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Many people are finding themselves weighing a bit more than they'd like. But not everyone is sure how they can lose that excess weight. If you're one of those people, then you're lucky. You've managed to stumble upon a wealth of information about how to shed that weight. Keep reading and, with a little bit of luck, you'll be at your dream weight in no time.

The first thing you need to do is make sure you're drinking plenty of water every day. It's recommended that you drink at least eight glasses of water every day, which each glass having eight ounces of water. This has a few different benefits. Drinking water has no calories so it'll keep your body well hydrated without adding calories. Drinking water will raise your metabolism slightly so you'll start burning more calories each day.

Water is also needed to keep your body running at full capacity. As you're exercising, your body is going to need a lot of water to keep itself in top shape and repair the damage you do to your muscles.  So if you want to lose weight, it's important that you keep yourself well hydrated.

You should also cut out soda from your diet completely. Don't just start drinking diet soda or cut the number of sodas back. Get rid of them. They're horrible for your body. Just be drinking water every day and dropping the soda you can lose a good bit of weight. You should also cut out as much sugar from your diet as possible.

If you want to lose weight effectively, you need to make sure you're exercising regularly. Every day you should be getting a minimum of thirty minutes of cardio. This can be anything from walking, to running, to biking, to swimming. Anything that will get you moving and boost your heart rate. The more intense the activity, the better it will be, but at the beginning, even walking for half an hour will do your body a world of good.

In addition to the cardio exercise, every other day you should be doing some strength training. Cardio training may help you lose a couple pounds, but strength training is what's going to help you burn the most fat. Cardio is good for short calorie burning bursts, but the more muscle you build up, the more calories you'll burn at a rest.

It's important that you don't do strength training every day though. When you're lifting weights or do anything that involves muscle building, you're constantly damaging your muscles. When you finish your workout, your body starts repairing those muscles, making them stronger. That's how you build up muscle. It takes around twenty four hours for your body to completely recover. So if you don't let your body rest, then you'll end up seriously injuring yourself.

Weight loss isn't something that happens overnight. It's going to take a lot of time and effort to shed those pounds. But if you keep motivated, you won't have any problems reaching your goals.