Obesity has become a world-wide epidemic. To avoid future health problems and look your absolute best, it is important that you maintain a healthy body weight. Don’t beat yourself up if you happen to be overweight at the moment. No matter how many pounds of fat you need to lose, it is possible for you to slim down and get into great shape in a relatively short period of time. Read this article to learn some top-rated exercise and diet tips that are guaranteed to help you lose weight quickly.

Eat multiple meals per day. The number one mistake dieters make is skipping meals and starving themselves in an attempt to drastically reduce daily calorie consumption and speed up the weight loss process. Not only will starving yourself not speed up your weight loss, it will actually make losing weight more difficult. When you deprive yourself too much, your body begins to hold on to fat and your metabolism slows down. To keep your metabolism revved up, try to eat several small meals spaced evenly throughout the course of your day. Avoid skipping breakfast at all costs, as this is the most important meal of the day.

During your diet, concentrate on consuming plenty of lean protein and tons of fresh fruits and veggies. Chicken breasts, egg whites and skim milk are great low-calorie, high-protein foods you should consume while dieting. As far as carbohydrates go, you want to consume slow-digesting complex carbs and avoid fast-digesting simple carbs such as white bread and sugar. When it comes to fat, you want to dramatically reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat while consuming a moderate amount of unsaturated fats. Drink a large amount of water every day. By replacing high-calorie soda pop and fruit juice with water you can speed up the weight loss process.

To reach all of your weight loss goals, diet alone is not enough. You must engage in regular aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is great for your heart and lungs and burns a lot of calories. If you are new to exercise, start off with simple slow-paced walks around the neighborhood. As you aerobic fitness improves you can increase the speed of your walking pace as well as the distance that you walk. Once you are fit enough to engage in more difficult exercises, try to find an aerobic exercise that you really enjoy. Exercise can be something that you look forward to. It does not have to be something that you dread. Team sports, tennis, martial arts, yoga, aerobics classes, roller skating, jogging and biking are all great for your health and fitness.

In addition to regular cardiovascular exercise, you should strength train once or twice per week. Strength training will tone up your body and increase your resting metabolism. If you are a novice weight trainer, consider working with a personal trainer and having him or her instruct you on proper exercise technique.

Losing weight is not easy, but you can do it. Follow the tips in this article and push yourself to reach all of your weight loss goals. Good luck!