Weight Loss Tips for Real People

Along with giving up smoking many people include weight loss in their New Year's resolutions, and with obesity rates in the United States reaching nearly epidemic proportions it's probably a smart goal to have. Studies have shown that losing even five percent of your body weight is quite beneficial.

I come from a family that is, shall we say, not in any danger of being underweight. My mother was always a "heavy" girl, and she did end up living with and dying from the side effects of many years of obesity. I was mostly slim as a young girl and I stayed that way into my teenage years. Then I had two children and was diagnosed with a chronic illness which really caused my weight to fluctuate. In all honesty I also got pretty lazy about eating well and getting enough exercise. One day the scale started to get pretty close to a number I had never been anywhere near, and I was forced to admit what I already knew: my weight was getting out of hand. I wasn't in dangerous territory yet, but it was clear I was headed down a road similar to the one that cost my mother her life at the young age of forty nine. It was time for some changes!

With all the methods and research out available about dieting and weight loss it can be pretty difficult to decide what is smart advice and what is totally useless or even unsafe. I was overwhelmed at the thought of having to totally change the way I ate and lived. I just started slowly changing one little thing at a time, and over the course of about a year I lost thirty five pounds. It sounds like a long time, but I know that I did more than crash diet. I changed the way I ate and the way I feel about food, and I changed my body for the better.

Here are some tips that really helped me in my efforts to lose weight.