When it comes to weight loss, we can all be Incredibly impatient, wanting to lose those extra pounds as quickly as possible. However, weight loss should be a natural and sensible process as when we try too hard to lose, we often make silly mistakes and end up back where we started. If you are looking to lose weight, the following tips should help get you to the body you’ve always dreamed of:

Avoid Fad Diets and Pills

It’s incredibly tempting to take up a fad Diet, or to try and lose weight by taking a pill. But, remember, if there was a miracle pill out there that would give us all the perfect bodies we desire then everyone would already be taking it! Diet pills, especially sourced off the internet, can be incredibly dangerous and some aren’t even regulated. Some pills work by giving you a high dosage of caffeine that will raise your heartrate and make you feel incredibly shaky – yes this will supress your appetite but in the long run it can have awful (and possibly fatal) side effects.

The same caution should be taken with fad diets that involve swapping meals for shakes, cutting out certain Food groups and even skipping food entirely. Diets such as the cabbage soup diet or the bone broth diet will promise you that you’ll lose 10-15lbs in just one or two weeks, which is true. You will lose this weight, but remember that not only is this mainly water weight and not actual fat, as soon as you start eating ‘proper’ food again the weight will pile back on as quickly as you lost it. It might seem incredibly slow to lose only a 1lb or 2lb a week, but this natural weight loss is much easier to maintain.

Use a tool like MyFitnessPal to calculate a daily calorie limit for you (based on your age, height, weight and weight loss goals) and use the app to add in your food for the day. You’ll be able to clearly see how many calories you are consuming and try to stick to your goal. The app will even advise you if you’re eating too little and remind you of the dangers this can pose.

Stick to Light Exercise

As well as reaching for a fad diet or pill, when you’re desperate to get the weight off it’s also tempting to start a gruelling exercise regime. However, workouts like the 30 Day Shred or P90X are incredibly high intensity and can make you dread doing them, which can be a slippery slope back to bad habits.

Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise – you can’t run from a bad diet! Instead, try to focus on light exercises such as taking the dog for a walk every afternoon or taking the stairs more. As the weight starts to fall off and you feel your energy improve, start to increase your activity slowly.

Remember to Treat Yourself

Nearly every diet fails due to the fact we fall into temptation, but this need not be the case. Think of your diet as more of a lifestyle change where you can occasionally treat yourself – especially if you can fit it into your calorie limit for the day!

What you should do, though, is try to make subtle changes to the foods that led to your weight gain. If, for instance, you have a sweet tooth and love chocolate, switch out your milk chocolate for a darker option. Dark chocolate has a much lower sugar content, fewer calories, will quench your craving and even has lots of healthy anti-oxidant benefits.

If you enjoy a takeaway, there’s no reason why you still can’t order food in occasionally. The idea is that you control your food habits by making healthier choices. For pizza lovers, swap a large deep pan pizza for a smaller thin crust with a side salad. Try to top it with vegetables and lean meat, and most restaurants offer a lighter cheese option. If you like Chinese or Japanese opt for steamed options and avoid fried foods, sushi is also a great healthy option  with plenty of great health benefits.

The key thing is to remember control, a treat will keep you on the straight and narrow, but this is not to be over-indulged.