Diet

• There is no need to spend extra money on diets such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, or Nutrisystem. The most important part of dieting is to speed up your metabolism. This is done by eating smaller portions more often. An increased metabolism breaks down the food you eat rather than storing the extra calories as fat. Of course it is important to eat healthy meals, but that can be done without spending extra money on brand-name diets. Cutting out hard-to-digest foods that include saturated fats, trans fats, sugar and simple carbohydrates will help your body process what you eat. Try to eat six to eight meals a day, thus never being extremely hungry, and causing your body to increase its metabolism. An example of a small meal is half a turkey sandwich, or a yogurt with a bowl of fruit.
  
  

Aerobic Exercise

• In addition to eating better, exercising is the key to losing weight fast. Aerobic exercise is the most common way to improve your cardiovascular system, burn calories, and help speed up your metabolism. Running, biking, and playing sports that involve constant movement such as basketball and hockey are great aerobic exercises. Aerobic exercise consists of increasing your heart rate and keeping it elevated for a prolonged period of time. Thus, you should pick a difficult pace that you will be able to maintain for the duration of your workout. For maximum results, aerobic exercise should be done for 20 to 45 minutes two to three times a week.
  
  

Resistance Training

• You do not need a gym membership to do resistance training and build lean muscle. Although aerobic exercise burns more calories, resistance training helps burn fat and creates lean muscle, which increases your metabolism. There are many exercises that can help build muscle by using your body weight as resistance for your training. Body-weight squats, lunges, push-ups and dips are all great exercises that strengthen your upper and lower body. Sit-ups, crunches, leg raises and abdominal twists are all effective exercises that work your abdominals. Each exercise should be repeated 12 to 20 times for three sets. To see improvement, consistently do some variation of resistance training three to four times a week.