitness is taking on to much at first. You can't go from couch potato to p90x level exertion in a week, you will fail and quit. So add a little. Take an extra walk a day. Do some pushups and sit ups when you get up in the morning. Just a little here and a little there.

Measure your calories burned versus your calories consumed. If you have been logging your food your exercise then you should start to see a trend. Do you eat more calories than you consume? Do you eat less? The first knee jerk reaction (especially among women) is to drastically lower their calorie intake. They do something crazy like go for the all lettuce diet. Then their bodies hold onto the weight and they can't lose it. It's called starvation mode. If you consume less than around 1200 calories for a woman you run that risk. We men run that risk at 1500 calories. These aren't hard numbers and you're physique and metabolism will vary, but if you've been dieting and you can't lose it you may not be eating enough.

Look at all the little adjustments and make a plan that fits you. If you work long hours at a demanding job, you are not going to come home and work out for an hour 5 days a week. So find out what you can do and stick with it. You made changes to you life to get the way you are, you need to make changes to change yourself. Make sure they are changes you can live with.

Cheat. I mean it. Go get yourself a little thing of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (You know the little buckets of ice cream) and cheat very now and then. Don't get the half gallon bucket though that's suicide not cheating!