Trying to lose weight can be daunting at first. The web is full of false and useless information that can stress you out and scare you away from your goal. Don’t get discouraged before you even start. Here are five easy and realistic fat loss tips to help you shed weight with a smile on your face.

Fat Loss Tips

Tip 1: Be an explorer

What works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you. Just as everyone’s fingerprints are unique, each blueprint to lose weight is an individual custom product. Try something for two weeks, and if it doesn’t seem to make a difference, stop. If it does, your experiment was a success. Keep a journal and write down your starting weight to track whether you make physical and emotional progress.

Tip 2: Be a stickler

Don’t think running on a treadmill for unlimited miles will erase the bad food you ate the previous weekend. Your diet is the most important factor determining whether you lose weight. No matter how much you exercise, you cannot out-train a bad diet. Keep the diet on point, and by gradually introducing more exercise, you will see results.

The best way to stay on your diet is to be accountable. Grab a friend to take the healthy challenge with you, and be honest about all of your food choices. If you have the means, hire a trainer who can keep you on the path to success.

Tip 3: Be a scientist

Perhaps the greatest fat loss tip is more of a science equation. To lose weight, you must expend more energy than you consume. But your calories must come from pure and healthy food sources. Plenty of apps and gadgets (watches, fitness bands, etc.) are on the market to help you estimate the number of calories you burn and to track your macronutrient percentages. Once you have your baseline for the day, subtract calorie expenditure from calorie consumption and make sure you are in the negative. A net negative calorie expenditure means you are on the road to losing weight.

Tip 4: Be a teammate

The problem with individual weight loss plans is we know we need to lose weight, but we never tell anyone. Telling someone and being accountable may be your best extrinsic motivation. A good way to keep yourself honest is to have a weekly weigh-in with your partner present to record the results. Being unable to “hide” on the scale is a great way to stay true to your diet plan.

Tip 5: Be realistic

One of the best fat loss tips is to go one step at a time. If you tell yourself that in two days you will sleep perfectly, eat perfectly and exercise like a pro athlete, you are lying to yourself and ultimately setting yourself up for disappointment. Be realistic and take things day by day. Maybe the first week, you will concentrate on water consumption and increase vegetable servings. Stay simple and build on your new lifestyle week after week until it becomes second nature. Start with water consumption in Week 1. In Week 2, get to bed earlier, even if it means leaving items undone on your to-do list. Concentrate on forming good habits before making big changes to your diet.

Read more:

• The Rules of Fat Loss
• Top 10 Tips to Lose Fat
• 3 Steps to Beat Belly Fat