The older you get, the harder it becomes to lose weight and keep yourself from regaining it. However, if you are willing to make some diet and lifestyle changes, it’s possible to reach your weight loss goal, as well as maintain a healthy weight in the future. You just have to be motivated enough to do it.

1. Adopt Healthy Eating Habits

Obesity is often tied to an unhealthy diet. For example, making poor food choices and overeating is going to keep you from being able to maintain a healthy weight, let alone shed any pounds. Unfortunately, obesity can do more than just ruin your “ideal” figure. It puts you at greater risks of serious medical conditions like heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Therefore, if you are serious about losing weight, you need to get serious about eating healthier. Limit your consumption of foods that are high in fat and sugar content. Try to stay home and cook more rather than eating out, as it’s harder to eat healthy when you go to most restaurants – especially fast food chains. Replace junk food with healthy snacks.

2. Practicing Good Portion Control is Key

The key to losing weight – and keeping the pounds off – is portion control. You aren’t likely going to give up all of your favorite (bad) foods. The truth is you don’t have to in most cases. Instead, you just need to eat smaller portions. Don’t go back for that second piece of dessert!

3. Download a Calorie Counter App

Speaking of portion control, a good way to limit your intake of calories is to download a free calorie counter app. (Remember, you must burn more calories than you consume to actually lose weight). You will have to figure out how to estimate the right serving size for each meal when you use a calorie counter. Most people tend to overestimate the correct serving size. However, once you figure it out, you should know exactly how many calories you are consuming with each meal and snack. That way you can use the data to keep yourself from overeating.

4. Exercise Regularly

As mentioned above, you must burn more calories than you consume to successfully lose weight. Unfortunately, that’s hard for most people to do just by changing their diet. Therefore, you need to become more physically active to help your body shed pounds and keep them from coming back. One of the easiest and healthiest forms of exercise is walking. However, you will need to walk over 10,000 steps a day to burn enough calories to start losing weight – and that’s if you keep your calorie intake under control. You could also go jogging, swimming, or take an aerobics class.

5. Stay Motivated

The last key to help you reach your weight loss goal is to stay motivated enough to stick with a healthy diet and good exercise routine. In other words, you can’t give in to the temptation of overeating – especially when it comes to fast food or junk food. You also need to be willing to exercise each day. Furthermore, many people get discouraged when it takes them longer than expected to lose weight. Don’t let yourself get discouraged and give up. Instead, set a realistic weight loss goal for yourself. For instance, it isn’t realistic or healthy to try to lose 20 pounds in a week. However, if you put in the effort, you could probably lose five pounds. You might even seek out an exercise partner to help you stay motivated. In short, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, then you are going to have to eat healthier meals, as well as limit your calorie intake. Furthermore, you are going to need to get plenty of exercise to burn those excess calories. Whatever you do, don’t let yourself get discouraged and stop trying. If you work hard enough, you can reach your weight loss goal.