Although different people have weight problems for different reason, these 5 tips address fundamental lifestyle habits that affect virtually everyone. The really good news is that these 5 powerful tips are easy to implement and can bring about great changes in your life and health once in place.

Point 1. Eat a light evening meal with easy-to-digest foods.

Everyone dealing with weight loss issues needs to know that it is virtually impossible to make serious progress if you continue to eat large evening meals with heavy foods!

I cannot emphasize this point too much. Ayurveda describes that digestion is less strong in evening, plus lying down to sleep a few hours later further slows down digestion, metabolism and circulation. The body simply cannot assimilate large evening meals properly. The result is that much of food is digested poorly and eventually creates toxins, fat and excess weight. For most people using approaches of eating less during day, herbs, pills, special powders and drinks, and even exercise cannot overcome this most serious of all weight loss mistakes.

Especially avoid in evening: cheese, yogurt, rich desserts, red meat, leftovers of any kind, cold foods, processed foods

Avoid or reduce in evening meals: fowl, fish, desserts

Evening meals should be vegetarian, hot, light and liquidy. If you are significantly overweight foundation of evening meal should be 1) non-cream soups, 2) grains cooked in water (for example rice, quinoa, cous cous, barley), and 3) vegetables either steamed, roasted or sauteed with small amounts of extra virgin olive oil. If you must have dessert, I recommend cooked fruit desserts made with only small amounts of organic sugar.

2. Eat largest meal of day at lunch with a wide variety of warm, cooked food.

Lunch is time our bodies can best digest and properly assimilate larger quantities of food due to fact that digestion is strongest at noon and we have many active hours to metabolize food before we sleep. Lunch is most important meal of day and meal we most need to plan and prepare for.

Lunch should be warm, cooked foods with a wide variety of tastes and dishes. Warm food is essential as it can be more easily digested and assimilated. Cold foods suppress digestion (remember your chemistry- cold temperature suppresses chemical reaction, and digestion is chemistry!) The result of regular meals of cold foods is indigestion, accumulation of ama (undigested molecules that clog channels,) and weight gain.

Having a wide variety of foods is essential for nutrition and to prevent body from developing food cravings-the downfall of many a well-meaning diet plan. Food cravings often occur because of imbalanced diets that included only a few food types. Diets restricted to mostly carbohydrates or protein or fat eventually lead to undernourished tissues that rightfully send hunger messages to our brain. Even though we have just finished eating a large quantity of food, parts of our body are still truly malnourished and hungry. Unfortunately if we don’t realize this when hunger signals come we may reach for even more carbohydrate rich and dense foods like desserts when actually we need green vegetables and legume soups.

A good, balanced lunch also helps us feel less hungry in evening, making it easier to stick to that all-important light evening meal.

3. Drink hot water frequently throughout day

By sipping hot water throughout day you help cleanse digestive tract and entire body of blockages and impurities. Hot water drinking improves digestion and assimilation of food and helps prevent body from becoming toxic and clogged. It also is a great aid in reducing food cravings between meals. I have known people who lost over 50 pounds by following only this single recommendation.

Most people can accomplish hot water recommendation by getting a good thermos and having a cup sitting on a small cup-sized hot plate. You can pour your hot water in cup, put it on warmer and sip it throughout day as you work.

Here is a simple way to demonstrate this fact. Think about vegetarians you know, are there any overweight problems among them? The high protein diets rely on a lot of animal fats and proteins, but these vegetarians don't eat them. Startling indeed, isn't it?

Maybe you don't know any vegetarians. They certainly are hard to find, especially in Midwest, where I live.

You may wonder about science involved here. After all, many of those folks promoting low carb diets are medical doctors, aren't they? Being a medical doctor doesn't mean that you don't ever make any mistakes. Besides, same science that supports low carb diet also supports high carb diet. They didn't get it wrong, they just didn't consider whole story.

That might sound like a contradiction, but it isn't. I'm going to explain why in just a moment. Fist, let me give you science on this. You most likely are not a biochemist or a physiologist and neither am I. But I have studied subjects a bit. Don't focus on technical jargon in next paragraph, just try to grasp overall point. You don't need to be a scientist to use common sense and basic reasoning skills. Ready?

Consider this bit of biochemistry. Malonyl -CoA exists in high amounts when there is plenty of metabolic fuel present. Thus, carnitine acyltransferase is inhibited and this in turn prevents acyl-CoA from crossing into cell’s mitochondria. Another enzyme is inhibited by presence of NADH and Thiolase is also inhibited by presence of Acetyl-COA. In short, when a lot of glucose is present, fatty acid metabolism is inhibited.