Just thought I would share a tip that worked for me and a few other people that tried it with me…

1. Monitor your calorie intake vs. calories burned (use a calorie calculator found online to find out how many you burn just being awake as a good starting point.).
2. Monitor your nutritional value intake. Read the labels and see what the recommended daily value is and try and stay at/or below it.
3. Change the way you eat. Instead of eating 3 bigger meals a day, eat 6 smaller meals a day. When you eat big meals, your body has a hard time processing all of that food at once and slows down your metabolism drastically. If you eat 6 times a day with smaller portions, your metabolism will increase and burn things easier. VERY IMPORTANT: if you eat once or twice a day, STOP. Eating more food, but less times a day will destroy your metabolism!
4. Portion size is very important as is point #3 above. Your main meals shouldn't be much bigger than the size of your fist. If your main meals are breakfast, lunch, and dinner, each of those should be around a fist size. in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner you should be eating healthy snacks. Nuts, fruits, and other things like that… but keep in mind, these snacks should be smaller than your meals. These little snacks will get you through until the next meal and keep your metabolism pumping.
5. Eat better food. This doesn't mean replace regular ice cream with non-fat ice cream. This means replace your normal sugar cravings with natural sweets like fruits or yogurts or the like. Fruit also helps increase metabolism. Eat more veggies… yah it sucks, but you get used to it if you force yourself. Stop dousing everything in butter, sour cream, and frying it. If you love fried food like I did, this will be the hardest part… stop eating it at all costs. You don't need it, explore other options out there… there is tons of good food, you just gotta find it.
6. Fast food and restaurants vs. eating at home. The cost vs. benefit ratio of eating out is no where near as good as eating at home. Eating out you get high sodium, fat, calorie, etc… meals that are way out of the portion size you should be eating and it will cost you about the same if not more money than eating a fancy meal at home. Once or twice a month you could treat yourself, but don't let it get out of control and start happening more than once a week. Prepare your meals the night before for the next days snacks and lunch and spend an hour cooking dinner when you get home. It's a routine and it's very doable.

If you have read this far, that's awesome! If all you do is the above you will lose inches off your body over time and keep it off. You have to break the bad habits and that's not something a magic pill or crash diet will do for you. Your body needs certain nutrients and it can only handle a certain amount as well. If you can ease into a new lifestyle of eating, your body will thank your for it with more energy, healthier weight, etc… which in turn will make you have a much better attitude about everything! If you can start adding in exercising as well, that will only make things better.

Congrats and good luck! I hope this helps! It sure helped me and my close friends!