That picture is of someone fat and overweight. Somebody that gets little or no exercise. As a matter of fact – the more weight they gained, the less exercise they got (because it was harder to move around and do things). Anyone fat that says “I can do just as much as a skinny person” is just a liar in most cases. You can definitely be fat and have a level of “fit”, and you can be skinny and be “unfit” (with no muscle mass). But if you are 50 lbs or more overweight, or extremely fat (the picture above would be classified as ‘morbidly obese’) you have a slower metabolism than you could.

Many people blame their “fatness” on a thyroid problem. Sure, some people do have a medical condition like that – but less than 1% of people actually has it (and most that use that excuse have never been tested). You’ve probably heard that when you gain weight and start being less active your body goes into “fat storage mode”. It thinks for some reason that you need all this fat, and the less you do – the more it holds onto. In fact, the more you eat, and the more you sit on your butt the worse it gets. Your metabolism gets lower and lower, you burn less and less calories, and most likely the depression you’re giving yourself (about being so overweight) just makes you eat more and more (making it even worse).

You may be your own worst enemy in the situation, but you can turn it around. If you’re a fat builder – turn yourself into a muscle builder. It doesn’t matter how fat you are – you can start turning that fat into music overnight by working out and being more active. You need to exercise 30-40 minutes everyday in a way that truly makes you sweat.

Working Out Does MORE Than You Think

You need to cut back your food intake and keep track of what you eat, that’s definitely a good start. Some people have the perception that you’re working out simply to turn calories. It’s true that exercise will burn off calories. Did you know that a 220lb person will burn off 12 calories per minute while working out? Working out for 40 minutes will burn off 480 calories. If you eat 3,000 calories per day – that daily workout takes your calorie intake down to 2,520 calories.

What you probably don’t know is that consistently working out will change your metabolism over time (for the better). Even if you’re extremely overweight, you’ll start to build up muscle under your fat (from working out). It will begin to happen over just the first few weeks. You’ll actually begin to GAIN muscle weight as you start to burn off the fat and inches.

What nobody ever told you was, for every pound of muscle you gain – you will burn an additional 50 calories per day off (even while you sleep). So if you work out consistently for say 60 days – and end up building 5 lbs of muscle mass, you will burn an additional 250 calories per day off (even if you’re still quite fat).

You know what they say about “a body in motion – stays in motion”, and if you start the process of getting fit you’ll find this is actually the case. I’m not going to lie – the road is rough (especially the first month), but the rewards are great for those that stick with it. The more time you put in, the greater the payoff is.

Imagine after 2 months being able to say that you burn off 400-500 calories per day by working out and exercise, and (due to gained muscle) you potentially burn an additional 250 calories per day as an added bonus?

You can actually change your own metabolism for the better and turn your life around. Working out and building muscle over time will stockpile energy that burns calories (even while you sleep).

With a large percentage of the world overweight or obese, how to lose weight quickly is on the mind of many people. The problem is, many methods to lose weight quickly aren’t safe or healthy at all. You want your weight loss to be sustainable, repeatable, and compatible with your lifestyle.

Here are some ways to lose weight that can provide satisfying results both short and long term.

Drink Lots of Water: staying hydrated is important when you want to lose weight. Drink several 10 ounce glasses of water per day for faster weight loss. This makes it easier for your body to flush the fat away. If you don’t drink much, your body will think it needs to conserve or retain most of the liquid you consume. Also, the first few weeks much of what the weight you lose is “water weight”, you need to drink water so that you don’t become dehydrated.

Portion Control: losing weight quickly is all about what you eat and put into your body. Most people naturally just try to quit eating to lose weight fast. This is neither effective for the long term goal of keeping off the weight, or healthy. If you don’t eat, your body will try to conserve the food you do consume, making it harder to lose weight. In addition, the weight you do lose fast will mainly also be mostly water (and not real fat). The most sensible way to lose weight fast is by cutting down your portions, but still eating 5-6 times per day with a total 1200-1500 calories.

Physical Activity: many people want to lose weight quickly without doing any exercise at all, and others think that they can lose weight faster by “over-exercising”. The truth is, for proper balance you want to get some kind of physical activity every day that raises your heart rate above 160 for 20-30 minutes. It will release endorphins in the body that help keep you from getting depressed when losing weight, helps you digest food, and creates a lifestyle change that makes it easier to lose weight for the long term.

Cook from Scratch: some people have gained weight over time because they’ve been eating out or cooking convenient boxed and processed food for too long. When you cook from scratch you’ll not only find you’re more in control of your diet, but you’ll specifically find out what food elements you should eat in moderation. Use fresh vegetables and fruit, less starches (carbs), cook with wheat or whole grain, use healthier oils – all will help you lose weight fast.

Lifestyle Change: The key to losing weight fast (and keeping it off) is to embrace it as a new way of life – a lifestyle change. Clean out your cupboards and throw or give away all the food that is not good for you. Get rid of all the processed boxes meal makers, and force yourself to cook healthy meals from scratch with fresh ingredients that are low in fat, sugar, and carbs. Losing weight on a crash diet that doesn’t teach you anthing will only lead to to the yo-yo syndrome of gaining and losing weight repetively for the rest of your life.

Don’t just strive to lose weight quickly, enable yourself to lose it and stay healthy for a lifetime.

My lifestyle change has been dramatic, and I’ve been documenting all of the Weight Loss Recipes we been cooking on my other blog.

1)  Be Open Minded
You may want to try new foods that can incorporate healthier aspects into your diet. This could include eating more fruits and vegetables along with some leaner meats. Also, you may need to put down some of the foods that you have grown accustomed to eating that may include some of the things that you want to avoid. This can help you incorporate some of the other steps into your daily routine and allow you to be able to have an easier diet experience.

2)  Drink, Drink, Drink
It has been proven that if you drink a lot of water your body will be able to cleanse its self of all waste and unwanted vitamins and minerals. Also, water works in your body as a solvent to help break down vitamins and minerals. A rule of thumb is that you should drink two-thirds of an ounce per pound of body weight a day. Therefore if you weigh 120 pounds you should drink 80 oz of water a day.

3)  Watch Your Fat Intake
It has been proven that the fattier your diet is the more likely you are to gain weight and not have a successful time loosing the desired weight. Tests have proven that a person should not consume any more than 25 percent of their diet form fats and these fats should come from non-saturated fats.

4)  Fiber Works Wonders
By increasing your fiber intake you can help suppress your hunger. The fibrous foods are more filling and cause you to eat less. It is recommended that you eat more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to achieve this tip.

5)  Don’t Be Too Sweet
Sugar has been associated with an increase calorie consumption. The sugar its self is not as bad for you as what the increased amounts of fat are. However, it can lead to you wanting to eat more do to the crave that you develop something that is sweet. Therefore, the crave that develops can cause you to want to eat more incorporating into your diet.

6)  Portion Control
Don’t only look at what you are eating but the amount as well. If you are eating healthy but you are eating huge amounts you may be defeating the purpose of eating healthy to begin with. Limit the amounts that you are eating to smaller portions. Also, it’s not bad to eat some things that may not be in your diet. However, you have to control yourself and not allow yourself to eat large quantities of those foods.

7)  Don’t Pull The Trigger
Try to avoid trigger foods. These are foods that once you begin to eat them you find it hard to stop. For a lot of people these kinds of foods include potato chips, nuts, and anything that is real salty or sweet. These foods can put a huge roadblock on your diet if you find yourself eating them a lot.

8)  Reward Yourself
If you have a good week and exceed your goal for the week allow yourself to have a little reward whether it is ice cream or a piece of your favorite cake. Just remember as mentioned before, do not allow yourself to binge eat and consume a lot of whatever the reward may be.

These tips can be really helpful and easy to follow to be able to shed off the unwanted pounds. Many of these tips can be followed and incorporated into your everyday life and give you a jumpstart to your weight loss goals. Just follow these 8 tips and you will be hitting the beaches in no time having one hot body.

I wrote a diet plan (that included a meal plan), a found healthy recipes to use, I replaced junk food with healthy snacks, and I found a better sugar free substitute.  I’ve been trying to cut down how much pop I drink, and I think I’ve done that by about half maybe.  Now I drink 2 – 20 oz diet pops per day, and I was up to 2+ 2 liters per day or more.

I cut down the amount of red meat I eat by 80-90%, I have no cookies or snacks in the house, and only occasional “sugar free” snacks.  Mostly I snack on cucumber, grapes, strawberries, bananas, occasional sugar free ice cream bars or fudgesicles, a few pretzels, sugar free kool-aid or lemonade, and that’s about it.

Each morning I have granola cereal (sometimes with fruit), I drink a few cups of water everyday, and I’ve replaced some things with healthier alternatives (like regular pasta for wheat pasta).

I’ve gone from a size 44 inch waist, to just about 41 inches now, I just barely too big for the size 40 pants in my closet.  I anticipate that the next part will be much harder, because the first month and first bit of weight are ALWAYS the easiest to get off.  It’s water weight and the initial garbage in your body from eating bad.  After 15-20 lbs EVERYONE I’ve ever known hits a wall where they don’t lose as much and it takes seemingly forever to get past that hurdle!

The most I ever weighed was like 308 I think, and the lowest I’ve been down to (that I can remember) in the last say 15 years is in the mid 250′s range.  At that time I was able to get comfortably into size 40 pants (I know – I still have them, it was just a year ago).  But I’ve never gotten down to bottom 250′s – or actually 250 itself.  My goal this month is to (somehow) get down to 250 lbs.

That’s only 10 lbs in one month,  the goal is half of last month!  I may have to just break out the exercise equipment for this one.  That’s probably going to be my next post!

I don’t have to take any pills or insulin, but if I went to the doctor I know he’d probably put my on something.  I’m addicted to caffeine and I drink diet pepsi constantly all day long.  I do drink a few bottles of water on weekdays at work, but many days I drink a can of pop on the way to work, another for lunch, and yet another on the way home.

I used to smoke, but I don’t anymore.  Other than a 3 month jaunt last year, I’ve been off the Marlboro’s now for about 3 years.  I smoked a pack a day or more for about 9 years I think.  Why do I want to lose weight? It’s not as much about the “wanting” to lose weight as it is the “having” to lose weight.  My wife and I have 3 kids, and two them are 17 and 18.  But we also have a 2 year old as well, and he’s giving us a run for our money.  I want to be able to do things with him and be active, in addition to the fact that I’m at a pretty ripe age for heart attack anyway.

My wife says that if I weren’t as active as I was I’d be 500 lbs.  I don’t think I’m that active at all.  I spend 95% of my time online blogging and building web sites.  I sit at a computer all day working on web sites for my day job.  I go from my bed, to my car, to my work desk, to my car, to my couch (and my laptop) back to my bed most every day.  Once a week I mow the lawn and every 10 days or so I pull some weeds in the garden or clean the garage.  I lead a pretty sedentary life.  I have a back condition, but being heavy just makes it worse.

Learning to lose weight and keep it off is a change in lifestyle you have to maintain for the long haul.  The lowest I’ve gotten down to in the last 10-15 years is probably about 250 lbs, and that got me into size 38 jeans.  I just read the other day that the average American waistline is 39 inches for males and 37 inches for females, and currently I’ve 5 inches over that.  I guess my first goal would be to lose 30 lbs and get back to that size 38.  My body felt so much better then.

What can you expect from this diet blog?  The good, bad, and the ugly – all my problems and trials and tribulations losing weight, and all the crazy stuff I’ll try to get where I need to be.  Keep reading, there’s lot more to come!