My Experience

Through my own experience, I would advise that you establish a daily exercise routine for at least a week before starting any diet program. We need at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week (I prefer at least 45 minutes a day). I usually exercise 30 to 40 minutes before breakfast and 5 to 15 minutes in the evening. Adding few more minutes of exercise every day will increase weight loss, especially when you want to get rid of the difficult few pounds. But exercising more than 12 hours a week might do more harm than good, so I limit my time to between 2.5 and 10 hours a week.

I can stick to my diet for a very long time, because I eat until I am satisfied with good choice of foods. I eat high-fiber, low glycemic foods (low in raising blood glucose level), lean meats, and unsaturated fats. I have drastically reduced the starchy vegetables, rice, bread, noodle, corn, and sweets in my diet. Besides all the non-starchy vegetables, I prefer seafood, skinless poultry, skim milk, low-fat cheese, eggs, nuts, seeds, soy foods, and a lot of soups, especially vegetable soups. These comprise more than 90% of all my foods. Vegetable soups are heavily weighted in my diet, and I have them almost everyday. I usually have 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, and avoid snacking within 3 hours of bedtime. One of the best ways to lose weight in my experience is going to bed earlier without late night snack, then doing an early morning exercise.

Having an understanding of the principles of weight loss, and a high degree of determination and self-motivation, are very important. The program should be a lifestyle modification, becoming a part of you, so that you can follow it effortlessly without counting your calories. If you have a high glycemic diet (starchy and sugary foods) with fewer calories than the body needs, a lack of adequate portion, with the fast rise and fall of your blood sugar levels, will make you so hungry that you won't be able to sustain your diet for long. A larger volume of low glycemic foods (low glycemic index: low blood sugar elevation after meal, and low glycemic load: low carbohydrate content in a typical food portion.) and proper snacking will sustain you much better with slow and prolonged glucose absorption.

Finally, I always remind myself that dieting alone without regular exercise will gain weight in the long run.