If that isn’t enough, dieting also results in muscle tissue loss, slowing down the metabolism even more. Sure, you’ve still got to monitor your calorie intake and burn off more than you take in to lose extra fat stores.

But dieting without exercise is a path to failure and losing weight without exercise is a futile undertaking. To lose extra weight and keep it off, be gentle with your metabolism and change your body consumption with regular strength training. By adding this exercise to your weight loss program, you can save yourself some calorie-burning muscle and turn your body into a calorie-burning machine. If you’re into a step class or the treadmill, those activities do little to change body composition.

Aerobic activity is the obvious choice of people who want to lose weight. Sure it burns calories and contributes to body leanness, but it doesn’t add muscle. Extensive aerobic activity combined with a low-calorie diet can burn into protein stores as well, lowering the metabolic rate even more. So 30 to 60 minutes three to five times a week is all you need.

To really make a difference in your body’s calorie-burning ability, you’ve got to add muscle. Regular strength training, done two to three times a week, not only burns calories, but slows the rate of muscle loss during the diet. By putting on muscle, you’ll increase your metabolic rate – some researchers say by as much as 50 calories per pound of muscle. So if you put on two pounds of muscle, your body will burn an additional 100 calories a day.

So, instead of running away with the idea of losing weight without exercise, you are better of following the aforementioned tips and lose weight the right way.

Weight gain and obesity are complex conditions, dependent upon various lifestyle, hormonal, biochemical, metabolic and genetic factors. Some of the most important factors include:

Basal Metabolic Rate

Your BMR rate at which your body burns calories at rest. This rate is dependent on several of the factors listed below, such as activity level and thyroid function.

Caloric intake

Overeating and consuming more calories than your body uses for energy can result in weight gain – regardless of whether those calories come from fat, carbohydrates or protein.

Quality of food

Eating too much saturated fat, sugar, processed food and fast food is associated with weight gain.

Physical activity

Your activity level is the major player in weight balance. Inactivity causes loss of muscle mass, a reduced metabolic rate and increased body fat. Conversely, regular exercise can improve muscle mass and boost metabolism. As we exercise, our muscles utilize calories for energy and generate heat, which promotes the burning of fat.

Stress

Exposure to chronic stress can cause weight gain, particularly around the mid-section. This occurs because stress increases the production and release of Cortisol, a hormone that increases body fat storage.

Thyroid function

The thyroid gland plays a vital role in controlling metabolism. If your thyroid is sluggish and not functioning optimally, this can reduce your metabolic rate and cause weight gain.

Insulin

When insulin levels are high, the body stores more fat and is not able to use fat as a source of energy – the reason insulin is also known as “the fat storage hormone.” This can be a problem for those with insulin resistance who often develop hy-perinsulinemia (high insulin levels).

Genetics

Genetics may be responsible for about 25 percent of obesity cases, but experts agree that having a genetic predisposition towards obesity does not mean that this is your fate. Several studies have shown that lifestyle factors are a more important determinant.

Estrogen

High estrogen levels are associated with weight gain. Yet, many women find that they gain weight during menopause while their estrogen levels are lower. This happens because as estrogen levels decline in menopause, as a compensatory mechanism, the fat cells take over the production of estrogen. In order to meet the growing demand during menopause, they increase in size and number.

Testosterone

Testosterone helps the body maintain lean muscle mass and burn fat. A deficiency of this hormone can cause the loss of muscle mass and fat gain. This is a significant contributor to fat gain in older men.

Human growth hormone (HGH)

By increasing lean muscle mass and reducing body fat storage, human growth hormone regulates body weight. Levels decline with age, particularly after age 50, causing a shift in our body composition. As HGH decreases, we gain body fat and lose muscle mass.

Serotonin

Serotonin is a chemical messenger in the brain that regulates satiety. When levels are low, we feel hungry and when they are high, we feel satisfied. Certain weight-loss products work by elevating serotonin to promote satiety and reduce cravings for food. Leptin Satiety is also regulated by leptin, a hormone produced by body fat. Researchers have found that some people become resistant to their own leptin. To compensate for this the body produces more and more of the hormone, but the “satisfied” message is not property received by the brain.

The Anne Collins Diet

The creator of this diet program is the nutritionist Anne Collins. This program is not that expensive and it is followed by great exercise plan as well. Besides, it offers different options from low carb to vegetarian diets.

The Atkins Diet

This is a famous low carb diet program whose main focus is to reduce the intake of carbohydrates in your body. First, you start with eating minimal amount of carbs, and then gradually you introduce them back.

The Scarsdale Diet

This diet was made by Dr. Herman Tarnower and was particularly designed to help patients who needed to lose some pounds before they undergo a heart surgery. In the basis of this diet program is eating soup, but it also includes additional items each day, during the period of 7 days just to help you get nutrients that you need and to help fight off cravings that will come up. This kind of diet is great, especially when you want to lose 10 to 15 pounds fast.

Slim Fast

Slim Fast weight loss program consists of using Slim Fast products to help you keep calorie intake down. Each product comes with a pamphlet that advises you which kind of food to eat and what exercises to do. Furthermore, they offer a support line that you can call if you need any additional information.

Weight Watchers

Weight Watchers is a long standing kind of program for losing weight. It gathers a great number of weight loss plans available, so you can find the one which suits you best. Besides, it includes a workout plan and support in order to ensure success on this program.

The majority of these programs for losing weight have been around for about several years. Each of them has its own exceptional style and approach to weight loss. What’s the most important is that they give desirable results to people who have chosen them.

As previously said, weight loss differs from person to person. So, before you decide to start with some of these programs you need to know precisely what you want in a weight loss plan. Choosing the right weight loss program guarantees you that you will accomplish your goal successfully and slim down.

However, you may want to investigate a little and try to find some other program. The great thing is that many of these programs offer a trial run which implies that you can try and see how the program works before you join it.

The first thing someone does when he or she decides to lose weight is to lower calorie intake radically. It would logically mean that if you eat less food you become less fat. People make mistakes due to the fact that they do not make the right distinction between calories needed for normal body functioning and those needed for losing weight. Because of this, it is really necessary to become familiar with the right calorie intake before you start dieting.

Lowering your calorie intake to lose weight

Upon deciding to lower your calorie intake to lose weight, you will realize soon that it might be the worst thing you could ever do. The probability to lose weight successfully is very small if we do not do things right. Let’s see how our organisms function. First of all, our body is a very complex organism, and it is focused on keeping us alive, instead of our attempts to lose weight. However, if you are very determined to go on a diet in that case your body will need a higher amount of calories. A perfect way to discover the exact number of calories needed is to measure your body fat percentage with a skin caliper. Then you will get the precise information of how much of your body is muscle and how much is fat area.

And what about your metabolism? Its rate slows down when you lower your calorie intake. It becomes slower when you eat less. However, the reduction of calories should be done carefully, step by step, and above all without hurry. A reduction of 10-15% is adequate for losing fat. A small decrease in calories also implies that you can eat more food, so as to have more energy for your everyday life. Otherwise, very strict diets can slow down your body metabolism by 40%.

Also, an unpleasant thing that might happen has to do with your muscles- you begin to lose your muscle tissue. Namely, a great amount of energy is needed for building muscles, and if the body is not provided with enough energy due to lower calorie intake, your muscle tissue will be reduced very soon, making you think you become less fat.

Controlling your calorie intake to lose weight

The essential thing before you go on a diet is to eat well-balanced and high quality food. If you decide to follow Healthy Calorie Restriction, you can lose weight without being hungry at all. Simply, you just have to avoid several food items from your diet such as white flour and refined sugar. Recent researches have shown that people who did not eat processed food during the period of 6 years, preserved better health in comparison to those who did not pay attention to this. So, it is really important to have a good preparation plan before you decide to decrease calorie intake to lose weight.