Last month I blogged a story that dispelled the myth about Barbie dolls and body image. Here's another widely accepted fact -- thanks largely to the obesity epidemic --that may be going by the wayside: It appears that being overweight may not be the social stigma it once was. But despite the lax attitudes toward healthier eating and growing acceptance of obesity, the fact that: 61 percent of the Americans surveyed wanted to lose 20 pounds tells me many of you really do want to lose weight but have been frustrated by the failed promises of one-size-fits-all plans like the South Beach Diet. Thankfully, you have plenty of inexpensive or free resoureces on this Web site to begin the process of optimizing your health safely, and, most importantly, typically without the need for expensive and potentially toxic drugs or surgery. All it takes to keep your weight at an optimum level is a faithful program of exercise and an optimized nutritious diet designed for your unique biochemistry. Exercise The key to exercising is to keep in mind three important variables: length of time, frequency and intensity. By doing so, you will ensure all your hard efforts are not wasted and are having a positive effect on your body. If there is a serious amount of weight to lose I find that prolonged cardiovascular exercises are key to successful weight control. I encourage most patients to gradually increase the amount of time they are exercising to 60 to 90 minutes a day. Initially the frequency is daily. This is a treatment dose until they normalize their weight or insulin levels. You should exercise hard enough so that it is difficult to talk to someone next to you. When you are exercising that hard your cardiovascular system is under such a significant amount of stress that the mere act of talking makes you unable to provide your body with enough oxygen. However, if you cannot carry on a conversation at all, then you have gone too far and need to decrease the intensity. I urge you to review my exercise guidelines that can help you get started on the right track. If you need some direction to get started, I urge you to review my beginner's exercise page that includes links to other pages and a free table you can download to keep track of your progress. Once your weight and insulin levels are normalized, you will only need to exercise three to four times a week and can begin to adopt more sprint anaerobic and functional sport exercises. Eating Right - - Lower Insulin and Leptin Levels Exercise will go a long way towards lowering your leptin levels which has been duped the obesity hormone. However, optimizing your food choices by avoiding grains and sugars will also help quite a bit as that will tend to raise them. Aside from keeping active, another important factor in helping you achieve good health and maintain a healthy weight is to have a diet based on eating the right foods for your specific genetic and biochemistry. One of the ways you can determine this is through nutritional typing. Discovering your nutritional type is simple: You can take my free online test or you can read my book, Total Health Program, for a more in-depth understanding. Remember, the foods that may be healthy for others are not necessarily healthy for you, and vice-versa. Thus, eating according to your specific type is the proven way to ascertain which foods work best for you. When you're trying to decide where to begin, remember exercise and nutrition go hand-in-hand to optimize your health. Focusing on one and ignoring the other does your body no good.