Take every day a few ounces at a time

For the first two weeks of your weight loss program, you won't lose any weight. You have to increase your exercise - biking or walking at least 20 minutes a day and working out with weights three times a week, and cut back on your eating - by cutting out all desserts after 8 o'clock, and eating the same meals, but smaller portions. After a couple of weeks, you'll reach a caloric imbalance, and you'll start to lose weight - a few ounces at a time. Over the course of another week, you'll lose probably a pound (if you're over 40/45), or two pounds (if you're in your 20s - young people's metabolisms typically slow down after a certain age). After you've lost about five pounds and can actually see a difference in your scale, you'll believe in the system, and want to continue it. At this point, however, you may think, "Well, what I'm doing is working so well that if I start skipping lunch, it will work even better." Not so. Remember what I've always said - it may be counter-intuitive - but it will take you longer to lose weight if you don't eat than if you do. You want to have breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. In this way, your body won't feel as if it's in starvation mode, and slow down its metabolism on its own. Instead, it will burn calories as normal, and you will lose weight.