I just got an email from someone asking me for advice about getting started with weight loss so I thought I’d cover it again in a blog post.

Typically the main cause of obesity comes the type of lifestyle that you lead and the basic concept of calories in and calories out. This means that if you want to lose weight, you need to step back and see where your health flaws in your lifestyle lay and what you are eating.

If you are the type of person to indulge in fast food, sweets and other high calorie indulgences on a regular basis, you can probably safely say that your weight issues are not genetic or health related.

If you want to honestly see what your health and eating habits are, you can always make yourself up a health and weight profile to see exactly where your flaws are.

To start out, go ahead and make a chart that shows for every day what you ate, when you ate it and how many calories you ingested. While you make your chart, do not forget to list all the liquids you ingested too. You might be surprised how much sugar we sometimes ingest without even really realizing it.

The next logical step is to pay a visit to your doctor to find out how many calories you need in your daily diet. You can also browse the net for dieting tips and tricks as well. Typically, the amount of calories you need is determined by calculating your weight, height, age and the amount of exercise you get on any given week.

Once you have calculated the calories necessary to have in your diet, look back and pay attention to what you recorded as having eaten in the last couple of weeks that you kept your health journal for.

This journal allows you to notice how much higher your calorie intake is than it should be. As you look over your list, use a highlighter to mark all the food that you consumed that is not good for a healthy life. This of course includes foods such as soda, candy, fast food and other high calorie items.

Even though it is okay to have some of these foods now and again, they should be a once in a while treat, not a part of your daily eating plan. After all, it is these foods that caused you to become unhealthy in the first place, so less is definitely more.

The only way that you will lose weight and keep it off is to change your past bad eating habits and create a new healthy lifestyle for yourself.

Allow room in your journal for recording how much you exercise. Ideally, you will want to incorporate exercise into your daily routine a few times each week. In fact, it is suggested that you exercise at least three to five times a week.

Your journal will allow you to see if you are getting enough exercise or if your lifestyle could use some more activity. At this point you can determine what type of exercise you want to bring into your life if you find that you need more.

Exercise does not need to mean visits to the gym; you can get into shape in many different ways. For example, opt to take a long walk instead of sitting indoors or you can take the stairs instead of the elevators.

Exercise is an incredibly important part when it comes to creating a healthy lifestyle for you. I personally work out at home with hand weights and do a combination of strength plus cardio for 30 minutes a day. It’s the perfect muscle building and fat burning exercise that you can do even with a busy schedule.

Start today by making your diet and exercise journal and tracking your way to a much healthier lifestyle.