Atkins was definitely one of the quickest ways to reduce body fat for me, but I grew tired of the restrictive menu, and the prospect of never being able to enjoy drinking beer (REAL beer) with my friends made it impossible for me to maintain.

I can’t deal with diets that are too restrictive.  As much as I wanted to lose the pounds and get rid of that spare tire around my gut, I’m a REAL person.  I have FRIENDS.  And in Japan you can’t go out with friends and turn down the delicious food that they put in front of you, or the beer they just poured for you because it will knock you out of ketosis.

I have tried intensive exercise programs, but I’ll be honest – when I weighed almost 270 pounds (I’m 5’7″) jogging hurt my joints and wasn’t any fun.

I did learn to love weightlifting though.  And while the guy who is coaching me now tells me I have a tendency to overdo it, I’m glad that I have found a form of exercise that I Enjoy doing.

I know we all hate to admit it, but exercise is necessary to lose fat pounds and replace them with muscle.  The more lean body mass you build, the faster the rest of that weight just melts away from your stomach.

I’ve learned a lot about dieting in the past few months, and I’m looking forward to proving to all of my ‘friends’ who taunt me about the ‘impending rebound’ that they were wrong and that yes – even I can lose weight.

The author’s name is Jon, and I’m having a header automatically placed at the head of his articles, but please read them.

He runs a weight loss program, and there will be links in his articles, but the content is so good, I’m gonna use it.

Please comment and let me know if his tips help you melt away the pounds.

Some of what he says is counter-intuitive, but so have most effective nutrition plans I’ve followed