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Eating a low-fat diet is a no-brainer if you are keeping your calories in check. A filling 300-calorie meal will almost certainly be low in fat. And let’s not forget that fat is not always a bad thing. Diets rich in monounsaturated fats have produced weight loss. My first diet consisted of a peanut butter sandwich almost every day (who says they’re just for kids?). Peanuts are high in monounsaturated fat, which is part of a healthy diet. Saturated fats are the ones to avoid, and if you notice a food is very high in saturated fat, you should probably limit your intake of that particular food. Oh, and if you want one of those peanut butter sandwiches, hold the jelly and be sure to use whole wheat bread.
Dietary fat can be a tightrope walk. Studies have suggested that as much as 90% of bodyfat comes from dietary fat intake. On the other hand, dietary fat is needed to carry certain vitamins to your body, and helps the to absorb into your system. Dietary fat also supplies you with essential fatty acids, which is not manufactured in your body.

I can hear the complaints… “So now what?” Well carbohydrates are your body’s fuel and protein helps build and maintain lean muscle as well as provides amino acids. Fat has its positive uses, too, but most Western diets consist of far too much dietary fat and calories.

Determine how many calories you need in a day to maintain your weight. The only true way to do this is through trial and error. Divide your daily calories by the number of meals you eat per day, which should be 4 to 6 per day. Then choose your foods wisely. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, along with lean meat, poultry, and pork. These simple foods are the foundation of a successful diet, and it’s almost impossible to fail if you stick with them. They are low in calories and high in nutrients. You’ll feel full without eating more calories than you need. Forget about watching your carbs, as long as you’re not taking in a lot of simple carbs such as sugar.

I’ve always said that if you eat a sensible meal that can fill you without being high in calories, you really don’t have to concern yourself with fat or carbs.  Junk food is usually to high in calories (think fast food burgers that reach 1000 calories) or not filling at all (like candy). If you stick with fruit, vegetables, and lean meat, you really only need to focus on portions rather than fat and carbs.

If you’ve been following a particular weight loss system, but you’re still having problems, here are a few suggestions to fine-tune your program and give you a better chance at success. Let’s take a look at some simple solutions to those problems, so that if you want to stick with one of those programs, you still can.

Have a free day or free hour.
Several systems want you to be rigid except for a “free” time, hour, day, etc. Bad idea. People will often cram as many calories into their bodies as they can during this time, destroying the progress they achieved since their last “free” time. Have a couple of free meals a week instead. Go to a buffet, restaurant, or even fast food location. Have your meal, enjoy a soda or beer, even add a desert, and then stop. You’ll feel good about your meal, and then later you will feel good that you didn’t continue eating. Don’t feel guilty about what you ate. It also allows you the flexibility to go out on a whim, or along with friends. Just make sure you aren’t doing it more than a couple times a week. You will be able to enjoy your meal without guilt, knowing you have stuck to your guns all week.

You should only drink water
Time for a reality check. If you find water pleasant enough to drink, that’s great. In fact, I recommend trying various brands of water for the one you find the best tasting, then stocking your fridge with bottles of that brand. When you’re thirsty and open the fridge, a nice cold bottle of water might just sound great. Many people don’t find water palatable enough to drink 24/7, or at least need to adjust to drinking only water. There are options. Diet sodas are OK, but because of some lingering health questions about their sweeteners, try not to go overboard. In fact, I like to rotate between different artificial sweeteners so that I don’t get too much of any one of them. Diet Rite and Propel use Splenda (sucralose), while most other diet drinks use Aspartame. I don’t endorse drinking these in large quantities, but they are fine in moderation. I suggest allowing yourself one treat a day in the drink department, such as a diet soda. You’ll enjoy it far more than if you were to drink them all day long. Try to find ways to make water more palatable, too. Ice-cold water seems to “taste” better than room temperature water. Try adding a twist of lemon. Tea is also a great no-calorie drink. If you can drink it unsweetened, you are ahead of the game. If not, try adding small quantities of sugar or a sugar substitute, but don’t go overboard. Remember that sugar is a form of carbohydrate, which will turn into fat if you consume too much. Be careful.

Daily Exercise
If you’re really gung-ho, go ahead and exercise 6 days a week, but don’t feel guilty if you tire of this schedule and scale back to a few days a week. And make sure to rotate through various body parts, giving ample rest to each one throughout the week. If you’re not excited about exercising, start exercising moderately 3 days a week. If you’re willing and able, move up from there to 4 days a week. Then up to 5 or 6 if you want. But if 3 days is as much as you can put into it, be happy with that. Even 2 days a week would benefit you. Don’t feel that exercise is an all-or-nothing undertaking. Do what you can, when you can. Any exercise is better than none. If you’re looking to get a ripped physique, you’ll have to live in the gym. If you’re looking to lose weight, you’ll just need to get there a couple of times a week. Combined with the diet, the pounds will come off easily. Under the other systems you are a failure for “only” putting in 3 days a week. I absolutely disagree with that thinking. It is also not a good idea to begin with a rigorous exercise regimen. Start off slowly. Honestly, even if you’re young, you should run your exercise plan by your doctor. It sounds cliché, but if your health is the main priority, why not?

If you find yourself doing a 2-day or 3-day program, don’t worry. It just adds a little more importance to your diet program, as you are burning less calories per week. You can definitely lose weight without daily exercise, to the chagrin of most fitness experts.

You can transform your body in a few weeks
The idea is to get in shape, to lose weight, and to hopefully add some muscle. If you start off with those six-pack abs in mind, you are setting yourself up to fail. Progress will come in small steps. You might lose as much as 2 pounds a week, but aim for a pound a week. Your first week you might lose a lot of weight, which is to be expected, typically in the form of retained water. Don’t ever think that losing a pound a week is a failure. This isn’t The Biggest Loser TV show, where people under grueling regimens lose 8 pounds a week. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You are making life-long changes. Two pounds is the upper limits of what you should lose in a week. That means your body is experiencing a net loss of 1000 calories a day, and that’s a lot, especially if you only need around 2000 calories to survive. Eat six small meals a day and I guarantee you won’t be hungry. In fact, you will most likely find yourself eating some of those meals when you’re not even hungry.
Keep your carbs low, protein high, fat low
That’s a lot to think about. It’s also largely unnecessary in many cases. As I’ll explain later, carbs, fat, and protein are all forms of calories. It seems absurd to only watch one form of calorie or worse, to consume too much of one type while cutting back too much on another. By looking at the big picture, we’ll keep all of them in check without having to look at each one individually. You have to realize that the low carb craze was a fad that thankfully died out, yet a few hangers-on remain out there. While there is some evidence that cutting carbs short-term results in more weight loss, long term there is probably no weight loss benefit, and perhaps even some damage if you cut them too much. See my blog about watching fat, or actually not watching it, for more info.

In short, if you’re following a weight loss system and you’re struggling with success, take a look at ways such as the ones above in which you can tweak it to fine tune it to your own needs. The authors of those systems want you to stick to them by the letter, but in the real world only you know what you’re capable of achieving.

I started off with Body For Life, but found several features of it simply didn’t mesh with the fiber of who I am. I tried, but ended up reading several systems and creating a sort of “weight loss system salad” in which I picked out the elements which were best suited for me. I lost 60 pounds in all, and in fact lost too much weight and had to gain some back!