I was talking today with some friends and dieting came up. Of course, the recurring question with weight loss is how to keep the weight off. Fad diets are always very successful initially but inevitably they seem to reach a point when they become ineffective. When I started traveling every week as part of my job I quickly discovered several things:

1) Restaurants serve portions that are 50 - 65 % too large.
2) To a lesser degree, the same applies to home cooked meals.
3) Fad diets don’t work in and of themselves.
4) Exercise is essential.

I had put on about 15 extra pounds during several years on the road and when I decided to get rid of the weight I bought a book on nutrition. Next, I read it and I carried it with me everywhere I went. I settled on the amount of calories I wanted to eat each day (1200) and then I initiated a vigorous exercise program consisting of a minimum of 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at least 3 times each week. When mealtime arrived, I added up the calories in my proposed meal and ate in an educated manner.

I mostly adhered to my caloric goal and I usually exceeded my exercise goal. The result? I dropped 15 pounds very quickly. To be honest, my program was probably a little much for most people. My low calorie intake combined with the exercise sometimes pulled my net daily intake of calories as low as 800. Not healthy but I did lose weight.

I often talk to people about weight loss and a common gripe people have is that they reach a plateau and can’t lose anymore weight - until they get serious about exercise. The reality is a person can eat as much as she wants as long as the calories are counterbalanced with an appropriate amount of exercise. This is the area where we all fail. Not enough exercise.

Fad diets are silly and sometimes even detrimental to a person’s health. Nutritional, balanced eating combined with a proper level of exercise is all a person needs to lose weight. Really. Give it a shot. Overcome the laziness!