If there is one truth I has learned from my years as a Long Beach personal trainer it is this: losing weight isn’t necessarily hard, but finding good information about weight loss is. The problem is that there are just so many self-proclaimed “experts” around trying to

As a Long Beach personal trainer who has helped countless clients achieve their weight loss goals, I have learned what kind of advice really gets results and what kind doesn’t do anything. So consider these five tips a kind of “Hall of Fame” of general weight loss advice. I have personally seen them help a ton of people, and I’m certain they will help you too.

Know that Fat Is Not The Enemy - Somewhere along the line, the advice to avoid saturated fat became avoid ALL fats. This is a really terrible development because fats are important part of nutrition. They don’t call them ESSENTIAL fatty acids for nothing. With the exception of saturated and trans fats, dietary fat by itself won’t really make you gain weight. In fact, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat (sometimes called the “good fats”) have a ton of documented benefits, including lowering bad cholesterol, decreasing exercise recovery time, and lubricating your joints.

Remove “White” Foods From Your Diet - Stuff like white rice, white bread, and typical pasta has an extremely high glycemic index. This means that it causes your insulin levels to shoot up dramatically, and encourages your body to store fat. Now, removing all of these kinds of foods might sound difficult, but it is actually really easy. Next time you go shopping, opt for whole wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, and brown rice instead. These foods taste just like their “white,” more heavily processed counterparts, but are much lower on the glycemic index. This small change will make a huge impact on your shape over time.

Recruit your Friends and Family - You can’t discount the importance of emotional support while pursuing your fitness plan. That way they will know not to offer you donuts or sugary soda when you visit. Plus, if you share your fitness goals, it becomes a much more public pursuit, and gives you extra motivation to drop those pounds.

Don’t Forget Weight Lifting - Too many people looking to lose weight focus only on cardio for their exercise and ignore weight training. That’s a shame, because a good weight training routine builds lean muscle mass, which not only helps you look lean and firm, but also boosts your metabolism so it is easier to lose weight.

The best way to go about weight training is slowly. Take about four seconds to perform each rep. It ensures that your muscles are bearing all the weight and that you are using proper technique. You often see people at the gym flinging the weight around as fast as they can, which only cheats them because half of the reason they can lift that much is the momentum they generate, rather than the strength of their muscles.

Snack Smart - No diet plan should have you feeling hungry all the time. So if you ever get hunger pangs in between meals, feel free to have a snack. Just make sure it is low in calories and filling enough to satisfy until your next meal. Ideally, choose something that is low in sugar, but high in protein or fiber, like trail mix. Or, if you want something that that feels like it’s bad for you, but really isn’t, try low fat nachos. Just substitute your typical fried tortilla chips with baked tortilla chips and use low fat pepper jack cheese. It tastes great and can be pretty reasonable nutrition-wise.

You can learn more about how to get in a shape at my site here: Long Beach Personal Training