Weight loss and diet pills are very popular these days - after all, anything that claims to be able to help you lose more weight than *not* using them sounds appealing, now doesn’t it?

Equally, you could just exercise less or eat more and if the pills work, continue to lose weight.

But because these pills are so popular there are a lot of sharks out there and you’re taking a risk when you order from a company you don’t know. What’s more, diet pills don’t tend to be cheap either so there’s also a financial risk to you.

Now, I should say that diet pills aren’t my strength when it comes to weight loss. Yes, I have blogged once or twice in the past about some pills I have tried but there are other people who know far more than I do about the subject.

One example I recently stumbled across was Criticalorie, which has a really nice, clean, clear layout which makes it easy to read and find your way around.

Their site has a really nice collection of informative articles on diet pills, the most useful of which I personally found were the various diet pill reviews - two example being that of Noxycut and their Alli reviews.

I have to admit that quite a few of these pills I hadn’t heard of so it made some useful reading and I expect to return to their site on quite a regular basis to “swot up” on all the information they provide free of charge.

If it’s something you’d like to know more about, I think their site is well worth a visit.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Every day somebody new is telling you that *theirs* is the best way to lose weight.

And every day the population gets fatter and fatter.

It’s like watching one of the soap powder commercials - every new innovation is their best yet - it’s all you’ll ever need.

Until the next week when they bring out an even *better* product.

If weight loss was easy and there was one best way to lose weight, everyone would be thin.

Except they’re not.

This is for two reasons:

1) Weight loss takes effort. No matter what anyone tells you, unless you go for surgery, you’re not going to wake up thin tomorrow. Or even next week. Sure, there are systems and principles that can help with rapid weight loss, but they still take time and effort.

2) Whilst general theories of eat less calories, do more exercise work at a basic level, what works for you may not work for someone else. Again, there are programs like Body For Life that factor in individual differences to a certain degree but you also need to take into account the most important element: the brain.

Different people think in different ways. Different people have different views of what hard work is, an exciting diet, a tough workout and so on. So while even *chemically* two people may both benefit from the same diet and fitness program, it’s quite possible that one will find it a chore and drop out soon after starting while the other will find it super-simple to stick to.

And so, there is no real best way to lose weight.

All I can suggest is to read as much of the information at this blog as possible, and try to spot the recurring themes of what has and hasn’r worked for me.

Then try out some of the diets, recipes, exercises and so on and watch not only your physical transformation but also how you *feel* about what you’re doing.

Because if it inspires and excites you - if it feels good even when you ache after a good workout - you’re probably on the right track to the best way to lose weight for you.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Body Mass Index (BMI) isn’t 100% perfect but it at least helps to work out how over weight (if at all) you are - and hence how much weight you need to lose to be at a healthy weight.

It’s also a statistic used by doctors so clearly the medical professional place a lot of emphasis on it as a measuring tool.

Now I should say that by “fitness model standards” a healthy BMI is unlikely to win you prizes. You likely won’t have a six pack stomach etc. but you *will* be slimmer and healthier and if you *want* to go that extra mile then you’re better placed to have a go at it.

Well I’ve just discovered a useful, interesting (and free!) tool that will let you calculate your own BMI based on just your height and your weight.

(Actually while this isn’t the main point here, they also have a range of other health and fitness articles that might be of interest to you at the site too).

So why not go and have some fun now. Type in your own details to the little cculator of the following web page and see how healthy your weight is… click here to calculate your BMI now.

Popularity: unranked [?]

OK so this is  something of an off-topic post, but it’s pretty good fun all the same.

I’ve found a little service that tells you (allegedly) what your blog is worth.

As of today the little box that is currently in the right-hand side of this page says that apparently this blog is worth $6,774.48.

Not bad for just talking about things I love. Incase you’re interested I accept Paypal, credit cards or checks ;-)

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ever thought about whether the number of people losing weight varies throughout the year or stays constant?

I know I have, so I set out to try and find out.

On one hand I know my gym is always busy and I see lots of joggers around where I live.

On the other hand, we all know that the most popular New Years Resolution is to lose weight and my gut instinct of course is that a lot of people give up soon enough.

Luckily Google offers a service now called Google Trends which shows graphs of the number of searches for any phrase.

And here are the results from the last few years for the phrase “weight loss“:

It seems pretty clear what’s going on. A massive spike in January as everyone tries to start their New Year right, then pretty much a constant drop throughout the year, getting to it’s lowest point of course around Christmas, before another massive spike.

It also seems the pattern is pretty steady from year to year.

How long have you been losing weight for now and are you going to be one of those people who is still hanging in there in December?

Popularity: 5% [?]