Don't be so concerned about how much you weigh. Instead be concerned about how much of that weight is FAT. You want the weight loss to be caused by losing FAT, not muscle or water.
To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you take in. To do it efficiently and to make sure it stays off the following three steps should be taken and should become part of your every day life.
o Start an aerobic program. The activity should be something that you like doing, and look forward to doing. The activity doesn't need to be an aerobics class. Instead it could be walking, biking, inline/ice skating, dancing, etc. Anything that will elevate your HR and keep it around your Training Zone for at least 12 minutes. Remember, the longer the better.
o Modify what you eat. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, chicken, rice, potatoes, etc. Read the labels. 1g FAT = 9 calories (to make the math a little easier round that up to 10 calories) 1g protein or carbohydrates = 4 calories. Don't be fooled by "95% FAT free"! Look carefully at how many calories come from FAT. i.e. if something has 120 calories, which is pretty low, but it has 9 g FAT and 5 g protein and 5 g carbohydrates, almost 70% of that product is FAT. Try to eliminate the FAT that you eat. There is FAT in virtually everything so shooting for a 0% FAT diet will probably put you in the 10%-20%, just because not everything is FAT free, and you do need some FAT in your diet. Simply switching the obvious foods will make a big difference, such as, skim instead of whole milk, chicken instead of hamburger, bagels instead of croissants, etc. Also eating small meals more frequently during the day will raise your metabolism and keep you from getting that "I'm starving" feeling.
o Resistance Training: To build muscle that will, in turn, help burn calories throughout the day. A simple weight program where you slowly add weight and perform basic exercises every other day, such as, Squats, Bench Press, Pull-downs, and Military Presses are enough for most people.
General hints on Weight Loss:
o Don't go on starvation diets. This will slow down your metabolism and may actually make you FATter.
o Don't take products such as SlimFast. Drinking SlimFast may work in the beginning, but you need to modify your eating habits for a lifetime.
o Don't buy anything that looks like a gimmick. The Thighmaster, Fat burning pills, some portable thing-a-ma-jig. Spend the money on good food and save it for your new clothes you'll need in a couple of months.
o Get your BF% calculated and check it every other month.
o Forget about the scale and buy a full length mirror. Standing in front of it nude will tell you much more than the scale will. "A picture is worth a thousand words"
o Whatever you do HAVE FUN! If you start on some horrible (grapefruit) diet, a month later you're going to hate it and, more than likely, end up putting on more FAT.
