Natural Weight Loss Success Story

Losing weight naturally takes hard work, dedication and patience. However, it is the best way to ensure permanent success when trying to reach your weight loss goals. Losing weight naturally means altering the foods you eat to limit the amount of calories you consume while making sure your body still gets the nutrients it needs to function healthfully and properly. While every natural weight loss success story is different and particular to the individual, there are certainly common threads that are contributing factors in every case.

To Start

• Anyone who has ever lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off will tell you it takes time and a solid commitment to your goals. You need to acknowledge that losing a significant amount of weight requires a change in lifestyle. You cannot expect this to happen overnight.

Changes in Diet

• Slowly begin to make reasonable changes in your diet. You may want to start by cutting back on refined carbohydrates that simply turn into sugar in your bloodstream since they do not contain anything your body needs that you will not get elsewhere. Eat smaller portions at meals. This can be achieved by eating healthy and satisfying snacks such as fruits, vegetables, yogurt and nuts between each meal to curb your appetite. It is best to cut out dessert completely. However, if you feel that this will make it impossible to succeed, limit dessert to once a week or find low calorie alternatives such as fruits with fat-free whipped cream or pudding made with skim milk.

Changes in Exercise

• Exercise will not only help you lose weight more efficiently, it will also benefit your overall health. According to a study, detailed in The Washington Post, daily exercise can add up to four years to the average person's life. Add exercise into your daily routine by starting with small goals like walking one mile, three times each week. Slowly work your way to bigger goals like jogging for 45 minutes, five to six times each week. This, coupled with a healthier diet, is guaranteed to result in natural, steady weight loss.

Why Natural?

• The promises presented by fad diets, diet pills and detoxification programs seem appealing, but they are often deceiving. Losing weight unnaturally through these methods may work to shed pounds quickly, but you run the probable risk of gaining the weight back when you come off the diet. If the diet is not something you can sustain as a lifestyle change, it is usually better to forget.

Some Helpful Tips

• The following are 10 tips that have been medically proven to help people lose weight naturally.
  1. Keep a detailed food journal.
  2. Exercise every day.
  3. Consume three servings of calcium-rich foods each day.
  4. Eat protein at every meal.
  5. Eat breakfast.
  6. Do not go more than four to five hours without eating.
  7. Be patient (losing one to two pounds each week is a healthy expectation when losing weight naturally).
  8. Find a friend with whom you can share fitness goals; you can get support online through websites like Sparkpeople.com.
  9. Fill up on colorful fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains; you will get plenty of fiber and vitamins which will fill you up and keep you satisfied without any added calories or fat.
  10. Reward yourself, but stay away from using food as the prize.