AURORA, CO – NOVEMBER 20: Rafael Dimas eats from a plate of healthy snacks during the Shapedown program for overweight adolescents and children on November 20, 2010 in Aurora, Colorado. The 10-week family-centered program held by the Denver area Children’s Hospital teaches youth and their parents ways to lead a healthier more active lifestyle, as a longer lasting weight-loss alternative to dieting. Nationally, some 15 percent of children are overweight or obese, as are some 60 percent of adults. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Today’s Health Moment

If you are struggling with weight loss, you are not alone. Many people across the world fight the battle of the bulge daily, and a select few will find the answer to their weight loss problems. There are tons of advertisements circulating the latest fad diet that will help you shed pounds overnight. Many boast that you will lose weight while you sleep. Others suggest that you eat health foods in a certain order to lose pounds.

There are, however, safe methods for losing weight for good. By following a few tips you can permanently fight fat and win.

Two Important Health Principles

The first thing you need to know about losing weight is that there is no magic secret to weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you have to do two things. You have to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly.

There is no getting around those two facts. Fad diets work by using these two principles to help you shed pounds. Contrary to their claims, there is no magic pill that will make you lose weight in your sleep.

Eat Healthy and Fewer Calories

To understand weight loss, it is important to know how weight loss works. When the body takes in fewer calories than it needs to survive, it burns fat and your weight drops. When you take in more calories than your body needs, you store fat and gain weight.

In order to lose weight, you need to know your baseline of daily calories that you need to survive on a daily basis. This is also referred to as your basal metabolic rate or BMR. You will need to take in fewer calories than this rate in order to see a drop in weight.

One pound is made up of 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound a week, you have to take in 500 fewer calories a day. Reducing your caloric intake by 500 calories a day is not a huge change.

Cutting out one bottled soft drink and snack per day can easily reduce your intake to this level. In order to decrease your appetite, try supplements like Sensa that make you feel full faster. A special chemical senses information in the brain that tells you to stop eating, resulting in weight loss.

Move More to be Healthy

Americans live sedentary lives. Most will only walk to their car where they will drive to work and sit for eight hours. Then they come home and sit in front of the television. This leads to fat storage. To fight fat and win, incorporate regular exercise into your daily routine. Join a gym, take walks, go swimming or biking.

Any increase in movement will result in calorie burning, which aids in weight loss. Even activities as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator have been known to help people who are trying to lose weight.

By combining regular exercise with a healthy diet, you can fight against excess fat and lose weight. Embark on your fitness and nutrition routine today and enjoy optimal health.

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Guest Post Bio: This is a Guest Post by Samantha Peters, a contributor on the personal finance blog Paid Twice.  Sam enjoys writing about ways to ensure that your money is working hard and earning you the highest rates of return.  Sam lives in sunny San Diego, California where she enjoys live with her puppy Leona.