13 Jan New year, new start for fitness: 10 tips to help you lose weight – and keep it off

The most common New Year’s resolution people make is to lose weight. But I’ve never met a person who kept weight off permanently after doing a fad diet.
The way to lose weight and keep it off for the long run is to make overall permanent changes to your lifestyle.
In keeping with this week’s new year, new start to fitness series, here are 10 tips to help you get trimmer and stay that way.
1. Control your calories – At the simplest level, this is the key to weight loss. If you burn more calories than you consume, you’ll lose weight. If you can consistently do that, you don’t need to read on further or spend lots of money looking for information or help elsewhere.
But this is a lot easier said than done – and who has time to constantly count and measure every calorie of their life?
For me, applying a general healthy lifestyle helps you get back to this point in the long run – so read on.
2. Spread out meals every 2-3 hours instead of just eating one or two big meals during the day. This will help you burn off calories easier.
3. Eat lean proteins such as chicken, certain types of fish and pork
4. Eat vegetables as often as possible
5. Drink 8 glasses of water each day. It’s good for you and will help you feel fuller.
6. Don’t drink beverages like soda and-or alcoholic beverages such as beer if you’re serious about losing weight. Cutting out pop entirely from the diet can cause the average person to lose five pounds right away.
7. Eat whole grain foods whenever possible, avoid white bread and white rice.
8. Exercise regularly – Get on a workout program where you mix in cardio through exercises like walking outdoors, inside on a treadmill, or riding an exercise bike Also do strength training workouts at least twice a week.
9. Join a support group – If you’ve had a lot of trouble losing weight, a support group can be of great assistance for dropping pounds.
10. Make your goal public – Finally, let your family know and possibly tell friends and/or co-workers about your goal to lose weight. For many people, this can provide the final added incentive and support to follow through.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com