By Weightcircles Team

If you read the weight loss section of Yahoo! Answers, one of the most common questions that show up is some variation of this: "How can I lose 40 pounds before my cousin's wedding six weeks from now?" Then you can read all the answers: "Try stomach flu," or my favorite, "Cut off a leg,"

Bad News

The bad news for an instant gratification society like ours is this: there's no quick way to lose weight. If you have a lot of weight to lose and you make significant changes in your diet and exercise, you can safely lose 2-3 pounds a week. If you are only a little overweight, or you've already been dieting for a while, 1-2 pounds or even less than a pound a week is more realistic.

Survival Instinct

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Any diet that causes you to lose faster than that for a sustained period of time is probably unsafe. Not only that, but if you cut back your caloric intake severely, after a period of time your body will begin to burn lean muscle tissue (while conserving fat tissue) and your metabolism will slow down. After all, the human body is well-programmed to preserve its fat cells. With a lower muscle to fat ratio, metabolism slows, and the dramatic weight loss you've been experiencing slows and stops. Many people give up at this point, and go off their diet. Now that they have less muscle tissue, metabolism is slower, and just going back to their old eating habits makes them gain back more than they lost in the first place.

Is There Any Good News?

The good news is that understanding how your body works can help you lose weight in the long term, and be happier both before and after you lose. Here are some pointers to get you started:

1. Decide on a combination of diet and exercise. Picking exercise that you enjoy and a diet that includes foods you like to eat will help you stick to your plan.
2. Your exercise doesn't need to be highly intense, in fact, walking works fine. However, you should exercise 3- 5 days a week to keep your metabolism turned up.
3. Include some form of strength training in your plan. Increasing your ratio of muscle to fat will also increase your metabolism. It can take 3 to 6 months to see a significant difference from strength training, but if you are persistent, it can make a big difference in your weight loss.
4. If you've had persistent trouble with weight loss, see a endocrinologist who can give you medical tests to make sure your hormones are in balance.
5. Take a positive attitude towards yourself, even if you're not perfect. Losing weight doesn't make you a different person. Enjoy who you are both before and after you lose weight.