7 Keys to Lose Weight

Here are 7 keys you should keep in mind if you want to start losing weight. These keys are simple reminders of what to do and not to do when you're in the process of decrease your weight.

1. Eat a balanced diet, eating each meal in order from healthiest to least healthy foods. That means eat your fruit or vegetables before you eat anything else. Eat as much of them as you want, then eat a couple of servings of your whole grains, nuts and seeds. Next, eat your frozen or canned foods. After that, if you have any hunger left, enjoy a serving of dessert.

2. Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. If you're over 130lbs, you should drink even more than that. Avoid carbonated drinks completely. Drink no more than one glass of fruit juice per week. Doing these things will not only help you lose weight, but will make you feel much better.

3. Eat food. This may sound strange, but if you cease eating food, your body will go into conservation mode. You may lose some weight by not eating over time, but as soon as you start eating again your body will pack fat on to ensure that the next time no food is available it'll have adequate energy reserves. If you follow all of the other weight loss tips, you shouldn't need to starve yourself to lose weight, meaning the weight loss will be more permanent.

4. Exercise regularly. Every fad diet program tries to tell you that there is some way to lose weight that isn't hard work. Well, they don't work long term; you have to work muscles to burn significant calories. If you don't work muscles you not only burn few calories, but your muscles atrophy and become even less capable of burning calories. The truth is that in weight loss you don't exercise to burn calories, you exercise to keep your muscles in good working condition so that your body functions efficiently. When your body is functioning at full efficiency, it will maintain a healthy weight, provided that you are eating a healthy diet in moderate amounts. Exercise is a necessary component to long-term, healthy weight loss no matter what diet program you try.

5. Eat foods as closely as possible to the way they come from nature. Fruits and vegetables that can be plucked from a tree or plant and lightly washed and eaten are generally your healthiest options. Nuts that can be picked, shelled and eaten are another healthy option as long as you don't eat so many as to affect digestion. Grains and seeds are generally healthy, but must in most cases be at least boiled or steamed so they should not be eaten quite as much as fruits and vegetables. Be careful that your grains and seeds are not bleached or over-processed. Be very careful with dairy products that must generally be pasteurized, generally contain antibiotics and other chemicals, and are often heavily processed. Also, you may wish to avoid meats, which contain disease and must be well-cooked to be safe for consumption. The same goes for canned foods, which must have a lot of additives and preservatives added to make them safe for storage.

6. Reduce animal fat and oil consumption. Fat is the most densely packed source of calories. Animal fats and oils are not accompanied by fiber, so they are extremely dense forms of calories.

7. Reduce processed sugar and fructose consumption. Your body very quickly turns these into energy. If your body already has too much energy, it may just convert them straight into fat for storage. Learn to search labels for the sugars row to make comparisons of your meal choices.

There is more than one effective way of dieting; the question is which diet is the right one for you? To learn more about how to choose the right weight loss diet program check out these articles about proven weight loss plans in particular how to get fit through sustainable, but quick weight loss programs.