Two words
Exercise. Diet. That's all you need to know to lose a stone.
What's a stone?
A stone is 14 lbs, a unit of weight used mainly in the UK and commonwealth
countries such as Canada and Australia. When losing weight it is the
ideal amount to aim to lose. Losing five pounds can be easily achieved by
fasting for a couple of days, but easy come, easy go, and it's just as
easily put back on. Losing a stone is much harder but not impossible,
and putting it back on is also much harder.
How long will it take?
Aim to lose the stone in three months. This is feasible without
ridiculous sacrifices. It also makes for less of a jolt on your body
than trying to accomplish it in a month.
And it will give your body's setpoint time to get used to your lower
weight, without which you will quickly return to your old weight.
What's my setpoint?
Your setpoint is your body's instinctive target for its right weight.
When your weight drops below your setpoint you feel hungry, and when
it is above it you feel full. It is very hard to resist eating when
hungry, which is your body's way of preventing you from starving
to death through inattention to eating or not eating enough food.
When you feel full it is hard to eat much more, even when you are
sorely tempted to. Without a setpoint you might well eat a pound
a day less than you need and gradually waste away, or a pound a day
more and gradually bloat up to an absurd weight.
Can I change my setpoint?
You can change your setpoint, but it is not easy. Increasing your
setpoint is not terribly hard: simply pig out for a few weeks by asking for
large helpings and eating the whole thing even past the point of feeling full.
As you gain weight and your body becomes accustomed to the extra pounds,
your setpoint will gradually move up and you will find your body
automatically maintaining that weight by telling you that you're hungry
when you drop below that weight.
Decreasing your setpoint is much harder. Again it takes a number of weeks, you can't move it overnight. The painful way is not to eat when you feel hungry, which requires more will-power than most of us have. An easier way is to satisfy your hunger cravings between meals with low-calorie food or drink. Either water (carbonated if preferred) or tea (with no sweetener or a low-calorie sweetener) drunk throughout the day is one effective way.
Getting your setpoint down is very hard, but after you've got it down and kept it there for a while you will find it gradually gets easier to keep it there and the hunger pangs won't gnaw so hard. Just remember that it can also go back up, which it will do if you drop your guard and start eating heartily even when your body is not saying it's hungry. If your setpoint drifts up again you will be back to the painful struggle of trying to get it back down. Far better to keep it down by keeping up your guard against pigging out than to have to go through the painful struggle of bringing it back down.