Now basically, we all have an idea of how to lose weight, don’t we? So why do we find it so hard? Every single diet on the market no matter how fantastic it is will not work without one vital ingredient, WILL POWER! Unfortunately that is not something we can purchase from the store, that I am afraid to say, is something that we have to supply ourselves, and without it, every single diet that you attempt will fail. There are some good diets around, and one diet that suits one person will not strictly suit another. So you may find that you and your best friend are going to start a diet together, you friend may be going great guns and losing pound after pound, but you, are not. It’s frustrating, but it’s a fact of life that we are all made up differently. Personally I don’t recommend diets as such. Once you restrict your calories, your body will think that there is a food shortage, and it will go into starvation mode. Once in starvation mode it will slow down your metabolism to conserve calories. You see our bodies have been programmed from way back when there was not an abundance of food, we had to hunt our food so our meals were not regular. The metabolism regulated the usage of our calories so that in periods of food shortage, we did not waste away and starve. Now in this day and age there is always food to hand, but our bodies are not aware of this. When you skip a meal your body will go on starvation alert and slow that metabolism right down, which means next time your eat, your body is going to hang right on to those calories and store as much of them as it can as fat. So, what’s the solution? There has been tons of research and in my opinion the way forward is this. To keep your metabolism ticking over at a regular pace you need to eat regular meals, regular small meals every 2.5 - 3 hours, try to include protein in these meals (meat, preferably lean meat i.e. chicken, turkey, tuna) as protein doesn’t shoot your blood sugar right up and plummet it back down as sugary foods would. Keep your daily calories to a guideline level, (check out your ideal consumption online somewhere). The next part is something that you are not particularly going to like, but, it’s the only way forward, you need to EXERCISE!! You need cardio exercise 3-4 times a week for approx 40mins at a time, and very important, you need to do weight training, as the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Ladies don’t freak out, I am not saying that you need to look like Arnie, but you need muscle tone, and the more you have the more fat you will burn, even while you are sleeping! Good Luck!