Are you just DONE with carrying around the extra pounds? You can get real results, real fast with your Wii Fit and some diet modifications. I know I did (and continue to do so)! Clickety click to get the plan!

Whether you have 10 pounds to lose or 100 or more, you can get it gone with Wii Fit exercise, some dietary adjustments and a good dose of determination. This might sound like the beginning of an infomercial, but I’m telling you, it works.

I just logged in my 34th day on the Wii Fit. That was spread over a 6 week period of time. For the first two weeks, I was comfortable skipping a day or two here and there, but once I started seeing some real results, I was dedicated to working out every single day. During that 6 weeks, I have lost a whopping 14 pounds of fat and dropped two dress sizes. It is very, very exciting to do my body test each day and see that I’ve lost another few ounces, ticking away the pounds one by one.

The only thing that is really magical about the Wii Fit itself is that it makes exercising convenient and fun. You do not have to make time to go to the gym or go running in the rain or listen to a perky exercise instructor chirp at you the entire time. You choose your own workouts (I will help you with that – it’s actually quite simple if you goal is to truly burn fat) and the time you can invest.

The real cornerstones to this fat loss plan are the old basics: Eat less, eat better and move more. For all of the supplements and dramatic eating plans that our society has introduced in the past several decades, that’s really all it comes down to.

Will power, despite what you might think, plays a very small role in weight loss. It is tremendously helpful when it is there, but that’s the problem with will power. It’s fickle. What we have to use in place of will power is a brain rewiring of how we are and how we will be in the world. You have to decide that at your core being, you are a slender, healthy person. At the moment, you are a slender, healthy person who is wearing a fat suit. The fat suit gets in the way of things they want to do in their life, so it has to go in order to reveal the true you inside.

For many of us, our excess weight represents a feeling of shame and inadequacy. We have let ourselves down and allowed ourselves to make choices that have created results we don’t like. The way to fix that is to make different choices. When we begin to make choices that make us feel proud, those feelings of shame and inadequacy quickly disappear.

When we are looking at a weight loss journey of more than 10-20 pounds, the road ahead looks endless. We think that we can’t invest 6 months or a year or two years in a system of deprivation and hard work without being resentful and angry all of the time. Those feelings are what cause most people to quit. It’s really, really hard and we figure if it’s going to be like that all the time, we’d rather just be fat and happy instead of losing weight and angry all of the time.

What a lot of programs do not tell you is that the period of time when you feel this way is actually very short. Once you have white-knuckled your way through the first month of doing this (provided you do not cheat), your body just starts doing it on its own. You become accustomed to eating less frequently and eating different foods. Like will power, a person’s body is very fickle. Give it a solid 3-4 weeks of behaving in a different way and it will soon accept that way as normal with the old ways feeling foreign.

I kid you not.

So enough talk! I shouldn’ t have to convince you to do this. If you are reading this, you are already interested and with any luck, you will soon be completely determined to change your life in a profound way.

The Exercise Program

To be honest, there are actually very few exercises on the Wii Fit, including those in the aerobics section, that are adequate at burning fat. It’s not that they are bad exercises. Every single one of the Wii Fit exercises serves a purpose and is great at what it does. Unfortunately, the “what it does” does not always add up to pounds lost.

The main thing to remember is that if your goal is to burn away the fat as opposed to just losing weight, you’re going to have to sweat. Stepping and boxing are fun and get you moving, but they are not going to burn a lot of fat. I recommend them as starting places if you have been completely sedentary and have enough weight to lose that you have difficulty walking. If you are able-bodied and can walk up and down stairs without pausing to catch your breath, then you need more than these activities to effectively burn calories and lose weight.

There are only two activities on the Wii Fit that will really get your heart rate up and the sweat pouring. These are the Hula Hooping and the Basic Jog.

It is very true that building strength and muscle tissue will accentuate your weight loss efforts by burning more calories when you are at rest. Strength training will also quickly tone your body and, as the name suggests, make you physically stronger. It is an important part of the fitness process and the Wii Fit is a very valuable tool for that type of work out. For fat burning, however, I recommend starting out with only aerobics and incorporating in the strength training and yoga (which is also extremely effective at toning and building muscles) at a later time, once you have started to see some significant progress. There is no need to do everything all at once and you will need to lengthen your workout sessions later in your fitness journey. Before that happens, it is important to begin establishing workout habits and raise your heart rate on a regular basis. Too many people go for the strength training first and end up with wonderfully toned muscles…under layers and layers of fat.

The First Week

As I have mentioned elsewhere in this site, everyone gets horrible scores and is completely hopeless at each of the Wii Fit games when they first begin. Be gentle with yourself and excited for the fact that you are moving and sweating and changing your life.

Although it may sound contradictory, do not work out too much on the Wii Fit. It’s easy to get caught up in the fun and excited about your new toy and end up burning out. This is for the long haul, so stay fresh and bright-eyed about it.

For the first week, you should log in 20-30 minutes per day, 6 days a week. This 20-30 minutes can be broken up into 2 workout sessions if that is what is easiest for you. You do not have to take off the 7th day if you prefer not to, but you can if you are feeling inclined to do so.

You should choose from the hula hoop and basic run choices that are available to you. When you Super Hula Hoop, you will be hooping three minutes in one direction and three minutes in the opposite direction, which oddly, ends up logging in 7 minutes of exercising. This is a great way to get your heart rate up and burn the fat, but it is demanding! Be sure and take advantage of the very brief rest between sides, taking in some deep breaths, in the nose and out the mouth and reseating for the next set. Do not start hula hooping until the countdown completes. Use that resting time wisely.

The Basic Hula Hoop lasts for 2 minutes and only goes in one direction. It is also a good way to get your pulse racing, but you have to really wail on it to get the benefits. You will quickly find that you are breaking records and upping your score.

The Basic Jog is your other tool for this time in your fat burning journey. You may use the short distance, the long distance or the Island Lap, depending on which you have unlocked and prefer. By far, the Island Lap is your best fat burning choice. Free Run is also fine, but it can be boring (honestly) and difficult to keep your pace up without the guide.

The Island Lap will usually take around 8 minutes for a slower jog and 5 minutes for a faster one. Either will get your heart rate going and have a good sweat pouring if you get into it. Remember to keep your pace very even and steady. Don’t pass your guide. You set your speed before the Mii even takes off from the starting line. Start running in place as fast as you want to go for the duration of the Island Lap and the Mii will set its pace accordingly. If you naturally pass the Mii in favor of a dog guide, let that happen. If you race to catch the dogs or avoid the dogs, your pace will be compromised.

Combine the Basic Run and the hula hooping programs to make up your 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise. For instance, if you do 2 sets of the Super Hula Hooping, that is 14 minutes. Add on a fast island run (5 minutes), a slower island run (8 minutes) and another faster island run (5 minutes) and you have hit 32 minutes!

The time really flies by. I do recommend advancing to 30 minutes from 20 as soon as you feel able to do so.

Recent studies have proven that the average person will burn more fat during their work out time if they employ interval training. This means that you work out as hard as you can for a short period of time, followed by a longer, less intensive exercise period, then back to an aggressive burst of hard work again.

You can easily set up your 30 minutes of Wii Fit exercise to do this. Do a really intense Basic Hula Hoop set twice. Then do a Super Hula Hoop full set at a slower pace, followed by an 8 minute Island Lap. Move on to a fast paced 5 minute Island Lap, then another slower 8 minute lap. You have just racked up 32 minutes of exercise time, using interval training to burn even more calories and fat!

Once you have gotten in your minimum of 30 minutes of good aerobic exercise, feel free to add on the Rhythm Boxing, stepping or other Wii Fit games if you’d like to do so. Just remember to not overdo it and get burned out.

The important thing is to get in your 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each day. Anything after that is icing on the cake (that you aren’t going to eat, right?).

You could work the above program through your entire weight loss journey and be successful. If, however, you begin to use the yoga and strength exercises in addition to that 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, you will see better, faster results.

I recommend that you begin adding on these components when you reach a plateau in your weight loss. If you know your eating habits have remained good and you see that you have not lost weight in 3 days’ time, add on a strength exercise or yoga pose. Just one. Work with it a day or two, then add another one. Feel free to mix it up however you like by choosing different strength exercises and yoga poses each day. Eventually, you should adjust your workout time up to 50-60 minutes with the gradual addition of strength exercises and yoga positions. You WILL break through that plateau and begin to see results.

If you are seeing continual results, you can wait to add in the yoga and strength training until you reach a point where you are wanting to be more challenged in your work out. Continual results tell you that your body is responding well to what you are doing and that you will continue to be successful as is. If, however, your progress halts, it’s time to make changes.

Your work out should proceed as above. Make changes when your body stops responding to what you are doing. You will be very surprised at how quickly your strength and flexibility develops!

The Eating Plan

I do not offer a specific plan in terms of what you should eat and how you should measure what you eat. I have a plan that works for me and you will find what works for you. The bottom line is that you have eaten your way into a physical state that doesn’t work for you. You have to alter your eating habits to effectively change your physical state. Only exercising or for that matter, only dieting, usually are not effective means of weight loss or fat loss. Typically, it takes both to produce quality and lasting results.

The truth of the matter is that most people who are overweight think they know how much they eat in a day, but they don’t. We become so accustomed to grazing and unconscious eating that we don’t realize how many calories we are consuming.

For that reason, it is vital that you keep a food journal for the first month. After that time, you can decide whether or not you need to do so. If you stop keeping a food journal and your weight loss stops, you need to start again.

Remember that if you cheat on the food journal, you are only cheating yourself. Be honest.

Record what you ate and the number of calories in it. An excellent program for doing this is www.fitday.com. It has an extensive database and calculates everything for you. You can also track and project your weight loss on Fit Day.

Here are my dietary suggestions:

STOP GRAZING ALL THROUGH THE DAY. Cows graze and we don’t want to be a cow. Have set meal times and stick to them. If you’re hungry in between, eat a piece of fruit, a small piece of cheese, a small handful of pretzels, some very lean meat, a bit of yogurt or some raw veggies.

IT’S OK TO WANT STUFF. Don’t feel bad if you are craving. That is completely normal and natural and sometimes you are going to feel as though you could kill for a biscuit or some ice cream. Water isn’t going to help. Taking a walk isn’t going to help. Skinny people are the ones who tell you that it will. There is no way through but through. It’s important to understand that having everything you want in terms of eating is what got you here. Denying yourself sometimes is what is going to get you out of it. Just say, “No” and stick to it. Indulging those cravings has, so far, not produced the results you want. Just because you are otherwise dieting does not mean that indulging the cravings will produce the results you want now either.

I once said that dieting is like taking a 3-year-old shopping. All through your day, you are thinking, “Can I have this?’ “No.” “What about this?” “No.” “Please?” “I said no!” Just get through the day, another day of eating right and soon, the cravings will stop. I promise you. If you cheat, they won’t stop…just like that 3-year-old. If the child knows you are going to cave in eventually, they will keep bugging you and bugging you and bugging you until you cave in. Once they realize that no means NO and they can’t have it, they accept that and move on. Your body is the same way. Don’t be a lame “parent” just because the child (your body) is throwing a tantrum over something they can’t have that isn’t good for them.

DRINK WATER. Make your goal to drink a minimum of 2 16 oz bottles of water a day. Recent studies show that drinking gallons of water is not as helpful to weight loss as it was once thought to be. A minimum of 16 oz twice a day should do you just fine. More is good, but not mandated.

LIMIT DIE T SODAS: For a lot of reasons, diet soda can impede your weight loss efforts. The sodium causes you to retain fluid in your body. The sweetness can cause your pancreas to misfire on the insulin production, forcing your body to produce insulin when there is no actual sugar for it to act upon. This can actually lead to pancreatic cancer, insulin resistance and other blood sugar level dysfuntions. Plus, those chemicals are just not healthy to mainline all day long. No more than 2 per day.

Another problem with drinking a lot of diet sodas during the day is that they take the place of things you should be drinking, like water and milk.

DRINK MILK: The ad campaign is correct. Milk does help you to lose weight and the fun part is that no one has a clue why. There are theories, but no one knows. Chocolate milk does not count because the caffeine in the chocolate inhibits the calcium from being absorbed into your body. Strawberry milk is OK, but has a good bit of sugar in it. If you can’t drink milk, substituted 2-4oz of cheese, cottage cheese or yogurt. You should have a cup of yogurt, 2-4oz of cheese, a cup of cottage cheese or 8 oz of milk a day.

EAT ENOUGH: If you are using FitDay.com, the program will help you to determine how many calories you can eat in a day when you go through the process of setting up your goal weight. Stay right at that calorie goal and do not go more than 100-200 calories below it and certainly not above it. Not eating enough can cause your body to go into starvation mode where it clings onto every fat cell it can, thinking it won’t get enough food to function. Be sure and adjust your calorie goal as you lose weight. The calorie goal that caused you go lose weight at 200 pounds could cause you go gain weight at 160.

EAT BREAKFAST: Eat a huge breakfast, a medium lunch and a small dinner. Upside down is the way to go. If you know a special function is going to require a larger dinner or lunch, adjust the other meals accordingly.

DON’T EAT AFTER 8PM: Your body will not burn as many calories when it sleeps as it does when it is active. Water or decaf coffee or tea only.

EAT A SMALL SOMETHING BEFORE YOU WORK OUT IF YOU WORK OUT IN THE MORNING: A banana, a bit of yogurt or an egg can get your metabolism working before you start working out which can help you to burn more calories.

CUT BACK FRIED FOODS TO NO MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK: Lotsa fat and calories, no matter how you fry’em. No fried foods is an even better way to go.

HAVE DESSERT: Frozen cool whip is a godsend, as is fat-free pudding, low cal jello, strawberries, 100 calory snack packs, popcicles and diet ice cream. You won’t feel as deprived. Of course, if you eat twice as much diet ice cream as regular, you haven’t accomplished much.

PRETZELS OR POPCORN INSTEAD OF CHIPS: Saves a ton of calories if you are feeling like something salty and crunch. Popcorn is a good choice, but only if it is air popped or Smart-Pop microwaved. Smart Pop also has 100 calorie packs. Watch your serving sizes. It’s amazing how humans can cause the calorie content of popcorn to skyrocket. One cup of air popped popcorn or microwave popcorn with no added butter is 31 calories. A cup of movie theater popcorn with no added butter is 78 calories and half or more of that comes from fat.

CHEW GUM, BRUSH YOUR TEETH OFTEN AND USE BREATH MINTS: It really does help.

REMEMBER EGGS: Eggs are low calorie and high protein. Boil them, fry them in cooking spray, scramble them or poach them.

USE ONLY LEAN MEAT: Trim off the fat and be wary of meats that have a tendency toward high fat content (sausage, real bacon – turkey bacon is fine, whole hams). Don’t be afraid of meat, however, if you are not a vegetarian. Getting your protein is very important in building muscle, which even your aerobic exercise will do (note that your legs get sore from the Island Lap!). I recommending having a protein source at each of your 3 meals. Tuna in water is an excellent source of proten.

EASY ON THE PASTAS & JUICES: Both are high in calories and sugars.

POTATOES ARE YOUR FRIENDS: It’s the crap you put on them that is your enemy.

REDISCOVER BREAKFAST CEREAL: Just the good kind; not the sugar fiestas. A whole wheat cereal such as Shredded Wheat or Mini-Wheats or quick oatmeal served with 2 eggs can be a very filling breakfast and a good way to start your day. Pastries will only give you empty calories and an ill-fated sugar rush!

Most of all, READ LABELS and find out how many calories are in a serving of the food you eat. Remeber that a serving of meat is the size of your palm. A serving of vegetables is the size of your fist. Try to avoid bread as much as possible.

With some care, some stringent attention to what you are eating and yes, some deprivation, you can get your eating habits back on track again.