In the nearly eternal quest to lose weight, people seem willing to do just about anything. It has been that way ever since people felt societal pressure to lose weight, and is sure to continue for many years to come. They will submit themselves to food they don’t like, brutal exercise regimens, and the downright bizarre. But there’s one thing very few of them do, and it can greatly increase their odds of permanent weight loss. What is it? Documenting their progress with before and after photos.

Huh? Does that sound like a dumb idea to you? Don’t laugh. It can have a major psychological impact; before, during and after your weight loss. It has the same effect as writing down your goals. Just by doing this step, you will increase your odds of success.

Look at it this way, you will be working hard, eating right and exercising to lose weight. Before and after weight loss photos won’t make the weight come off, but they are another tool in your arsenal in the battle of the bulge.

If you have children, then you’ve heard comments from relatives who haven’t seen them for a while. They say, “oh, they’ve gotten so tall”, or something similar. That’s one of the reasons for doing before and after weight loss photos, it’s not always easy to see your own weight coming off because you see yourself every day. But when you can look back at the visual evidence, it’s a game changer. It’s motivational.

Here’s the best way to do it to maximize your results. Take a photo every so many days, but with no more than a week between. Try for the same pose, in the same clothes, in the same location in your house. This next part will be harder at first. Expose as much of your body as decency allows. If you’re a female a sports bra and shorts; if you’re a male then just a pair of shorts. You want to see the bigger picture (pardon the pun). And don’t forget to do one picture for each a front and side view.

Refer to the photos later to see how far you have come. Put them up in the trouble spots around your home. For example, on the door of your refrigerator to keep you from binging, or on your weight bench to encourage to do a few reps.

It’s up to you whether or not you will share them with anybody else. But there’s a good chance that your desire to share will increase with the number of pounds you lose. So, be sure to eat right, get moving and get healthy. And while your at it, go ahead and keep a visual record of your progress, you’ll be glad you did.

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You know, it may not be fair that society and advertises perpetuate an unreasonable ideal for what people should look like. Nobody’s perfect. On the other hand, there is also a point when it’s a good idea to lose weight. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy, or to look your best. Losing weight isn’t always easy, but what follows will make it much, much easier. Nothing complicated, just stuff that actually works.

Building muscle burns calories even when you’re at rest. Wait! While that may be true, the calorie-burning effect of extra muscle tends to be exaggerated. The one thing that is not in dispute is that muscle does burn more calories, pound for pound, than fat does. The only question is how much, but in the battle of the bulging waistline we’ll use every trick in the book.

Write a plan to lose weight. Even if you’re writing down somebody else’s plan. The sheer act of writing it down increases the odds of your success. What foods will you be adding or reducing? What new habits will you encourage? What about exercise? There are no right or wrong answers, you know yourself better than anybody, so only you can make the best plan for you. The more specific your plan, the better.

Be ready for the inevitable roadblocks and setbacks. Yeah, I’m human, too. There will be times when you veer from your plan. It may be a moment of weakness, or it could be due to an unforeseen circumstance. The trick is to not let it get to you. All too often we make one slip and use that as an excuse for letting our plan slide for the day. Don’t let that happen. Forgive and forget and get back to your plan.

Make the better choice. This ranks right up there as an easy way to lose weight. For example, let’s say you are buying a bag of potato chips (yes, you can eat chips), compare it to another bag and see which has the fewest calories. Or, even better, compare the chips to another snack food, or something from the produce department. You always have a choice. How much weight loss you experience will correspond directly to how good your exercise and food choices are.

Perhaps you noticed that we actually said you can eat potato chips earlier. Yes! Chips. It’s silly to think you will really be able to swear off the foods you truly love for the rest of your life (barring serious health reasons for doing so). So, instead of fighting it, you’re going to control it. How? By eating smaller portions of the foods that do the most damage to your waistline.

None of the things we just covered are complicated. Start incorporating them into your daily routine now. The best part is that you can keep eating all of the foods you love if you’re willing to build a little extra muscle, have a plan, be prepared, make better choices and keep portions in check.

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Most of us have had to wage our own little battle of the bulge at one point or another in our lives. To increase your odds of success the next time, here are some tips on the fast ways to lose weight.

Now, be aware, that these tips are going to be the best options you will have for fast ways to lose weight, the healthy ways only. Some of the tips I will give you may actually be a little borderline but they should be ok if you only use them for a short time to jump start to your weight loss.

Here are some important things to keep in mind:

1. Many times you can jump start your diet with a cleanse and / or a fast. Of course, before you start any type of diet, cleanse or exercise program you absolutely should talk to your doctor first. There can be dangerous side effects and that can be compounded if you already have some health issues.

A cleanse will enable you to cleanse your body of a buildup of fecal matter and toxins. It may sound gross but it can be a good way to lose some weight right off the bat.

Be aware, though, that this type of weight loss is almost always water weight. As soon as you start eating solid food again, you will just gain it all back. It is more about cleansing your body that any real weight loss.

2. Many people can actually benefit from eating more. That may sound weird but few people eat enough good food throughout their day to keep their metabolism firing hot all day long.

When I started eating 6 small, nutritious meals a day I lost weight. I lost 6 pounds in one week. It was challenging at first but it did work.

The best part of it was that I was giving my body what it needed… in other words I was losing weight in a healthy way.

3. Drink more water. Few of us drink as much water as we should. It’s recommended that you drink half of your body weight in ounces of water everyday.

For example, if you weigh 200lbs. you should drink 100 ounces of water daily. It can’t hurt to discuss this with your doctor too. Believe it or not it can be dangerous to drink too much water too. Find out what the right amount is for you.

4. Exercise. If you hate the idea of going to the gym than you must rearrange your thinking. There are a lot of exercising options that don’t require a gym membership. Find one or more that you like and then do them on a daily basis.

In our society we tend to over think things. We seem to think if we can’t do a marathon we can’t workout at all. Not true. Even small changes can make a big difference over time. Start small if you have to, but start.

The most important tip I can give you is to have realistic expectations. Fast ways to lose weight may be possible depending on what you mean by fast and how much weight you have to lose. But in most cases slow and steady weight loss, in a healthy way, will get you where you want to be and will make it easier for you to keep the weight off.

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