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Weight loss is a personal journey. You are unique, therefore so are your methods to success. There are, however, some invaluably universal truths that will get you on your way:

Ditch your Diet

By restricting your daily intake, you are inevitably doomed to imminent weight (re)gain, and then some. Months and years of calorie reduced meals has trained your metabolism to burn less, to slow down, else it will get hungry. This means trouble. Do you eat more? (your body is not used to it, so you'll gain weight; quickly!) Or, do you eat less? (and deplete the metabolism even further.)

Consult your nutritionist, but the general daily intake of carbohydrates should total 130 grams or two serves of traditional carbs, any less and you will be losing muscle tissue which is our greatest fat burner.

Eat Healthy

How many times have we all "sort of, accidentally, deliberately....forgot to make our lunch at home" for an excuse to eat out? You can eat those foods you love, like Laksa or Pizza, IF you make the healthier version at home first. Keep a better eye open next time you take a stroll through the supermarket. You truly will be amazed at the healthy options sitting forgotten on shelf beside the full fat, fully salted, full creamed items you usually pick up.

A pizza is so much more filling when made on brown Pita bread, layered with sliced tomato, topped with ricotta cheese and oregano, and an assortment of seafood or vegetables.

Eat Regularly

Your daily digestive pattern is the easiest of the metabolism manipulators. To raise your metabolic rate so that the body learns to burn more consistently throughout the day, eat more often (not greater quantities) and at regular times each day. Eat smaller portioned meals every two hours (between five to six small meals a day).

Sleep

Sleep is vital to our health in so many ways. Does it really come as any surprise that it aids weight loss? We burn near 500 calories while sleeping because our body is working to digest the day's intake. To do this, adults need between eight to nine hours sleep per night. Get into a regular sleeping pattern to ensure the metabolism's routine. Be sure, also, to allow two to three hours between eating and lying down so as to give the stomach a chance to digest your food, else it will turn straight to fat.

Move

Ten thousand steps a day to be precise. Whether it's the gym, a personal trainer, your own equipment, the pavement, or even a pair of tin cans and an Aerobics DVD, you must use your body to its full potential.

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