Every year starts off the same for a lot of people with the desire to lose weight.  January first rolls around and the number one item on your list for things to get done is drop about five to ten pounds.  Over the next two or three days you work really hard, eat right, maybe do some exercise, then step on the scale and low and behold your worse night mare occurs.  The scale reads a loss of only a half of a pound, or worse no loss at all.

By day four you pretty give up because in your mind after three days of eating healthy, well gosh darn it, your body should just give in and drop the weight.  Here is a quick question you can ask yourself.  How long did it take for you to put that weight on?  Chances are it was not three days.  So can you realistically expect to lose all of that weight in three days?  Of course not.

You are in luck.  The information I am about to give you will help you achieve the results you are looking for in a slow, steady pace, which is the best way to lose weight and keep it off.

Before we begin let me say this.  Stay off the scale.  Nothing discourages people more than when the scale does not give them the reading they were hoping for.  Weigh yourself first thing in the morning on the same day every week.  For instance I weight myself on Tuesday mornings directly after the morning shower.  I make a mental note of my weight so I can write it down later on the chart I am keeping. 

To lose weight on a consistent and steady basis you need to keep your metabolism running.  Your metabolism is the process by which your body burns fat.  It can run high for a number of reasons but more commonly because you are exercising or when you consume food.

In order to keep it running while you are consuming food, you must be constantly putting food in your body.  But not just any food, but the right foods.  The right foods are lean proteins such as egg whites or egg substitutes, chicken breast, lean meats, fish and so on.  Combine that with healthy carbohydrates such as multi grain breads and cereals, brown rice and potatoes, and green vegetables like asparagus, spinach and broccoli.

Constantly eating does not mean you should be shoving food in your mouth every second of the day.  What it means is consuming smaller meals periodically throughout the day.  Studies have shown that consuming one well balanced meal every two and a half to three hours works best. 

Each meal should consist of an equal portion of the protein, carbohydrate and green vegetable sources that we talked about earlier in this article.  You could weight out your portion sizes to be around four to six ounces, but who wants to carry around a scale with them everywhere they go?

A portion size should be the same size as your clenched fist.  So if you were to make a fist, that would be the size of a portion of each of the food groups. 

If you were to follow these helpful tips you will lose the most weight in your first week, typically 4 to 6 pounds.  Then your body will tail off to average about a pound and a half to two pounds each week.  As you can see you will be able to lose your weight in no time, but you will do it properly and most importantly you will not be starving yourself.

Just remember to get a complete physical from your primary care physician prior to starting your exercise program.

About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pays them for their articles.  You can also follow Bruce on Twitter.

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www.scoobysworkshop.com Good nutrition is the secret to both losing fat and gaining muscle, in this video I show you how to eat 6 inexpensive, nutritious meals a day without cooking or shopping. This video is in response to the hundreds of people who have written me saying they knew their nutrition was horrible but felt powerless to improve it because of the schedule constraints of their work, school, or life. Eating 6 small, well balanced meals a day is easy when you know how and once your nutrition is on track you will find it easy to reduce bodyfat to show those 8-pack abs and gain muscle too. The one thing you need to do though is get rid of the idea that food always has to be tasty. Jack LaLane had a great saying “If it tastes good, spit it out!” and its so true. If something is that good then its most likely got too much sugar, salt, fat or artificial flavors. When something tastes really, really good your first thought should be – “whats in this?”. Think about what you are eating! If what makes it taste good is the nasty stuff mentioned above then spit it out. Obviously if you are eating a carrot or an apple and it tastes good this doesnt apply. The saying is designed to make you think about everything you eat. If you dont know what is on the list of ingredients and its nutritional content then SPIT IT OUT! Here are the meals I eat during the video 5:00am coffee and protein powder mixed in water (about 100 cals) 6:30am oatmeal with flax and protein powder (about …
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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