In my last post I started talking about losing fat. As I said before there are no shortcuts so everything I'll tell you in the next few posts will be basic, common sense advice.
Start changing your lifestyle a little at a time and before you know it you'll be well on your way to looking and feeling better.
Before you start a diet, an exercise routine or any major lifestyle change you really need to see a doctor. This is the most important and most overlooked point.
The first reason is that you really don't know what's going on in your body. A doctor will be able to tell you if there are any potential problems. Most of the time you'll find that they'll give you the green light. If you're very unfit or overweight they'll most likely warn you to start off very easy and work your way up. (A piece of advice that applies to anyone new to diet and exercise).
Even if you have some health issue like blood pressure problems or heart problems you will still be able to exercise or diet but the doctor will give you some guidelines specifically for your condition.
A doctor will also be able to help you establish a good baseline to work from. They will also give you some realistic goals. Most of the time people pick a random weight loss figure and an unrealistic time frame. Nothing derails progress like totally missing a goal.
You really can't know where you're going unless you know where you started. So without a basic, accurate measure of your body fat you can't know how much to lose.
Another very important bit of information to find out is how many calories a day you can safely eat to lose weight. As a basic indicator, you never want to eat less than 1200 calories a day.
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