This is a tough pill to swallow, but it's true.  Regardless of whether you're thin or overweight, you need to be mindful of your diet.  This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to be cutting calories to lose weight but it does mean you always need to be aware of the amount of calories that are entering your body.  Excessive caloric intake, no matter who you are and what type of metabolism in have, will eventually take its toll on your body.

95% of all diets fail.  The reason for this is that most people consider diets to be a short-term solution to solve weight problems.  This is a mistake.  At the completion of your diet, the diet needs to continue.  You may increase your caloric intake but not excessively.  But suppose you're on a 1200 calorie diet in order to achieve weight loss.  Upon attainment of your goal, you abandon the 1200 calorie diet.  Now you go back to your old eating habits.  What do you think is going to happen? You're almost certainly going to return to gaining weight.  After all, it was your previous diet that was causing your weight problem in the first place.  There cannot be a final termination of any dieting strategy.  You must always have a caloric ceiling.  That means you must always watch your food intake.

It is critical when you're trying to lose weight or maintain weight, to always be conscious of your caloric intake.  Your body only burns so many calories per day.  Any amount of calories in excess of this number will result in weight gain.  Remember that weight loss/weight gain is only simple math.  It is simply calories in versus calories out.  Your body doesn't even care what type of food is received.  It is only measuring the amount of energy that it expends versus the amount of energy consumed.  When the balance tips in the favor of one side of the equation, that is when weight loss/weight gain occurs.

For those that are lucky enough to have a fast metabolism – be forewarned.  Eventually that magical metabolism will probably slow down at some point.  When this happens, you will join the masses of the overweight.  If, however, you adopt good nutritional habits and subscribe early to managing your caloric intake, you can avoid this problem.  Calorie issues aside, watching your diet simply makes good sense from a nutritional standpoint.  You need to be filling your body with good, nutritious foods instead of fast foods, processed foods, and junk foods.  Thin people are not immune to cardiac disease and other illnesses caused by poor nutritional habits.  A  fast metabolism does not entitle you to a free pass to fill your body with empty, non-nutritious foods.

Good News.  There is an easy solution to help you manage the calorie battle.  Simply stop eating processed foods, fast food and junk foods on a daily basis. Stop drinking high calorie, sugary drinks.  Instead stick to water. This is not to say that you need to give up all your indulgences forever.  It simply means that you need to sharply curtail their regular intake.  Limit your indulgences to one day per week.

The average male burns approximately 2400 calories per day, engaging in a moderately active lifestyle.  The average female burns approximately 2000 calories per day.  When you eat nutritious, naturally occurring foods you find that these numbers are fairly generous.  It is really not that hard to stay within the caloric limits when you consume healthy food.  If, however, you look at the caloric values of a typical fast food or restaurant meal, you'll be stunned.  It is easy to consume 1500 calories during a single meal.  This obviously does not leave many calories for the remainder of the day.  It is extremely hard to stay within your caloric limits with these types of foods.  This is exactly why were currently experiencing a weight problem in the United States.

Another good tip is to try avoiding the intake of any fluid, other than water, when thirsty.  Most everyone is aware that sugary drinks such as soda are laden with calories (soda has also been linked to type 2 diabetes).  But many people forget that  juices and milk are also sources for large amounts of calories.  While these drinks can be considered nutritious, they can also be considered high danger – from a calorie standpoint.  Play it safe and simply get used to consuming water as your first choice for fluids.

As with many things in life, quitting is not usually a good thing.  When you quit watching your calories, you're dooming yourself to failure.  You'll almost certainly gain unwanted weight.  When you first begin any lifestyle change/diet, you will find it hard to be compliant. But with some practice, you'll soon find that your new, healthier habits, can become as comfortable as your old, bad habits.