Diet can mean two very different things; one meaning is something we do in order to lose weight, a set of rules to follow to this end, a second meaning is a general eating habit, which will be different for each person.

But why do people want to lose weight? Sometimes is because they have some health issue that can be resolved or lessened if they drop a few pounds, sometimes it's just too look and feel better. Both are great reasons to lose weight.

There are an awful lot of people out there who seem to think that losing weight is just that, subtracting pounds. But, that is a double edged blade, paying attention to your weight more than how your pants fit can hurt your future progress. This is due to the fact that poor quality weight loss also means that you are just as likely to lose weight in the form of muscle as you are in the form of fat.

I have a large problem with a lot of the mainstream diets out there in they although they help you lose weight, they are often fairly unhealthy and do nothing to help you keep the weight off once it's lost. When a diet prevents you from eating a wide range of foods or forces you to eat a very low amount of calories you will have a much larger chance of failure. You should avoid any of these extreme diets at all costs, both for your health and your long-term weight loss goals.

How Weight is Lost

I will talk a little bit about how weight is lost, and when I say this I'm talking about weight from fat, not water weight or muscle weight. Essentially fat is energy that your body had too much of and is storing for use when food may be in short supply. So, if you deprive your body of energy by eating fewer calories than it requires for its daily functions, your body will turn to other sources for that energy. Those sources are typically fat and muscle. This is why exercise is so important when you want to lose weight, if you don't use your muscles your body won't think it really needs them and will use a lot of muscle for energy instead of fat.

Losing muscle during weight loss will severely hinder your weight loss progress. The act of having muscle means your body needs to burn calories just to keep it alive and around. So if you not only keep the muscle you have but actually add to it a bit your body will need to burn more calories every day just for upkeep, thus helping you continue to lose weight. Keeping your muscle and even adding a little is very beneficial to your weight loss goals. Just having muscle requires energy, so, allowing your body to lose muscle will decrease the amount of sustaining calories your body burns and thus will make it more difficult to continue to burn off fat, creating a weight loss plateau.

This brings me to my next topic: exercise. As much as most of us hate to do it, exercise is incredibly important in high quality weight loss (the loss of body fat as opposed to muscle or just water). However that doesn’t mean you have to go join the local gym and pump iron for 2 hours a day or train to run a marathon, it just means you need to work that muscle a bit so your body keeps it around. There are many different exercises you can do at home that don’t require any additional equipment nor do they demand too much of your time, but will still get the job done. But the best exercise will always be finding something that you enjoy doing, such as swimming, kickboxing, aerobic dancing etc… And remember, finding a partner will help with motivation and boosting the fun factor of it all. So, remember, what you eat is very important in losing weight, but exercise is just as critical. Find a partner, find a sport or other activity that you enjoy, do anything, just as long as it's active. I promise that you will succeed where others so often fail.