Patience is the Key

How old are you...my readers out there in the dark?

If you're anywhere between fifteen and forty, your metabolism is probably at one level - either fast or slow, and if its fast you're probably not worried about losing weight, you probably never gain.

If its slow, well, you have to make sure you don't overeat. Eat the foods you love, but in the appropriate quantities.

However, even for those fast-metabolism people out there, there will come a reckoning. Some time in your forties or fifties, your metabolism is going to slow down and you'll have to maintain your appropriate weight through sensible eating and exercise.

But even those folks with slow metabolisms will slow down even more.

Frankly, once you're over 50, you can certainly still lose weight, and maintain weight loss, but it takes longer to do it.

And it will take even longer if you don't eat properly, but rather try to starve yourself into losing weight. It may not sound logical, but if you eat only a thousand calories a day, it will take you longer to lose weight than if you eat fifteen hundred calories a day, or more.

This is because if you cut your caloric intake drastically, your body will think its being starved, and in an effort to save your life, will go into starvation mode - taking energy from your muscles before it takes it from your fat.

So depending on your age, do not become impatient with how long it might be taking you to lose weight. You are not going to lose 10 pounds in only 2 weeks - indeed, if you are able to do that it's because there's something seriously wrong with you! i.e. an illness of some kind that you will need to have checked out.

2 pounds a week is all that can be safely lost, and 1 pound a week is just fine.

In addition, make sure you are doing your weight training. Even if you don't want to mess with exercises for your legs, it is imperative to at least get some dumbbells and do curls, French curls, overhead raises, and shoulder shrugs, to keep your upper body strong, your back straight.