Everywhere you look you are surrounded by constant reminders which tell you that in order to be happy, successful, respected and have strong personal relationships you need to be thin and beautiful.

However from this description alone, this desire to fit into what is considered ‘beautiful’ can undermine your self esteem, your confidence and how you actually perceive yourself.

It is no wonder with such constant pressures that the following statistics have emerged:

• In the past 20+ years, the centrefold for Playboy has lost 25lbs and weighs 18% less than the medical ideal
• Fashion models are a staggering 23% below the average weight of an ordinary woman. In a recent BMI study many actresses and models were found to have 10-15% body fat compared to 22-26% for a normal, healthy woman
• In the Miss World contest a few years ago it was discovered that the average contestant weighed below the US’s standard weight for anorexia
• In a 1994 survey by Glamour (conducted on 33,000 women), 75% thought they were overweight when in fact only 25% fitted into this category
• Placed in a hall of distorting mirrors, of the women surveyed, the vast majority believed the mirror which made them look fatter was their real selves whilst the mirrors which reflected their real selves or made them look thinner they thought were false

More worryingly, as the ideal body becomes thinner, we as a nation are becoming bigger creating an even more substantial gap between the two.

How to lose weight

If you are genuinely interested in losing weight, it is important that you don’t get caught up in these preconceptions of what is or isn’t considered to be beautiful.

As the above statistics prove, an unhealthy obsession with your weight can result in dangerously low BMI’s or even anorexia; neither of which are not good for your overall health or wellbeing.

To achieve your why lose weight goal you need to plan a proper diet, exercise regularly and possibly use diet pills to help you experience a safe, steady weight loss of 1-2lbs a week.

Natural herbal supplements such as Proactol can help you to reduce your dietary fat intake by up to 28% whilst suppressing your appetite, thus helping you to naturally decrease your meal portions at a pace that is right for you.

Research by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSA) has found that our unhealthy attitude to why lose weight can trigger eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and orthorexia (where suffers become obsessed with only eating good foods).

How does the Alternate-Day Diet (ADD) Work?

Under this weight loss plan, you alternate between days where you eat what you want one day (without intentionally overeating) to the next limiting your calorie intake to just 500 calories.

Slimmer’s are advised to follow this extreme diet for 2 weeks – although 3 sessions of this alternating can be enough – in order to turn on the gene SIRT1 which is designed to reduce the amount of fat your body stores. After these 2 weeks, you can increase your 500 calorie a day intake to 50% of your recommended daily calorie intake (1,200 calories).

Now although this type of diet will promote fast weight loss if you are conscious of your calorie consumption on your ‘up’ days; the ADD is not a safe long term solution and can in fact cause overeating if you are not able to maintain these eating habits.

And this unfortunately is the same of all dietary fads.

Despite their best intentions to help your lose weight fast, the limited longevity and nutrient deprivation that they encourage can ultimately worsen the effects of obesity when they end.

Why? Because after such restricted periods of limited calorie consumption, once your body is free of it, it will seek to supplement your food cravings, triggering overeating and eventual weight gain.

How to experience safe weight loss?

It may seem like the longest route to your why lose weight ambitions, but modifying your eating habits steadily and increasing your exercise levels can ensure that your body has the time to adapt to these dietary changes and perceive them as the norm.

So take your time, and plan your diet carefully. Fad diets may feel like a fast weight loss solution, but all they will do is promote increased weight gain in the future.

This vicious cycle has been around for decades but it has increased rapidly in the last five years. No matter how many different diets are invented, there are still those desperate people who can’t lose weight. Why? Well, most of the diets that become fad diets are radical, impractical, and some are dangerous to your health. A restriction from any type of natural food is not good for the body. Remember that wonderful little pyramid that taught you how to eat in grade school? Well, do you remember any of those sections having a big X over it? No.

If you really want to lose weight, first you need to think “why lose weight?” What is your motivation? Do you need to lower your cholesterol? Are you looking to get fit and look good? Do you want to prevent heart disease or diabetes when you get older? All of these will result from a balanced, nutritional diet, but not from any fad diet. Don’t you wonder why they are only fads? How does weight loss happen with these diets? Well, the blunt answer to that is short term. No one can stick with a crazy diet. So they lose a little weight, break down and revert back to their original diet and put that weight back on. They invest in the next fad diet, see some results again but fail once more to keep it off. This yo-yo dieting is dangerous to that persons health.

So, how does weight loss happen for good? Well, the best thing to do is take a sensible, healthy step to change your lifestyle to the better. Practice this new step until it becomes a force of habit and then move on to the next. Allow yourself some treats but stay strong. Baby steps are the easiest steps to take! Don’t set yourself up for failure with these fad diets.

Of course back then there weren’t an abundance of artificial sweeteners available at the supermarket, so sugar was the sweetener of choice. Unfortunately, consuming large amounts of sugar will add extra calories to our food and which causes us to gain weight. This is why so many people choose sugar substitutes or low cal sweeteners instead of sugar. They can enjoy eating their favorite foods without worrying about consuming extra calories. Diabetics may use artificial sweeteners to give their food a sugary taste without raising their blood sugar levels. However, if you are diabetic you’ll want to keep in mind that some foods like sugar free yogurt can actually raise your blood sugar levels. This is because of other carbs and proteins mixed in. Other sugar free products may also contain flour which is known to raise blood sugar levels too so be sure to check the ingredients first. You’ll also want to remember that foods containing sugar substitutes may also contain calories which you don’t need if you are trying to lose weight.

Artificial Sweeteners
We’ve added a list of artificial sweeteners that the FDA or Food and Drug Administration have approved of. The (ADI) is the “acceptable daily intake” for each sweetener listed. This is the maximum amount considered safe to eat each day.

Artificial Sweetener ADI Estimated ADI OK for cooking?
Equivalent

Aspartame 50 milligrams per NO
(NutraSweet, Equal) kilogram (kg) 18 to 19 cans of diet cola

Saccharin
(Sweet’N Low, SugarTwin) 5 mg per kg 9 to 12 packets Yes

Acesulfame K
(Sunett, Sweet One) 15 mg per kg 30 to 32 cans of diet soda Yes

Sucralose (Splenda) 5 mg per kg 6 cans of diet soda Yes

Ok, I’ll tell you what it is. This new best answer on how to lose weight is called Proactol. Proactol blocks almost a third of all of the fat that you consume to ever enter your blood stream. It also helps you as an appetite suppressant. So why diet when you can Proactol? Due to the stressful time restricted schedules most of us live everyday; it can be very difficult to spend hours at the gym, count calories, or even prepare a healthful dinner. With the economy how it is, we can’t spend thousands of dollars on a personal trainer, premade “diet foods”, or weight loss camps. We can however, take a convenient little pill, that is affordable, and effective in helping us reach our desirable body weight.

The greatest thing about Proactol is that it comes from an organic natural source, a cactus plant, so we don’t have to resort to damaging our bodies to make them look better. How does weight loss help you if your body is all tore up on the inside? That is why Proactol is the best diet for 2010. It is safe, affordable, convenient, and effective. Where else can you find that?

Think about your alternatives. You could diet to the point of starvation, you could kill yourself on the treadmill, you could try dangerous diet pills, or you could try ineffective diet pills. You could go broke trying everything under the sun but you will never get the results as with Proactol without strenuous conditions. So take the year 2010 as your year to look and feel great. With help from Proactol, it can be done!

Many of the weight loss medications available on the market today are labeled as appetite suppressants and are approved by the FDA. Appetite suppressants are usually available in the form of tablets or time released capsules. They can either be prescribed by your doctor or purchased over the counter. Diet pills work by making your body believe that it is either not hungry or very full. This is done by suppressing your appetite with the increased production of serotonin or catecholamine, two chemicals in the brain which affect both your mood and appetite. Fat absorption inhibitors are also used to prevent weight gain. These diet pills prevent your body from degrading or absorbing lipids or harmful fat molecules inside you body. After taking the inhibitors any harmful or unwanted fat eaten during meal time is eventually discarded by the body during bowel movements.

Consulting with your doctor is the first step to take before choosing a diet pill. Your doctor will know which medications will work best for you based on your current medical evaluation. Once you choose a diet pill that’s right for you will notice that your maximum weight loss will occur within 6 months. After six months your weight loss will begin to decrease. This is because weight loss pills are not to be used long term.

Weight loss drugs have been known to help you not only lose weight but also help reduce the number of health risks associated with obesity. Unfortunately, there are a few risks associated with diet pills that you should be made aware of by your physician.

Addiction- Like any other drug, whether prescription or OTC, diet pills can be potentially addicting when used long term. By consulting with your physician you can avoid addiction, lose weight effectively and be healthy for the long run.

Tolerance- For most people taking diet pills, weight loss seems to level off after about 6 months. It is not clear if this is due to your body’s developed tolerance or the medication’s limit.

Side Effects- It’s rare that any serious life threatening side effects of slimming pills will occur from the use of weight loss drugs. However, most side effects are mild and sometimes unpleasant and usually improve over time as your body gets use to the medication. The following are a list of potential side effects of slimming pills:

• Increased heart rate
• Increased blood pressure
• Sweating
• Constipation
• Insomnia
• Excessive thirst
• Lightheaded
• Drowsiness
• Congestion
• Headache
• Dry mouth

A diet is not something which should add stress to your life. It should help to improve your overall health and maintain a reasonable body size. According to the people I come in contact with on a daily basis there are two main reasons why people choose a diet. 1- To maintain good health and avoid medical problems and 2- to lose weight. However, before you choose a diet program there are a few things to consider.

What’s your motivation? There are some people who think that losing weight will help them to get a certain job or help meet Mr. or Mrs. Right. You should remember that a diet program should be chosen for good health reasons and will not guarantee you success in anything else.

Why have I failed at diets before? Some of you may have tried fad diets in the past. Unfortunately, fad diets may work for a short period of time but they are not meant to sustain good health. Fad diets may be popular and some of them may even work for a while, but they are not encouraged by doctors ore any other health professionals. So watch out for them.

What are your family members like? You might want to ask yourself, “Is my body built like my other family members? Check out some of your close relatives. Take note of your similarities and differences. It doesn’t matter how much you diet, you just can’t change you genetic make up but by choosing a proper diet and exercise program you can help sculpt your body into the best possible shape you cam be in.

Do I have specific health issues? Some people are more at risk for certain diseases than others. You should examine your family health history to see what diseases run in your family. Does anyone in your family have heart disease, high blood pressure, or diabetes? Are you allergic to certain foods or ingredients? Do you have high cholesterol, or high levels of glucose? If so consult with your doctor on how to choose a diet and nutritional plan that’s right for you.

1-Natural weight loss supplements or pills: These pills are sold over the counter (OTC) and are as near as your local drugstore, where you’ll find an aisle offering everything from pills to teas that promise weight loss. They are usually safe and a few of them are also backed by solid scientific evidence and clinical trials.

2-Weight loss medications: These pills are available only by prescription from a physician and, although have been proven to be effective for weight loss, they have also been shown to have potential dangerous side effects. Therefore, they are only prescribed when obesity becomes life threatening.

Natural diet pills are very easy and effective way for people who wish to loose weight within a short span of time. Some of these diet pills also help you to attain a control over your body and act as appetite suppressants enabling you to control your hunger. They also help your body to cut down the intake of fat in the body while also providing you with surplus energy in order to do other activities of your day. By such ways, you can lose weight without doing much effort.

Quite a few good diet pills are backed by some very plausible evidence, and do contain ingredients that have been shown to have effects on weight loss. As they are 100% natural and pure, they are virtually free of all related side effects and interactions.

Such diet pills are not only the easiest way to lose weight; they also make your life easier, simpler and more enjoyable. Just imagine, for a second…

No more spending hours in the kitchen cooking meals for the week. No more getting up early to prepare your breakfast and pack lunch. No more using your brain so much to calculate just how much you need and no more waiting for equipment at the gym.

Remember, since the weight loss diet pills are designed to work with the body in eliminating fat, they cannot do wonders on their own. There is no positive result if you are taking the weight loss pill while living a sedentary life and feasting numerous times a day. A weight loss diet pill works best when a healthy lifestyle is added to the mix. A healthy lifestyle includes healthy eating, and an exercise program. The combination of the two, as well as a prescribed pill, can bring about much needed weight loss.

1-To reduce your health risks: Remember, the more extra body fat you have, especially around your waist, the higher your health risks for certain diseases may be. Simply having a higher than normal BMI (a ratio of weight in relation to height) suggests that you are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and cancers of the breast, endometrium, prostate and colon. Risks increase with waist sizes larger than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. Weight loss may be one way to help lower blood pressure and to improve abnormal cholesterol levels. Even if you don’t have any problems right now, but your BMI is in the “obese” range at 30 or above, your health risks may still be considered high if you aren’t physically active on a regular basis, or if you have high serum triglycerides (a component of a cholesterol blood test).

2-To improve your health: How weight loss works is you need to burn calories to lose weight and exercise is one of the most efficient ways to burn calories and lose weight fast. Incorporating enhanced physical activity or exercise into your day by walking more, running or exercising to a fitness video can strengthen your heart and lungs and the efficiency of your energy metabolism. This will also help lower your blood pressure, improve your HDL, or “good” cholesterol, and reduce your risks of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Besides, increased physical activity has been thought to be associated with lower anxiety rates and it also brings peace and calm to your mind and body.

3- To make yourself happier: Losing weight, when done responsibly, definitely benefits your physical health and your emotional and spiritual life as well. One of the first things dieters report is how much extra energy they have after they’ve lost even 5 or 10 pounds. They also sleep better and enjoy enhanced sex lives.

4-To discover the “genuine” you: And finally, you should definitely lose weight because it’s your “natural” right to get rid of that “unnatural” mass and also because…

You deserve to be slim.
You should live longer.
You will have to take control of you body & life.
You will be proud of yourself.
You won’t feel so self-conscious.
You will be in better health.
You will feel better physically.
You will have more confidence.
You will be less self-critical.
You will feel more comfortable, especially in Summer.
You will be happier when you look in the mirror.
You will feel more outgoing.
You will feel that I have accomplished something important.
You will have more energy.
You will be able to get down & play with the grandkids with comparative ease.
You will enjoy wearing nice clothes.
You will be more physically fit.
You will feel more in control.
You will do more things like go to the beach.
You will be able to dance in public without feeling self-conscious.
You will feel better about yourself.
You would not feel uncomfortable when people hug you.
You would not feel that you are letting yourself down.
You would not feel ashamed.

Therefore, don’t “wait” to lose “weight”.

The BBC referred to the “pre-diabetes time bomb” as a warning. Apart from a family history of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, being overweight or obese goes hand in hand with the disease. Considering that almost 3 million people in the UK already have the disease and 7 million are on the brink, it is starting to sound like an epidemic. The facts also tell us that long term complications such as heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and amputation can occur in many diabetics and the risks of these complications increase over time from diagnosis. In fact, the risk of a person with pre-diabetes developing coronary artery disease is almost equal to the risk faced by a diagnosed diabetic.

It all sounds rather doom and gloom, but there is a ray of hope for all of us. Type 2 diabetes is generally related to lifestyle and weight. Thus, if we can change the way we live, we can reverse or prevent the disease in the first place. Risk of moving from pre-diabetes to an actual diagnosis is reduced by 60% through implementing healthy diet choices and exercise. Simple changes such as reducing your breakfast from 2 slices of bread to just one slice can reduce your weight by 12 pounds over the course of one year. Adding 20 minutes of walking per day, for 5 days of the week can also go a long way to preventing diabetes and reducing overall weight as well.

According to a diabetes spokesperson for the Royal College of GP’s, we have to keep in mind that small weight gains can create large risks later on. On the flip side, small changes can go a long way to keeping us healthy. Losing weight does make us feel better, and we all want to look good. However, despite the urge to fit into a smaller dress size, I think that we should also be aware of the good that we are doing for our entire body by losing some weight. High blood pressure or high blood sugar levels are not something we can generally see or feel.  Healthy amounts of weight loss are not only easily measureable, but also something we can see. Let’s keep losing a few pounds and keep ourselves healthy, not only for us, but also for our families.