How to Lose Weight – The Definitive Guide to Weight Loss

Randi Walsh Dec 28, 2012 · 14 min read

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

How to Lose Weight – Step by Step

If you’ve ever tried to ask someone who’s been successful in weight loss, how to lose weight, they’ll most likely all tell you most of the same things. That is that weight loss, like anything else that counts in life and is worthwhile such as businesses or relationships, takes dedication, hard work, commitment and daily action.

If you want to know how to lose weight, then just know it’s not going to be an overnight fix. Sure there are some surgical procedures that are costly and carry severe risks, but if you follow some simple steps on how to lose weight, and you’re consistent, and you don’t cheat, then you will be successful in losing weight, without resorting to surgical extremes.

You know, we’re all conscience of our weight, one way or another. While some people simply feel powerless to make a change, others charge forward, make a decision, take daily and consistent action, and actually make a difference in their health & weight. Why is that? I’ve thought about this long and hard and have dubbed this down to 5 daily actions on how to lose weight, that if taken on a consistent basis will result in noticeable and significant weight loss over the long term.

How to Lose Weight Step 1: Plan & Assess

How to Lose Weight – A Journal, a Scale and a Tape Measure

The first step in how to lose weight is the planning & assessment phase, and this should be a daily, weekly & monthly process for you if you’re serious on how to lose weight. What I recommend that you do, is to purchase a journal, in order to tackle how to lose weight step 1 and how to lose weight step 2 here as well as purchasing a weight scale that will not only tell you your weight, but will also tell you your body fat percentage. If you’re serious about losing weight, then I would also add a tape measure on your how to lose weight purchases.

If you don’t have a scale that will provide you with body fat percentage then click here to locate one on Amazon. Do not use an iPhone, iPad, other smartphone or tablet to keep track of your weight loss progress. There’s something about the physical aspect of actually writing something out that is going to make a huge difference here for you to be successful in your quest on how to lose weight.

Once you have your trusty weight loss journal in hand (and your scale at home), your first step you need to do is assess where you are at today with your weight. As much as you may not want to look at your present weight, it’s important that you be honest with yourself through this entire process if you’re going to successfully lose the weight that you’re trying to lose.

How to Lose Weight – Assess your Weight

So, step on that scale for the first time, and then write down in your journal today’s date, your present weight, and your present body fat percentage. If you purchased or have a tape measure, it’s best to take a measure of your waist and jot that down too. This is important because you may find yourself on a plateau sometimes in your journey on how to lose weight, but you may not realize that you’re shedding inches while not dropping any poundage. Just remember that you should do this at the same time of day everyday you assess your weight so that you can measure accurate results day to day, week to week, and month to month.

Once you’ve jotted down the stats for the day, on the same page, write down your goal weight and the date that you plan on achieving it by. It’s important to note that you should be realistic here and set your goals at manageable levels. If you’ve never successfully lost weight in the past, then if you’re going to know how to lose weight this time around, you need to make sure that you’re realistic, open and honest with yourself in your expectations.

Important Tip: Did you know that approximately 3500 calories translates into 1 pound (~ 0.45 kg) of body weight?

That means that if you’re going to lose 1 pound in a day you have to burn 3500 calories more then you take in. Use this trusty calorie calculator to find out exactly what your calorie needs are according to your age, sex, weight, and height and you’ll get the calorie counts required per day for maintenance, fat loss, and extreme fat loss.

How to Lose Weight – Food Journaling

The other thing that you’ll be doing with your journal is to keep a record of every piece of food or drink you put into your body. Get used to this and carry it around with you everyday. If you drank a soft drink (soda pop), had a banana, ate a piece of bread, or whatever it is, you need to record it in your journal.

Also, if you’re eating out make sure that you record how the food was prepared (i.e. grilled, fried, baked, etc.). You may find keeping a journal of your food to be tedious in the beginning, but this is one of the most important steps on how to lose weight. Do not skimp and do not cheat on this step as you’ll only be cheating yourself.

How to Lose Weight – Set your Goals

Pick a date in the future, say within 90 days and how much weight you plan to lose in that 90 days. Let’s say you want to lose 100 pounds (~ 45 kg) within 90 days. Once you have your total weight loss number in hand and the date you plan to achieve it, start breaking it down into weekly and monthly numbers.

So, if you plan to lose 100 pounds in 90 days, that’s 33 pounds (~ 15 kg) per month and about 8.3 pounds (~ 3.7 kg) per week.

Once you’ve jotted down your goals and broken things out, then the most important part of step 1 on how to lose weight is to find a strong enough reason or reasons why you want to lose the weight. In life, when setting goals, if you don’t have strong enough reasons why you want to do something you will never succeed. For example, if you want to make more money, you don’t want to just have more pieces of paper with deceased notables on them (something Tony Robbins would say), no, you want to make more money so that you can live a more happy fulfilled life, provide security for your family, and have more time to be passionate about other things that truly matter in people’s lives.

How to Lose Weight – Find a Strong Enough Reason Why

Find your strong enough reasons why and you will succeed in your weight loss goals, just as you would succeed in any other goals in life. So to recap, plan and assess your weight today, on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, and on a monthly basis. Use your journal everyday to jot down your present weight, the successes you’ve achieved, and any failures you’ve come across.

How to Lose Weight Step 2: Hydration

The second step on how to lose weight is hydration and keeping your body properly hydrated throughout the day. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that you need to be drinking 8 glasses of water (or 64 ounces) per day.

But it’s even more important than you think, and especially important when trying to lose weight. The intake of water allows your body’s systems to function properly and when you’re dieting it allows you to feel full as well as ensure that your metabolism, digestive system, and other critical bodily functions, all operate at optimal levels. If you would like to figure out just how much water you should be taking in per day, check out this nifty little hydration calculator.

Here are all the reasons why hydration is so important in how to lose weight:

* How to lose weight with hydration: Initially when you diet, you loss what’s called “water weight” so in order to keep your body properly hydrated and avoid dehydration, you have to ensure that your intake of water is at or above the recommended levels in the hydration calculator.

* How to lose weight with hydration: In order for your body to burn calories it needs the right amount of water in your system to function properly. If your body is dehydrate, then this is going to slow down the fat burning process.

* How to lose weight with hydration: When your body burns calories it creates toxins (similar to when a car uses gas and emits smogs and fumes) and the water that you intake on a daily basis, helps to flush those toxins out of your body.

* How to lose weight with hydration: If your body is dehydrate, you’re going to be more tired and lethargic, and the process of losing weight to you is going to be a painful one. This is because when you restrict the intake of water, the resulting dehydration causes a drop in your blood’s volume, which in turn drops the oxygen supply to your muscles, which finally results in overall fatigue.

* How to lose weight with hydration: Having the proper amount of hydration will reduce muscle and joint soreness when exercising because water helps your body to maintain its muscle tone and provides for the ability for muscles to contract.

* How to lose weight with hydration: Any good weight loss plan includes a healthy intake of fiber, however, your body’s digestive system will be unable to properly digest that fiber if it is not properly hydrated since dehydration leads to a break down of normal bodily functions such as digestion.

* How to lose weight with hydration: When you drink water before and during a meal your body will feel more full and it will help you to not overeat.

How to Lose Weight Step 3: Diet Plan

Of course any weight loss regime needs a good diet plan and if you’re going to succeed with weight loss then how to lose weight will include a diet plan that works for you. Of course, there are plenty of fad diets out there, however, how to lose weight requires consistent daily action, no matter what diet plan you choose to embark upon.

If you want to know how to lose weight effectively then you’ll need to find yourself a diet plan that works for you. Since everyone is different, you have to measure your own availability of time when it comes to picking a diet meal plan that works. Here are a few different types of diet plans that work well.

How to Lose Weight: Planned Menu Diet

This is the type of diet where the food menu is pre-set for you and you can simply select from several different types of breakfast options, lunches, dinners and snacks. You can find 498 different planned menu diets by clicking here. This type of diet takes a lot of the guess work out of figuring out the caloric value and health value of different foods, and is a good way to primarily start out a diet.

It’s very easy to follow along with this type of diet since all the calories and other information is pre-recorded for you, but on the other hand, it won’t teach you the basics of how to eat healthy and lose weight without the use of a pre-made system. However, you will need to find the time to put the meals together, so if you’re really busy, then the pre-packaged diet (below) may work better for you.

How to Lose Weight: Pre-Packaged Diet

This is the type of diet where the food menu is pre-set for you and you can simply select from several different types of breakfast options, lunches, dinners and snacks. One of the best planned menu diets is this one, but there are others as well such as this one. This type of diet is perfect if you don’t have much time to dedicate to your weight loss regimen and you’re looking for something that’s easy and ready to go.

How to Lose Weight: Formula Diet

For some people, how to lose weight with a formula diet works well because it’s simple and easy and involves replacing one or two meals per day with either a canned drink, a meal bar, or a powdered mix drink. These replacement meals are designed to make you feel full so you don’t have the same cravings and urges you would have if you skipped a meal entirely. These types of diets are great if you’re looking to shed a few pounds really quickly but they don’t work all too well for long-term weight loss.

How to Lose Weight: Carb-Free Diet

These types of diets, which were popular in the 2000′s allow you to eat all the fat you want, while cutting out the carbs. These types of diets are unhealthy since eliminating carbs opens you to multiple health risks allowing a high level of toxicity to build up in your system due to the high intake of animal fats. Of course when you cut out carbohydrates, and in turn anything with refined sugars such as donuts, pasta, and white bread, you’ll of course be losing weight, however there are essentially no long term benefits to a diet like this.

How to Lose Weight: Balanced Diet

If you want to know how to lose weight for the long term then a balance diet is one of the best options that you can go with. A balanced diet incorporates a healthy amount of protein, vegetables, fruit, dairy, and carbohydrates while staying away from unhealthy snacks, enriched sugars, fast foods, sugar filled sodas, and so on.

However, if you’re going to try to go the route of a balanced diet, you need to be prepared, and study food as though it was your main subject in school. Once you understand the different types of food that your body requires and how much of it, you can then understand on the spot whether or not you’re making a healthy eating choice or not. Of course, this type of diet plan is more of a lifestyle then a diet plan, and people that eat and live a balanced healthy lifestyle are usually the ones that are at the optimal weight.

Tips: If you know yourself and you know that you have difficult sticking to a diet, then get matched with an online trainer for free through this program. Also, if you don’t feel like you’ll have time to prepare meals on your own, then check out this program which provides pre-packaged healthy meals for you.

How to Lose Weight Step 4: Exercise

Part of any good weight loss regime is a solid exercise plan. It’s important that you’re active, no matter what your age, or what level of activity you can presently attain. It’s important to pick something that you like to do, say walking, and decide to do it everyday for at least 30 to 45 minutes.

If you don’t have the time to exercise in the day, then wake up earlier and don’t make excuses for yourself. If you feel like you can’t stick to your own regimine on how to lose weight with an exercise plan, then find a trainer, find a gym, find a yoga class, or do sometihng that will allow you to be active at least 4 times a week for at least 30 to 45 mintues each time.

If you feel like you’re not going to have the personal motivation it takes to ensure that you’re active and exercising, then try to get matched for free with an expert fitness trainer that will help you with your weight loss, nutrition and fitness goals.

How to Lose Weight Step 5: R&R

According to the “Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism”, the amount of daily sleep that you actually get affects not only your appetite, but also your BMI (body mass index). When you lose sleep, your doesn’t produce the necessary hormone leptin which helps to regular your appetite. Without enough of the hormone leptin in your body, your appetite will not be regulated and you will feel more hungry then if you were to get a solid 8 hours of sleep.

In addition to not producing enough of the proper hormones in your body, if you want to know how to lose weight, then not getting a proper night’s sleep will also zap you of energy levels forcing you to skip critical workouts necessary to help you lose that pesky weight. It was found that cravings increased by 33 percent for calorie-dense foods after just one night of poor sleep, according to a study published on Dec 7, 2004 by the “Annals of Internal Medicine”.

It’s important to provide your body with at least 7 hours of sleep each night in order to decrease the risk of obesity, diabetes and other health problems. And, if you’re trying to lose weight, make sure that you set a regular bedtime, limit your alcohol intake, and avoid high levels of stress.

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