Today, at the start of the new year, millions of Americans will resolve to lose weight, but by tomorrow, or next week, or maybe next month, most of them will have given up trying. Few will have lost weight, and even fewer will sustain the loss. Still, at any given time of the year, an astonishing 15 to 35 percent of Americans are trying to lose weight. They buy low-calorie and low-fat foods, deny themselves desserts, drink only artificially sweetened beverages, join commercial weight-loss clubs (and buy their special and especially expensive prepared meals), visit "fat farms," take diet pills of one sort or another, submit to liposuction, and exercise obsessively to burn calories. Every new remedy is greeted with a wave of enthusiasm, from amphetamines and thyroxine in the 1960s to Olestra, fenfluramine and phentermine (fen-phen), and now sibutramine in the 1990s. The goal is to reach the elusive American ideal -- to be slim, fit, and forever young. Please be realistic in your attempts. Many people expect to drop several pounds immediately and give up when they see no results. If you are losing 3-5 pounds per month, you're doing pretty good. Don't weigh yourself every day either. A person's weight can vary +/- 5 lbs. daily, so don't read much into that. Also, if you haven't exercised in a while, you will likely begin to build muscle which is heavier than fat, so you may actually gain weight for a while. If your goal is to burn fat and keep it off, keep these things in mind, and stay reasonable and realistic. Most importantly, don't give up.
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