I highly recommend exercise, something as simple as walking will get your metabolism burning.

Here are some things that worked well for me in the past:
- Calorie cycling. I ate the same number of calories for the week, however, I varied the daily total.
- Cardio exercise...walking, biking, dancing, etc. Something that would make me slightly breathless, yet I could still talk if I needed to.
- 7-8 hours of sleep every night. This one surprised me!
- For most people, all calories are created equally. For some of us, the type of calorie can make weight loss a bit tougher. Be careful with fruits. My weight loss was best if I ate no more than 1-2 fruit servings and 1-2 grain servings a day. And, make sure your grains are whole grains. No white bread, white rice, white pasta, etc.

As far as what is considered a safe weekly weight loss, this can be a controversial subject. But, think of it this way....for a person who only has 20 pounds to lose, a 2 pound loss is 10%. For someone who has 100 pounds to lose, 2 pounds is only 2%. If it's safe for a smaller person to lose 10% of their body weight at one time, why can't it also be safe for us to lose 10% of our body weight at one time? I've also heard that the faster you lose, the quicker you gain it back. But, let's think about this, too. If that same person loses 20 pounds at 2 lbs per week, they will have 10 weeks of weight loss to learn new eating habits and be more likely to keep it off. If our person losing 100lbs loses 5 lbs a week, they will have 20 weeks to learn new habits.

Anyways....regardless of how fast you lose, if you are consistent and you don't give up, you will get there. And, in the end, will it matter to you how long it took you to get there? Or, will you too busy enjoying your slender self? :D Congratulations on your weight loss so far! Keep going.

One of the best tips I've gotten . . . make sure you get enough fiber in your diet. No matter what diet you are on!