These difficulties are the reason that sales of diet aids are so consistently high. People who are trying to lose weight are constantly looking for any help they can find to increase their weight loss and maintenance success.

If you need to lose weight, it's critical that you make changes to your diet and your physical activity level. The following suggestions can help you to begin shedding pounds without resorting to extreme dieting measures:

•Substitute fish and chicken for beef and pork most days of the week.

•Eliminate white flour from your diet. Eat whole grains, such as 100% whole wheat bread instead.

•Eliminate refined sugar from your diet. Use artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners like honey instead.

•Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables will provide more anti-oxidants and fiber, along with fewer calories than processed vegetables, particularly those in sauce.

•Increase your fiber intake - Extra fiber will help you feel full longer, helping you to reduce the number of calories you're eating without feeling deprived.

•Watch the fat- Reduce the saturated fat in your diet. Avoid any food with hydrogenated fats or trans fats. Get your fats from olive oil, canola oil, fish and nuts.

•Get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days of the week. Walking is a great way to get in your exercise, and it's convenient because you can do it anywhere. You should also get in strength training 3 times a week for 30 minutes each session. Strength training will help you build muscle, which will help you burn more calories even when resting.

Making these changes should allow you to lose weight gradually without feeling hungry. Only when you make changes that you can sustain for the long term will you be able to take off the weight and keep it off.

However, while it's critical to understand that diet and exercise will always be the keys to maintaining a healthy weight, it's always nice to find little tricks that make losing weight and keeping it off just a bit easier.

One substance that does seem to hold promise in weight loss is green tea. Many studies have shown that the consumption of green tea along with a healthy diet can help you lose more weight than dieting alone.

It is believed that green tea's potent anti-oxidants combined with the caffeine in the tea help speed up the metabolism and burn fat. In addition, some studies have even shown that green tea can inhibit the absorption of dietary fat, meaning that less of the fat you eat ends up as body fat.

However, one interesting study suggests that green tea's effectiveness may be negated if you consume too much other caffeine in your diet. A study conducted by Maastricht University in The Netherlands attempted to show how green tea would affect participants attempting to maintain a recent weight loss. It showed less promising results regarding the consumption of green tea, particularly when the participants were high consumers of caffeine overall.

In this study, 104 overweight and moderately obese men and women were put on a low calorie diet for 4 weeks. During the four week period, the participants lost an average of 7.5% of their body weight. During the 13 week maintenance period, the participants were fed either green tea or a placebo. The participants did not show statistically different results between the group receiving green tea and the group receiving the placebo.

However, the study did show that participants who had overall high caffeine consumption regained more of the weight they lost than those who had a lower overall caffeine consumption.* When you consider these results compared with other studies where additional caffeine consumption was restricted, and a correlation between the use of green tea and weight loss was observed, it suggests that excess caffeine use may negate green tea's possible positive effects.

If you look at the entire body of research on green tea's ability to enhance weight loss, it seems very promising, in spite of the results of this particular study. And, the good news is, that even if green tea doesn't help you lose weight, it's very healthy for you and has no side effects.

So, you have nothing to lose by trying green tea as a weight loss supplement. Green tea's anti-oxidants may hold significant power in helping you avoid diseases like cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's. In addition, regular consumption of green tea may reduce the signs of aging and help you live a longer and healthier life. And, in addition, you may find your weight loss efforts easier and more effective than ever.