What Are The Best Ways To Lose Weight?

   How many times have you seen celebrities who previously endorsed weight  loss programs and then a few years later, you notice that they've gained  the weight back (with a few extra pounds for good measure)? I know of a  few cases where this happened. What always amazed me was how anyone with  unlimited financial resources could really find it difficult to determine  the best ways to lose weight and keep it off.

It would seem that if a person had the financial resources available to  hire private trainers with personal Pilates equipment, complete home gyms  and personal chefs, being able to lose weight and keep it off should be a  breeze. However, this obviously wasn't the case.

As a person who was once almost 100 pounds overweight, I can certainly  relate to the level of difficulty in finding the best ways to lose weight.  I can also tell you first hand how hard it can be to keep the weight off  afterwards as well. It seemed like all of the diet plans I'd used had a  "rebound" factor built in which always returned the lost weight with a  little extra for good measure. This was such a depressing phenomenon  because it was so difficult to lose the weight in the first place.

What Are The Best Ways To Lose Weight?

It was beginning to seem like I was simply going to have to resign myself  to being overweight the rest of my life. This was definitely not an  acceptable option for me but finding a truly effective way to lose weight  and keep it off seemed to elude my most earnest attempts. Forget about the  "Best way to lose the weight", I would have settled for any plan that  actually worked. Out of almost total desperation, I finally decided to  discard everything I thought I knew about losing weight and carefully  study my personal eating habits and see if I could determine the "cause  and effect" of all of the foods which I normally consumed. This would turn  out to be the best decision I could have possibly made.

For my first step, I began a diet journal immediately and began to list  all of the contents for every product I typically consumed. This list  included all of the suspicious items with their respective quantities.  After my list was complete, it was time to take a close look and determine  if there were any particular items which "stood out" from the rest. There  certainly was!

The results of this first step truly amazed me. It became quickly apparent  that there was a disproportionate amount of fat grams in my diet. I later  learned that my daily fat intake was actually a lot more than I'd  calculated initially. While keeping my daily journal of foods consumed, I  proceeded to reduce my daily fat intake and closely monitor the "cause and  effect." It didn't take very long to determine that I had stumbled on to  something really big! My first week I lost eight pounds and almost a full  2" off of my waistline. I knew I could reduce my daily fat intake even  further and for my second week, that is exactly what I did.

The second week yielded very positve results as well but were not quite as  impressive as the first week. I lost 5 pounds the second week for a total  of 13 pounds weight loss and 3 inches off of my waist. However, being an  engineer by profession, it was difficult to ignore the pattern of  regression I was seeing. If I lost 8 pounds during week 1 and only 5  pounds for week 2, it would seem likely that week 3 would yield less  progress and in the following weeks I would eventually see a plateau. Then  the dreaded weight would return with interest. I was trying to be  optimistic still, but admittedly, I was a bit apprehensive about the  possibility of this being just another disapointment instead of being the  best way for me to lose weight and keep it off.

Despite the slowing progress, I chose to continue this method and found  that after week #3, my weight loss went down to 3.5 pounds. By this time,  I had also reduced my daily fat intake to about as low as I figured I  could really live with. So the question now is, what is going to happen if  I continue on this same course?

What Are The Best Ways To Lose Weight?

Week number 4 concluded with quite a pleasant surprise. I lost an  additional 3.5 lbs. At this point, I was also noticing that my energy  level had also improved dramatically. I felt a lot better and it was quite  obvious to everyone around me that this diet definitely "agreed" with me.  Perhaps being 20 pounds lighter was not such a bad start. But I still had  a long way to go.

In the following weeks, it became quite apparent that by eating this way,  I was continuing to lose 3.5 pounds every week. The level of weight loss  never diminished from this number. After the fourth month, I decided to  get daring and started to allow myself the indulgence of increasing my  daily fat intake by about 50%. This allowed certain foods to be enjoyed  once again on a somewhat limited basis. At this point, I had already lost  well over 60 lbs. and it was quite obvious that my weight was completely  within my control. Despite the increase in fat intake, the extra pounds  still continued to melt away. Although the weekly weight loss was not  quite as dramatic. Even so, 1.5 pounds per week was still pretty  impressive. Especially when it remained consistent, week after week.

This all took place well over twenty years ago. Does this plan work long  term? It definitely worked for me. I have had no problem whatsoever since  I learned this method for controlling my weight. I lost a little over 90  lbs altogether. I am the same weight today as I was after I lost that  weight back in 1990.