Obesity is a barrier that stands between the individual and the world in almost 50% of the North American population. Shedding those extra pounds will not only improve self-esteem but also improve your overall health and energy levels. The decision to lose weight is one that is made by countless people every day and is one that should be applauded.

Obesity is a condition that leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and peripheral vascular disease. And, if ignored for a long time can prove to be fatal.

In this day of education and media coverage most people have figured out that the only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you take in. But the calorie deficit shouldn’t be caused from crash diets, skipped meals or sudden intense exercise. These are unhealthy ways of losing weight and shouldn’t be followed because they all end up at the same destination.

Failure.

Instead of crash diets or starving your body consider changing your eating habits and improving your nutrition so that you are feeding the cells of your body the vitamins and minerals necessary to be healthy. A healthy body, that receives the right nutrition, will naturally lose weight.

The pounds that come off the scale when you crash diet or starve are only temporary and will come back bigger than before when you finally give in and eat the foods you did before. In reality you are losing lean muscle when you starve and not the stored fat. And when you lose muscle the weight is going to come back.

Weight loss is achieved by simply eating the right foods and moderately increasing your physical activity level. The right foods means raw fruits, vegetables, raw nuts and seeds with lots of pure water. Eating raw fruits and vegetables means that you can eat as much as you want, whenever you want. You are never hungry.

That means never hungry.

You have to get rid of the rice, white flour, processed foods, chips, soft drinks, alcohol and sugars. These are foods that will sabotage your efforts to lose weight because they are metabolized differently than raw foods and because they are calorie dense instead of nutrient dense. This means that there are more calories in each bit of these foods than there is in raw food and there are less nutrients.

As for exercise, while it’s an important part of being healthy and losing weight you have to remember that you aren’t training for the Olympics. If you’ve been sedentary just going for a 20 minute walk every morning will be enough to start out and you’ll see some great benefits in just a couple of weeks.

But if you’ve had a bit of exercise then other outdoor activities can be fun, help you lose weight and not get boring. Things like badminton, table tennis and volleyball can be played at parties and with friends. Running, swimming, walking and rowing are exercises that can be done alone to help you lose those unwanted pounds.

And with exercise it’s important to remember that you should change up the things that you are doing so your muscles don’t get used to exercising in a specific pattern. This only cuts back on the calories that are burned with each workout.

Using these simple factors weight loss isn’t as restrictive or strict as some programs make it. It is a simple equation that requires some dietary changes and persistence. Using the right tools of nutrition and exercise you can lose weight.

Remember too that losing weight with the support of friends and family will help keep you on track with your new dietary habits and exercise. Weight loss can’t be about boosting your self-image, although it is a nice side benefit. Instead, it is about being healthy, living longer and having more energy.