Why does your body build up excess fat? By eating more food than we can burn up through physical exercise and our normal bodily processes.

Foods furnish the energy that is measured in units called calories. If we eat more calories from food and drink than we burn up through exercise, the extra calories are stored away in the form of body fat. The body acts as a bank for fat. If a person continues to take in excessive calories, the amount of fat in your bank grows.

You can reduce the amount of fat in your bank by making withdrawals. There are two safe ways to do this: (1) eat less high-fat foods; and (2) increase your physical activity to burn the excess calories.

The best way to reduce your fat storage is a combination of eating less high-fat foods and exercising your body.

Your body always counts the calories that you eat, even when you forget that you've taken in those calories. The body never lies! Everything that makes your body fat enters your body through your mouth. If you pay attention to what you eat, you gain control of the body fat storage that accumulates.

There are certain times in your life when you are more likely to retain fat in your body. The first is aging. As you grow older, your body requires fewer calories to fuel basic processes. Unless food intake is gradually reduced or physical activity is increased, the extra pounds are sure to pile up.

Most women gain extra weight during pregnancy and at menopause. A woman's metabolism helps to determine how easily she can lose the "baby" weight after her child is born.

There are many lose-weight-fast programs that "guarantee" that you can lose excess pounds without effort. Some of these may use drugs or herbs that can be harmful to your body. Some of them say you can eat a certain food or beverage because they are "ignored" by your body. But, calories always count toward your body fat storage no matter what foods they come from.

When you first begin a weight loss program, it seems you can lose weight faster at the start. A lot of that first weight that you lose is water weight. You may be exercising more strenuously and losing water weight by sweating it off. That doesn't mean, however, that you can go into a steam room and lose a significant amount of weight by sweating it off.

The moral of this story is: Eat smaller portions of healthy foods and give your body the exercise it needs to keep it fit and in shape.