Now, if you are fighting the battle of bulge and you really, really want to lose weight, then you might want to sit down calmly for a few minutes and list down what your "weight loss philosophy" is. How do you think anyone should go about losing weight ?

Do you feel ...

a. They should go on a crash diet, starve themselves for weeks

b. They should spend every waking hour on the treadmill and "just sweat it out"

c. Perform abdominal crunches till they are blue in the face

d. Get all the fat sucked out of their body by methods like liposuction

e. Build bulging muscles so that the increased metabolism will eat away all the fat

Or do you think the answer should be all of the above?

Well, if you are to do two or more of the things mentioned in the list above, you sure might lose some weight. But the results are not likely to last long as it would be very difficult to make such a stressful routine a part of your everyday life. It would indeed be very difficult to keep doing stuff like that and still enjoy your life.

And what happens when someone does not really enjoy something they do ? Well, chances are sooner or later they will quit and pretty soon all the weight they may have lost will be back.

Is that what your weight loss philosophy is?

Well, if that is true, you might want to read every word that follows as if they are the best words you will ever read in your life again.

The only way to lose weight and stay healthy for good is to have a healthy lifestyle - one that you really enjoy, one that fulfills you and satisfies you.

Let's repeat that again - you have to adopt a very healthy lifestyle and you have to enjoy your lifestyle with all your heart. You have to have a good time doing things that are healthy for your body.

So what is the most important thing that you have to be doing ? You HAVE to EAT RIGHT. That is all there is to it. Really. All you would have to do is ...

EAT RIGHT. EAT RIGHT. EAT RIGHT.

You have to eat ONLY fresh and natural foods that are healthy for your body - fresh fruits, raw vegetables, nuts and sprouts. You can eat them all day long. You can munch on a fruit or a vegetable whenever you feel like eating. Whenever you feel the slightest pangs of hunger. You can eat all you want to eat, just when you want to eat. No restrictions whatsoever.

And you will have to quit eating ALL junk foods, processed foods, meats, poultry, fish and all dairy products. And you will want to give up drinking soda, alcohol, beer and anything else that harms your body.

So here it is in a nutshell - eat delicious fruits and vegetables all day long, whenever you feel like eating. Feeling depressed ? Grab a fruit to eat. Feeling low ? Drink two large glasses of delicious vegetable and fruit juices. Feast on delicious fruits, vegetables, nuts and sprouts like there is no tomorrow. Eat like a glutton without the slightest guilt. These foods are good for your body.

Give up eating all kinds of junk food and processed foods, meats, poultry, all dairy products, fish and the like.

That is all there is to losing weight and staying in great shape. All you have to do it is make it your lifestyle. Your body might thank you for it in ways you would not expect.

Note : If you have some medical condition like diabetes then you might want to consult your doctor and get to know what fruits, vegetables and nuts you can eat.

Depending on how fast you need to, there really aren't quick ways to lose weight. But there are a few things you can do to lose weight faster than you might on a regular diet. Below are the tops five things you can do to lose weight a bit faster than normal.

1. Eat. Yes that's right. There are certain foods you can eat that increase your metabolism. One of these foods is high protein meats, and dairy. The best meat for you is white turkey breast, meaning the unprocessed deli kind of course. It has high amounts of protein and low amounts of fat. Fish is also a good meat to eat that is high in protein and low in fat. Dairy helps you lose weight too. Eating as much as 3 servings a day will help you increase your metabolism, eat the lowest fat you can handle.

2. Eat More. Vegetables and Fruits also help you burn more fat faster. One of the reasons is that so many of them contain few calories. For many fruits and vegetables it actually takes your body more calories to consume them than you take in when you consume them. These are called negative calorie foods. You can have up to 10 servings of negative calorie foods a day.

3. Exercise. Raising your heart rate raises your metabolism, so exercising, especially cardio, like running, anything that gets you moving fast and sweating, will help you out. You will also want to exercise different ways on different days. You want to exercise 30-60 minutes a day if you can, and on one day do cardio and the next strengthening then back to cardio the next day. You need to give your muscles a rest in between workouts.

4. Change it up. To make sure you don't reach a plateau, where you stop losing weight and kind of just stay in one place, you will want to do different exercises. Switch it up every couple of weeks.

5. Be accountable. Have a friend or spouse who help you keep track that you are eating right, exercising and drinking enough water everyday.

Sick of all the conflicting ideas about how to lose weight? It's no wonder most of us are still overweight, we don't even know where to begin!

Here are 5 proven method to shedding the excess fat once and for all:

#1 - Avoid processed starches and sugars

Processed starches such as white bread and refined sugars found in most "low-fat" foods contain very little nutritional value. They are loaded with empty calories which will pack on the pounds in no time.

#2 - Eat foods low on the GI scale

Most high GI foods will spike your blood sugar level, prompting your pancreas to release insulin. When insulin is released, it suppresses the hormones glucagon and growth hormone. These are the hormones that cause your body to burn fat! Check out http://www.glycemicindex.com for foods low in GI.

#3 - Eat more "healthy fats"

Increasing your intake of healthy fats will give you a boost in energy levels, improve your mood, strengthen your joints and improve your skin. And if less than 10% of your daily calories come from fats, your bodys starvation mechanism can be triggered... which is the absolute worst thing for fat loss!

#4 - Eat 4-6 times a day (no, seriously)

Many people ask me why you have to eat more regularly. The reason is simple - so your body doesn't go into starvation mode. The more often you eat, the faster your metabolism becomes. I find it absurd that this one fact is ignored by almost every fad diet plan today.

#5 - Avoid carbs at night

Eating carbs at night promotes fat storage while you sleep. Instead, replace those starchy carbs with fibrous carbs such as a green veggie salad.

There you have it, follow these five simple steps and you'll be well on your way to achieving the body of your dreams. The next step is to incorporate an exercise and strength building program that will shed those excess pounds at lightning speed, and keep the fat off for life!

If you are struggling with your weight loss, then let me give you 2 quick fixes for your weight loss workouts. These small changes to your workout program will help you burn more fat and lose weight.

Have you ever had a friend or co-worker tell you a story, but they end up giving you a little too much information? A bit of the story that they just didn't need to tell you, making the situation a little awkward.

Happens all the time, right?

Well, the same thing happens for a lot of people with fitness information. You read one article saying X, while another says Y. All in all, it leaves you with too much information and you probably end up more confused and frustrated than you were before getting the information.

I get a lot of questions from people who are in precisely that situation. They have so much info from so many sources that they don't know where to start.

Even worse, some of you start obsessing over details. Fitness and nutrition minutia that won't make a darn difference at the end of the day. Sometimes these obsessions lead people to go to extremes, and you can end up worse off than if you had done nothing at all!

Recently a reader sent me his program that was full of extra mini-workouts at different times of the day, low-carb eating during the week followed by a carb re-feed on the weekend, and all sorts of other odds and ends that needed to be sorted out.

His goal was to look good on the beach, but his exercise and nutrition obsessions had him going the wrong way (too much cardio and not enough calories - you'll never build muscle that way).

If you, or your clients are like this, then try to remember one thing...and that is:

Consistently performing the basic requirements will give you 90% (or more) of your results.

Adding in fancy training methods, extra workouts, impossible-to-follow eating plans, and other un-necessary details will only serve to overload most people's already over-stressed lives - until one day you just won't be able to take it anymore...and the next thing you know 3 weeks have gone by since you last worked out or ate properly (because you just couldn't take the extremes anymore).

So here were two basic changes our reader had to make:

1) Cut back on his cardio from 6 session per week to 4. In terms of health, and fat loss, you'll quickly find out that 6 sessions are not better than 5, and 5 sessions are not better than 4. Remember, a good weight loss workout is all about training QUALITY, not quantity. Take a deep breath and realize you won't get fat if you cut back on your cardio to only 4 sessions per week.

(Some day I'll tell you about the reader that was doing 7 hours of cardio per week and not losing a pound!)

2) We got him back on track with a normal, healthy eating schedule. Just stick to the basics: eat low-sugar, high-fiber carbohydrates, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Quite simply, eat vegetables, fiber-rich fruits, lean proteins (including fish), nuts, etc. He needed to toss the low-carb weekdays, carb-refeed weekends crap. It's too complex. And wasn't even working. Stick to eating this normal, healthy approach 90% of the time and you can't go wrong.

Here's a great quote from Alwyn Cosgrove when he was asked how folks can get to the fitness truth from all the hype...

"I help people to break through by looking at things logically. One of my favorite examples is when folks talk about 'fasted' cardio for fat loss. In real world terms it won't make one single bit of difference over time whether you eat two eggs and then train or train and eat two eggs. It doesn't make any real world sense. Before acting on something, think thru the process and determine if it actually makes any sense whatsoever." - Alwyn Cosgrove

Let common sense be your guide to weight loss success!