each can of pop contains about 7 or more spoonfuls of sugar. that much sugar is something that you would not eat out of the sugar container in the house right? thats a LOT of sugar. so cutting that out is key, and remember i said each can contains that much sugar. like another user above 'sooner' said if you must drink it, switch to a zero calorie drink like diet coke or diet pepsi. one other thing that sooner said that i liked was that fitness has to be arranged as a priority in your life for it to take effect.
now, having said that, my background to the topic is that i lost weight recently in my life. starting in may i began exercising and watching what i ate and i roughly lost 20 pounds so far. now, that is a time frame of 5 months, so 20 / 5 = 4 pounds lost per month. now that doesnt seem like a lot but it was sustained weight loss, i wasnt losing and then gaining it back. how did i do it? well, first lets talk about exercise:
i lost weight by running outside mostly. i would run for like 30 minutes almost every day. now, there is a technique to the running, most people think that you should run as hard as you can for as long as you can. thats not how that works. you should run at a comfortable pace, meaning without getting out of breath and without feeling muscle cramps in your legs. you should run for a few minutes then you walk for a few minutes. its called a run / walk pattern. but you should never feel like you are struggling to breathe, that means you are over doing the running part of it. as time goes on, you will increase the running time and decrease the walking time. so i started out with a 4 / 3 , 4 minutes light jogging and 3 minutes walking and i went up to a 6 / 3; 6 minutes jogging and 3 minutes walking. there are books on this topic, the best book is called 'Book on Running' by Galloway. check it out at your local library if you can. i know that not everyone can run, maybe the location around is not safe or other issues exist. but thats how i lost the weight, if its not safe to run for you in local parks then i would recommend some of the indoor exercises that the other users above have suggested. next i focused on diet:
i just ate smaller meals more often and tried to keep them healthy: boiled eggs, apples, vegetables, little bit of rice and carrots with yogurt, more home cooked and less fast food. i would eat like 5 times a day but small amounts. you should always feel a little bit hungry every time you finish eating. dont ever fill up completely. another key thing is that you should eat bigger meals in the morning and afternoon and little for dinner. you should eat dinner so that you are not starving at night time but it should not be the biggest meal of the day. that is simply because you are not going to use up that energy and when you go to sleep that energy is converted to fat.
the combination of the two along with regular stretching, yoga type exercises are good for weight loss. for me, the weight loss took time and i am still going at it. so dont expect things to happen very quickly but you can do it if you keep at it. if nothing else, i would control the diet. if you cannot exercise outside for some reason, strictly control your diet. cut out sugary drinks and eat healthier things like carrots and apples for snacks and fruits for lunch. for your main meals, cut the size by a third. that alone will give you results. hope this helps.