Many people who are overweight or obese have decided not to diet per se, but to concentrate on engaging in regular physical activity and maintaining healthy eating habits in accordance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, emphasizing lowered fat consumption, and an increase in vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Others who are dieting tell of needing assistance along the way to reach their weight loss goals. For those serious of dieting, they should consider a diet plan.

Fad diets that ignore the principles of the Dietary Guidelines may result in short term weight loss, but may do so at the risk of your health. How you go about managing your weight has a lot to do with your long-term success. Unless your health is at risk from massive weight, there's no reason to drop the pounds quickly; do it slowly.

Here's how to do it:

• Check with your doctor. Make sure that your health status allows lowering your caloric intake and increasing your physical activity.

• Follow a calorie-reduced, but balanced diet that provides for as little as one or two pounds of weight loss a week. Be sure to include at least five servings a day of fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains, lean meat and low fat dairy products. Of course, this doesn't make front page news, but it does reduce the waistline. Common sense dictates that this isn't a miracle. Most important, it's prudent and healthy.

• Be sure to find the time in your day, for regular physical activity. Start by taking the stairs at work, walking up or down an escalator, parking at the far end of a lot instead of cruising around for the closest spot. Then, assuming your doctor gives you the thumbs up, you can slowly add some form of regular daily exercise. Walking is a great exercise, since it's free and most people already do it.

• Just think about the great benefits of weight loss. The evidence is clear that, when loosing 5-10% of your extra body weight, really does product great health benefits. Say you are 5 feet 8 inches tall, but weigh 200 pounds, then loosing 10-20% of your weight would certainly be beneficial. When it comes to loosing weight the right way, take it slow and steady.

For those who are overweight, the first start of loosing weight is making the heartfelt commitment to really making it stick this time, to loose that excess blubber once and for all. If you really want to loose the pounds effectively, then check out a diet plan. Creating a lifestyle based upon moderate eating and exercise is the key.

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When the author isn't with her diet, she's a fan of psychic readings, the HCG Diet Seattle, and the Volvo C70 windscreen windblocker wind deflector.