If overweight or obese, you should check with your doctor for other risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking. Even losing a small amount of weight will improve your overall health and help reduce your risk of heart disease. If you have already had a heart attack, bypass surgery, or an angioplasty, it is very important that you follow the tips in this article to lose weight.

Losing weight can also help reduce or even stop your medication for angina, or raised cholesterol. Small changes now will stop you from gaining extra weight over the next few years.

Forget about dieting
Forget about dieting to lose weight! Instead, follow a life long weight-loss plan. Make small gradual changes to the food you eat and get more active. Start with changes that are easy to make and that you can keep up for life. This will help you to reach a healthier weight and then to stay at this healthier weight.

BMI
Check your Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is an easy check to find out your weight band. BMI uses a mathematical formula that takes into account both a person's height and weight. BMI equals a person's weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared, i.e. BMI=kg/m2

BMI categories
*Underweight = <18.5
*Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
* Overweight = 25-29.9
* Obesity = BMI of 30-39.9
* Morbidity obese = 40 and above

The higher your BMI, the greater your risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and certain cancers. If you are in the "overweight band", control your diet, do more physical activity and measure weight regularly.

Are you ready to lose weight?
There are two important things you need to do to lose weight successfully:

1. Get motivated. Keeping a diary of the food you eat and the activities you do will help get you focused and keep you motivated.

2. Be prepared. Planning ahead helps you feel more in control of your weight loss. Have plenty of healthy foods: lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, and low fat foods like low-fat yoghurt. Have sports shoes ready for your walking or exercise programme. This will make it easier for you to start your new eating and activity plan.

Motivation
Motivation is most important when it comes to achieving a healthy weight. Motivation gets you started and keeps you going. Making a list of the reasons why you want to lose weight.

Successful tips for losing weight
Focus on what you can eat rather than on what you can not. Watch the size of your food portions, particularly when eating out. Be strict and limit your food choices. For lunch and dinner, use a smaller dinner plate and fill it mostly with vegetables. Eat three regular meals each day. Some people find that having two smaller courses rather than one large main meal makes them feel more satisfied. Try choosing fruit, vegetables or salad as a starter, or fruit to finish off your meal. Learn to recognise hunger. If you are not really hungry at meal times, just eat small portions.

Reward yourself when you make positive progress. To check your progress, use a measuring tape or weighing scales. Weigh yourself once a week at the same time in similar clothes.

Regular physical activity keeps your heart healthy and helps burn calories, tone your muscles and control your appetite. To lose weight, you need to use up more energy (calories) than your body takes in from food and drink. The best way to lose weight is through a combination of eating and drinking fewer calories; and using up more calories by being more active. Remember any physical activity is better than nothing, so start off by being a little more active in your day-to-day routine.

Even 30 minutes of physical activity of moderate intensity on most days of the week can help you.

Walking is an excellent way to lose weight, especially if you have not been active for a while. You should aim to walk 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) at a moderate pace on most days of the week. Gradually increase the pace and add in other activities such as swimming, cycling, jogging or football.

Conclusion
Choose an activity that you enjoy and find a friend to join you. If you have not been active, build more activity into your daily life, take the stairs, walk to the shop, or do some cycling. This way, being more active will become a lifetime habit. If you are not sure about your fitness level or general health or have a specific health problem, it is important to contact a physician before you start exercise. Remember, a healthy diet and some physical activity will not just improve your quality of life, but it will also increase your longevity.

Dr Md Habibe Millat FRCS(Edin) is a Senior Specialist Registrar, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Republic of Ireland.