hello and welcome to healthcare magic. Losing weight can be difficult. You should calculate your BMI ( weight in KG divided by the square of your height in meters), there are a number of BMI calculators on the internet if you do not wish to do it manually. Calculation of the BMI would tell you what weight category you are in and what treatment would be recommended. If it is between 25 to 29.9 then the main stay of treatment would be diet and lifestyle changes though if the person does not have any illnesses related to the weight then weight maintainance rather than weight loss is recommended. If the BMI is over 30 then medication prescribed by a doctor can be used in combination with lifestyle. A person with BMI over 40 has the option of surgery. To lose weight by lifestyle changes you will need to look at what, where and how you eat. It is actually easier to lose weight by changing the way you eat than by exercise, exercise mainly plays a role in keeping the weight off once it has been lost. The reason for this is that you need to create a deficit of 500 to 1000 calories a day to lose weight, it would require a tremendous amount of exercise to get to even 500 calories whereas a person can usually alter a few things in their daily diet to decrease it by 500 calories. Set yourself a daily calorie goal of 1200 to 1500 calories and monitor everything that you eat and drink. It may seem like alot of work but studies have shown that the persons who lose weight effectively and keep it off ( this is actually the harder part) are those that monitor what they ingest and monitor their weight. Chose a day and weigh yourself once a week, it does not need to be more often than that because of the daily fluctuations that can occur. You can use an internet website to calculate the calories in your meals if your prefer. You will need a kitchen scale to accurately figure out your calories. Increase the amount of vegetables that you eat with each meal and the decrease the amount of the other foods. You can practice low fat, low calorie diet or low calorie low carbohydrate dieting. You can try eating from a smaller plate or use meal replacements. Try not to eat in front of the tv or computer, this causes mindless eating and people usually eat more than they need. Reduce the amount of unhealthy snacks and foods in the house, if they are not there you will not be tempted to eat them and note the situations that prompt you to eat when you are not hungry. Some persons eat in response to their mood ( if they are sad,angry or bored). You need to recognise these cues to eating, remember we all experience these emotions, distract yourself with other things that you may find relaxing and wait for the bad mood to pass. Look for other situations that may make you eat unhealthy food such as walking pass a certain street or going to a certain restaurant and see if you can alter these situations. Reward yourself with a non-food item when you acheive a goal. Recognise it is not all black and white, if you do not acheive your calories goal today or the next, do not give up and say it makes no sense continuing.Set backs happen to everyone , it is how we respond to it that matters. Remember to eat slowly ,when persons eat quickly they often miss the flavour and texture of the food and because they are not savouring it they tend to overeat. Don t skip meals, it usually results in overeating later on in the day. The same study that showed how important self-monitoring was also demonstrated that persons who ate breakfast everyday were more likely to maintain their weight loss. Plan your meals ahead of time, you are more likely to be able to stick to your goal this way. You can do it, its not easy but it can be done. You can consider joining a formal program if it is too dififcult to do on your own. Wishing you the best