It is amazing to me over the years the number of weight loss products that come out onto the market promising extraordinary results see nowhere else on this planet. From ab products to books, to machines named after wild African animals, everyone and their grandmother seems to have a worthless weight loss product.

After you read this article you will probably be kicking yourself as to why you purchase the AX4000 Gut be Gone that promised to make give you a rock hard 6 pack, and the only thing it delivered was less money in your bank account.

The key to not only losing weight but keeping it off is proper nutrition. Think of your body as your car. In your car’s manual it will clearly tell you that in order for you car to run smoothly you must give it the proper octane of gasoline. Just as the gasoline is the car’s energy source so is the food that you put into your body. The food you consume is what drives you throughout the day.

Imagine if you put some low grade watered down gasoline in your car’s tank. It would more than likely knock and ping and end up stalling out. What do you think happens when you fill yourself up with donuts, cupcakes, pies, cookies and so on. Your body gets sluggish, you get tired, and you can’t function at 100%. The reason is you didn’t give your body the right octane of fuel.

The correct foods your body needs to consume is lean protein, healthy carbohydrates (both simple and complex) and green vegetables. Lean protein sources consist of lean meats, fish, poultry (chicken breast), egg whites or egg substitutes such as egg beaters, and a variety of nuts. Your carbohydrate sources should be multigrain breads and cereals, fruits, brown rice and potatoes. Your vegetable sources should be green. The greener the better. Examples would be spinach, asparagus and broccoli to name a few.

Now that you know what you should be eating you need to know how much and when. Going back to our car analogy you wouldn’t fill the car up when the tank is already full right? Nor would you keep pumping gas into your tank after it has been topped off. This would just lead to the gas spilling all over the place.

The same is true with how much you consume and when you consume it. If you eat too much of even the right foods your body will store the extra calories as fat. Also you want to eat frequently. If you let your car’s gas tank get to empty before you fill it back up, the gunk sitting at the bottom will go through your engine and possible do harm. When you let your body run without giving it a constant supply of food, your metabolism will slow down, which will in turn slow down the rate your body burns fat. That’s a bad thing.

So what you want to do is consume six smaller meals throughout the day as opposed to three large ones. Spread these meals out eating one every two and a half to three hours. This will give your body a constant supply of quality nutrients and keep your metabolism running at a high rate.

Just like your car has a gas tank that holds a certain number of gallons, your food supply also must be in portions. Just because you follow the previous steps that I gave you, if you do not portion your food correctly you will consume too much.

You could weight your food but I find that is too cumbersome as is reading nutritional values on packages to see what a serving size is. I find the best solution to calculating a portion size is make a fist and then put that size amount on my plate of each category (proteins, carbs, veggies). In other words the portion size of each category should be the same size as your clenched fist.

You now have all of the knowledge you need to lose weight and keep it off. You didn’t have to watch an infomercial at 3:00am and buy some product that won’t work. You have all the information you need to start today.

Just remember as with any nutrition or fitness program, you should get a complete physical from your doctor prior to starting.