What's the easiest way to lose weight?

This is a question I get asked very often. One certainty is that their is no healthy way of losing weight fast. Weight loss should be achieved by a steady reduction of 1 to 2 pounds per week. The way to do this is with a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise. Firstly, don't get hung up on weight loss. The aim should be to reduce body fat, which in turn will reduce your weight. From here on in I will only refer to fat loss and not weight loss.

So what is the easiest way to lose body fat and do I have to count calories?

There is no easy answer to these questions. It really depends upon your current circumstances. I tend to put people who want to lose body fat in two categories.

1. People who want to get fit and reduce body fat due to an unhealthy lifestyle.
2. People who are already fit, participate in exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet but want to lose that last few stubborn pounds of body fat to achieve a great toned physique.

I would approach people from each group in a different way and give the following advice.

If you fall into category 1, then I wouldn't advise counting calories, unless you want food issues to totally dominate and take over your life. You are obviously at a point where you realise that your current lifestyle needs to change and that you seriously need to lose body fat before it starts to drastically effect your health.
In your situation, their are probably a lot of changes that can be made to your diet and lifestyle that will have a major impact on fat loss. You need to take a long hard look at your eating and lifestyle habits. A good way to do this is to keep a diary for at least 7 days. Keep an accurate record of everything you eat and the activity you do. The next step, is to look at areas where you can improve. For example; Do you really need that piece of cake just before you go to bed? Is it really necessary to have 3 teaspoons of sugar in you tea? Could I have walked to the shops instead of driving? Identifying areas where you can make small changes will go along way to helping you to lose fat and get fitter.

How can I tell I'm losing body fat?
The simplest way to monitor fat loss is to take measurements of the areas of your body that are holding the most fat. Waist, hips, thighs, chest etc. This will give you a good indication of progress. The other way is to measure your Body Mass Index. Click the link below to go to a simple calculator for doing this. http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/.

Do I really need to exercise?
If you seriously want to lose body fat then regular exercise is a must. Simply by being more active and exercising you will use more calories. This along with a healthy diet will help burn body fat. The key to exercise is to make sure you do an activity you enjoy. Despite the benefits many people find exercise too much like hard work and abandon it before making a serious commitment. There are many reasons for this. Most people who start exercise try to do too much too soon. If you haven't done any serious exercise for a long time then you need to ease into it gently. Any increase in activity, be it only 10 minutes per day is an improvement on what you were doing before. So start slow and build up.

If you fall into category 2, I don't need to tell you to eat healthy and take exercise because you are already doing it, which is great. However, if you are asking the question, 'What's the easiest way to lose weight?' I'm assuming that you are still holding on to a few excess pounds of fat. Getting rid of this is probably just a case of making small changes to your current diet and exercise routine. The last few pounds is always the most difficult to get rid of. This is really frustrating if you are spending hours per week in the gym and trying your best to eat healthily. Think about this statement. 'If you do what you have always done, you will always get what you've got!' Unfortunately, human beings are naturally creatures of habit. Most people I work with in this situation are doing the same or similar exercise routine they have always done and are eating the same diet and let's face it making the same mistakes. Your body is the master adapter and will very quickly adapt to what ever you throw at it. So the key here is to keep it guessing. Often just making small changes to your normal routine and diet will give great results for fat loss. Making changes will kick start your metabolism and help you to lose body fat.
In this situation, then counting calories is more relevant. It's necessary to know how many calories you can eat during the day. I often find that most people in this situation are eating a maintenance diet (enough calories to maintain weight) or too little calories, in which case their metabolism has hit rock bottom and their body is doing everything it can to hold on to that last little bit of fat.
First find out how many calories you need in a day. Then create a calorie deficit of about 500 from your maintenance allowance. Second, change your workout routine. If you have always done aerobic exercise, try adding some resistance training into your workout or vice versa. If you already do both, try some variations of other aerobic activities or resistance exercises.

We can learn a great deal about fat loss from body builders. Body builders are constantly tweaking and changing there work out routines and diet and are masters at reducing body fat when it is needed to do so. A great book that explains the principles and methods used by natural body builders to achieve such low body fat levels is call Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle by Tom Venuto.
Don't be put off by the title, the principles and methods used can be applied by anyone. Whether you are a beginner or seasoned pro, Toms book has helped thousands of everyday people achieve their fat loss goals.