They do crash dieting, they exercise beyond their physical capacity, they take certain medicines, and sometimes they go under operations and surgeries. All these are options, but sometimes, we are too focused on getting what we want that we don’t notice that there are actually ways that are way simpler.

To be consistent with the example mentioned above about women and their struggle for a flat tummy and the various ways they try to get exactly what they want, they sometimes look way beyond the box and forget that there are actually several other stomach exercises that would do the job with less the pain of not eating for weeks, and the danger that exercising too much poses.

The best example for this is walking. Walking could be the easiest activity one could do. It is not time consuming and no equipment is needed to be bought for it. However, people think that jogging is just good for the heart and the muscle areas in a person’s lower extremities. However, this is just another fitness misconception.

As we all know, walking, running and jogging are cardio exercises. Cardio exercises are not only meant to regulate the heart rate and the circulation of blood in our body, it also has an effect in our metabolism. Cardio exercises make our metabolism fast enough to prevent the build up of fats and cellulite in our stomach. In short, even simple cardio exercises can do the job. You need not spend a lot and put your life in danger’s way.

Of course, these exercises must be partnered with enough sleep, proper diet and discipline. To bust another misconception, it actually helps if you eat more often. Eating several small meals throughout the day will boost your metabolism and help you burn more calories. However, as often as you eat, you must also be aware to lessen your calorie intake.

Stick with those which are rich in fiber and are antioxidants. Also, water should be your new best friend. It is important for you to know that most of those times that you feel hungry, your body is not actually asking for food; it is actually your body’s call for more fluid.

All of these boil down into a single point: workout routines must not be a torture. Beauty should not be painful. May this serve as a shout-out to all who work really hard to get that fabulous flat stomach. Stop whatever you are doing or are planning to do. If you are taking something, throw them away. If you are up for an operation, cancel. What you need to do is to have some sleep, eat more fiber-rich foods and peaceful walk around your place at sunrise. That is how the cookie crumbles.

The hips, back of the arms and the mid section together with the inner thighs are the areas that women are very problematic about. Now there are a lot of claims that exercises for inner thigh are very helpful in reducing the spots. Newsflash: It is not true. This is because there no such thing as specific exercises for inner thigh since your inner thighs store all the fat that your body takes in.

A whole body exercise is good, yes, because it can burn fats in your body evenly. However, for the problem areas in a woman’s body, a specific exercise for a certain body part to get rid of the fat and tone up the muscles is impossible. The only way to make yourself in perfect shape without those excess fats is to make your metabolism work fast and to do this you must first create a good exercise habit.

In order to do all these, you must educate yourself and learn more about the exercises for women. It is a fact that exercises for men and women are different. When men enjoy going to the gym and trying to broaden and boost their muscles up, women on the other hand exercise for their muscles located in their backs and abdomens. Exercises for women that are made especially for them are also crucial because we all know that men and women have different body structures. There are certain body parts of women that need to be shaped up more than the men.

A woman’s body is a haven and a temple and it needs to be taken cared of. Doing exercises are very important because women age differently from men. Since women undergo more bodily changes than men, there is a need to live healthier to avoid those unwanted love handles showing everywhere. Eating the right kind of food combined with the right exercise is the perfect weapon to keep women stunning and beautiful inside and out.

Paying more attention to a good exercise and a healthy diet will absolutely pay off later in a woman’s life. Taking care of yourself now will be good for the future and you can do your duties and responsibilities as a woman well if you start taking care of yourself now. So live a health-conscious life. Just bear in mind that you have to do the right exercise that is suitable for you and your body. Stay healthy, exercise regularly and be happy!

I have tried Slim Fast once a day and twice a day with a sensible meal at night or noon.

I tried ediets their ediet plan, heart plan and also weight watchers on line. The ediet was the easiest to follow and easiest to understand.

Everything was explained and they had a dietitian and exercise guru to answer questions and help.

I could not lose an ounce on any diet. I could eat 500 calories a day and gain a pound when I weighed myself the next day. I went to Mayo Clinic and got diagnosed with Diabetes and under active thyroid.

I am on medicine for both conditions and have lost ten pounds in two months. I think anyone wanting to lose weight or that has tried to lose weight needs to check with the doctor to make sure there is not a real physical reason why they are unable to lose weight.

All of us pretty much know if we have really tried and should be losing weight. If that is the case, stop and see your doctor.

Highly recommended bodyweight exercises for women.

Some of the diet plans that I tried that failed were Atkins, Weight Watchers, protein shakes, the cabbage soup diet, the grapefruit diet and the points diet.

I could not wrap myself around some of the stranger combination diets because they ultimately gave me indigestion, so I was unable to stay with them for any length of time. I did try doing the fasting thing, but it gave me massive amounts of problems with my bowls, so I couldn’t stay with it.

The most successful diet I have ever done, and believe me, I have tried them all, was exercise and eating sensibly. I did this when I was in my 20s and not only did I lose the weight but it stayed off for several of years. My food consisted of a list of healthy suggestions that I received from my doctor, and an ever faithful calorie counter.

Instead of using the heavy fatty foods, I was more careful and used the low calorie alternatives. Instead of using butter, I used low cal margarine. Instead of eating ice cream, I ate Weight Watchers ice cream.

I denied myself nothing, but if I slid and made up for it by watching what I ate at the next meal. I tried to keep to 1200 calories and it worked well. As far as exercise, yes I participated in several different types.

I did weights before bed for upper arm and strength, also did these belly fat exercises. I did cardio with the Jane Fonda work out tapes and the Cosmopolitan work out tapes and exercise for love handles. It helped burn a lot calories and helped me feel strong while I was working the diet.

The other good aspect of working out was that it sped up my metabolism. So, if I had a bad day, it didn’t send me into a back spin.

My plan was to exercise more and to choose healthier alternatives when eating. Personally I think that the exercise was the key. My exercises of choice are running, bike riding, tennis, or Video games on the Wii.

Running is an obvious choice. However sometimes while running I get bored, even while listening to music. So then I started riding my bike more. The benefits of bike riding, was that I could cover more ground and see more interesting places around the neighborhood.

Luckily for me I live out in the country and there are plenty of places that I am able to explore on my bicycle. My third choice of exercise was tennis. I played in high school, so I figured that picking up the sport again would not be that difficult.

When playing I would play both singles and doubles. Singles burns more calories, but I enjoy doubles more because of the social aspect. Also when there was noone to play with I would go hit on the Playmate Ball Machine at the tennis club.

This burnt more calories than singles or doubles combined, simply because there was always another ball coming out. Playing tennis for the first time in 10 years I could see my skills had diminished, but before long I felt as though I was playing better than I had in High School.

Lastly for those rainy days I use my Wii Fit game. They have all sorts of little games to play to get your heart rate up. My favorite part of Wii Fit is the Yoga. My body tends to be a little tight, and after 3 months I can already see a difference in my flexibility.

As far as my diet, as I mentioned before there was no specific diet plan. However when choosing meals instead of the normal hamburger and french frys, I began to eat a sub and yougurt. For breakfast I stopped eating biscuits and gravy or a bagel loaded with cream cheese.

I have began to eat Special K breakfast bars and a glass of all natural orange juice or water. Hopefully if I stick to my plan I can continue to eat foods that I enjoy and exercise my way to a healthier weight.

Until age 47 I didn’t pay much attention. Back in 2003 some of my online friends had been posting in their journals about their desire to loose weight and I did a little research just to make sure they knew not to loose TOO MUCH weight.

I found that the Body Mass Index is the primary measure of a healthy weight. For adults (21 and up) the healthy range of BMI is 19 to 25. Unfortunately at 6 feet tall and 200 pounds I was at a BMI of 27.1… 23 pounds over the upper limit!

I was not alone, over half the male adult population is above the 25 mark. To get into the healthy range (BMI=25) I have to get down to 177. To get to the MIDDLE of the healthy range (BMI=21) I would have to get down to 160.

By accident I created a diet I call the Big Lunch Diet. This is the story of how I stumbled into it. NOTE: The Big Lunch Diet worked (eventually) for me but I have no idea if it is safe or effective for anyone else.

One Sunday I had a huge lunch. It was so large I wasn’t hungry till mid-day on Monday! On that Monday I had a fairly large slab of Prime Rib for lunch and again I wasn’t really hungry for the rest of the day.

I weighed myself on Tuesday morning and found that I weighed 194, less than at any time in the last few years. It wasn’t close to 177 (or 160) but it was a change for the better.

Of course I would exercise some. On nice days I would walk a mile or two after lunch. I would take the stairs to my 4th-floor office at least twice a day, sometimes two at a time, sometimes double-time.

The beauty of the Big Lunch Diet is that you get to pig-out one hour a day. You eat meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains until you have no room for dessert… Then have NO calories (or at least VERY few) for the rest of the day.

If you get hungry in the morning just drink some water and anticipate the joys of a big lunch. If you get hungry at night just drink some water and remember how much you ate at lunch.

It took about eight months but I got my weight down to 161. After going back to three meals a day I was able to keep my weight well under 170 for several years, just by skipping an occasional meal if my weight got above 165.

My call to alert to lose baby weight: my peers thought I was pregnant a second time! Like my infant I decided to proceed with baby steps: slowly but with a clear intent. First step: wake up half an hour sooner and walk around my neighborhood.

Second step: go the “milky way” : I had to buy twice a week yoghurts and milk for my daughter, I started buying liquid low fat yoghurts and small milk cartons for myself, for mid-morning breaks and late office hours- goodbye cheese bits from vending machine.

Step three: Do it the fun way: I was always stressed, so I turned it positively: power walking to the cafeteria burnt calories and…saved time; House chores were done always with loud, funky music-it setting up a quick pace and almost always leaving me in a good mood.

That was enough to get rid of 1.5 kg in 2 weeks. Uplifting as it was, I moved further. My next step was changing food habits at home ; soup was re-introduced on the menu ( again an easy step in line my child needs). Lots of vegetables and water versus the usual meat and carbs dinner, cleansed my body while giving me a filling of hunger fulfillment much needed after grueling office hours.

Soup is not an acquired taste but turning into traditional recipe books, I discovered a wide range of cold and warm soups -with veggies and even fruit which were both easy to do as well as very palatable. By the time I had lost 4 kilos I was very proud of myself..but also feeling my weight had reached a plateau.

My last – and still ongoing step, was entering a “Power group” . Basically together with a few neighbours, I extended the power walk to the cafeteria to a power walk to the beach every evening: the four us give mutual support and every evening we trot down to the seaside ( 2km) do a bit of stretching exercises and walk back.

We are registering our progression in a log – so far we have reduced our initial time by 10 minutes … more calories burning ! Setting into a routine of exercise – even if mild as ours- is difficult as in the back of our minds a lot of excuses – house chores, children, unfinished emails – pop up, but thta’s what they really are , excuses.

As a group we push for each other, and don’t let anyone to be a dropout. Peer pressure and buddying are helping me a lot. Hope it can help you too.

One day I finally decided to turn my life around and joined Weight Watchers. I learned how to read labels, watch my portion sizes, and exercise in moderation.

The meetings were extremely helpful in keeping me motivated. My leader was an inspiration and being around people dealing with the same weight issues as myself aided in my weight loss.

I lost 40 pounds almost exclusively through dieting. Exercise has never appealed to me and my only form of it consists of walking my dog.

I currently weigh 175 and my goal weight is 160. I hope to achieve this weight within the next six months.

My boyfriend is currently on deployment and a group of us women from the boat have decided to do the biggest loser. We are basically weighing ourselves at our monthly meetings and the woman who loses the most at the end of deployment wins a pot of about $300.

This time around I’m using the money, and the look of shock on my boyfriend’s face as my motivation. I have stepped up my walking and would like to join a gym once the weather gets cooler.

These last 15 lbs are going to be the hardest to lose. It’s more difficult to lose weight when you are alone, especially for someone who eats when she is bored.

I keep a lot of low-calorie snacks in the house in case I get the munchies.

You really need to rely on yourself and your personal self control to see through it to the end. Being healthy for my family is very important to me and I want to reach my goal weight before I start having children.

One must understand that in order to keep the weight off, you can’t go on a diet, you need to change your lifestyle. I continue to work on that and hope that the end result will come soon.

I had been married for 18 years at that time, and had gradually put on 8-10 lbs a year. I had tried gyms, personal trainers, nutritionist, walking, joined Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, NutraSystem, been to diet Dr.’s.

I could go on and on. I so desperately wanted to get back down to 155 (what I weighed when I got married).

My weight yo-yo’d so frequently, I’m surprised my health is as good as it is today. I was so depressed, my marriage was falling apart, I had no life except work. I began hearing about a weight loss surgery…Lap Band.

So I began searching all I could find on the internet. I finally located a Dr. with credentials that was to my satisfaction. Dr. Jaime Ponce in Dalton, GA. I contacted them to set up an appointment for consultation.

After I met him, I left with a different attitude. He offered me something nothing else had, a life time change, not a quick fix. I scheduled my surgery for November 6, 2006, by that time my weight was 246.

It has been 21 months I am down to 142 and a BMI of 21, (which had been 36). I don’t regularly exercise, but I must say I’m healthier today than I’ve ever been. My marriage has been restored and I thank God for this opportunity.

Insurance did not cover this, we had to dish out $20,000.00, but I’d probably spent that much over my life time of trying to lose weight anyway, so what was another 20???? This may not be everyone’s answer, but it was mine.

I follow a general routine, eating 2-3 small meals a day, sometimes I snack, but I love that feeling of being full. I had never had that before, just hunger.

Needless to say, my puppies have also lost weight since my surgery. Sometimes I think they feel like I don’t love them anymore, because when I eat, they don’t get anything, cause I eat all my small portion!

To give you some background on myself, I have no medical conditions, I don’t smoke, drink socially. I had a baby late in my life which contributed to the weight loss & also stress & depression.

My goal has always been to get down to a size 12 again.

At the advise of my doctor, I tried some weight loss pills that she prescribed telling me their were no adverse side affects.

I had horrible side effects, sweating, nausea, tired, listless feeling. In the past, I had tried various diet programs; I found these to be of no help either.

I paid a fortune for food thru them, and lost some weight, but could not afford to keep up buying the food & had horrible counselors that basically just cared about taking your money.

I also had tried just plain starving myself, eating one meal a day, and drinking lots of water. I did lose some weight, but felt horrible most of the time.

I then turned to working out & joined a health club, feeling I would be motivated by other people working out. I lost interest in the first couple months and became very bored with this.

Also with a young child, I had really no time to drive to the gym and work out. I have finally come to the conclusion that I would completely change myself from the inside out.

I took a really hard look at my life and where I’m at right now, and decided I needed to make myself feel better on the inside & be realistic about my approach to changing my outward appearance.

So, I really paid attention to what I ate. I found myself munching on food all day while chasing a toddler around.

I have now finally begun to successfully lose weight and I feel great! I have taken time for myself, by reading every nite while I work out on my recumbent bike. (Xmas gift years ago).

This helps me wind down after a long day. I also take my baby for a stroll around the neighborhood during the day, improves her sleep & my attitude for the day.

I have completely given up sugar, starches, pop and have a diet that consists of fresh vegetables & fruits, cheeses, and mainly chicken & turkey with occasional red meat.

I have already lost 10 lbs. in two weeks! My advice to anyone struggling to lose weight, look at the reason inside yourself that you overeat, and fix that first. Then, eat sensible foods in moderation & add an exercise that you enjoy. Above all, be patient, it won’t happen overnight! Good luck!!