Not everyone can successfully lose fat using the well-known commercial diet plans like Atkins and South Beach diets. Some of us have lifestyles or personal situations which cannot make effective use of these weight loss programs. For those of us with such limitations, we’re forced to develop and follow our own DIY diet plans. Below, I describe my own DIY diet and exercise plan, which I used to lose 6 inches from my waist-line in 6 months.

The basic and most important rule is to consume less calories than we burn, or to burn more calories than we consume. Another important rule is to keep it simple and safe. The final simple rule is to keep on burning fat even when I’m at rest. In summary, I started doing a little bit of exercise, and cut down my food intake by about 25 percent. I still ate my normal meals, but since a large part of my calories came from carbohydrates, I cut away one-quarter of my rice or bread or pasta before I started consuming. I still ate the same amount of meat and vegetables as before. Very simple, really.

Traditionally, most slimming exercises are aerobic in nature, aiming to burn calories as quickly as possible. The disadvantage of most such exercises is that after you stop the exercise, the rate you burn calories returns to normal. I do not like group exercise activities:

• I do not have half-an-hour or more to exercise;

• I find them boring; and

• I am lazy – I want to keep on burning fat even after I stop exercising.

Additionally, does such an exercise exist? Fortunately for me, the answer is “Yes”. I discovered that strength-training exercises perfectly fit my requirements. All I needed to do was 10 repetitions of each: push-ups, curls, squats, and lunges. It only takes me 5 to 10 minutes every day, including a short rest after the exercise. You’re probably wondering “How can just 5 minutes of exercise help me to lose weight?”

The secret is that muscles burn calories. So more muscles burn more calories. Strength training exercise build more muscles, while most common aerobics exercises only build endurance. In other words, if you do jumping jacks or some other group fitness exercise for half-an-hour, you might burn 1000 extra calories during this period. After this, you burn calories at the normal 1500 calories/day. Overall, you burn 2500 calories every day. On the other hand, during my 5 minutes of strength training exercises, I burn 100 extra calories. I burn another extra 100 calories in the next 6 hours on top of the daily 1500 calories. But every day, I build more muscles. Every day, I grow stronger and I burn more daily calories, even at rest. At the end of 6 months, I easily burn 2000 to 2500 calories every day.

Was it possible for me to lose fat faster? Yes. I could’ve cut 1/3 or 1/2 of my carbohydrates instead of just 1/4. I could’ve done 2 sets of 10 reps instead of just 1 set. I also could’ve used some machines to add extra resistance to the exercises. In the end, how fast you lose weight depends on how intensely you follow the plan.