If you fail to plan then you plan to fail is an age old adage containing a lot of truth that may help explain why so many people who try to lose weight fail. It is one thing to decide to lose weight but quite another to actually set up a sensible plan that will help you to achieve your goal of losing weight. First you need to determine a specific goal of how much weight you want to lose and in what amount of time. Let’s say that you want to lose twenty pounds in three months in order to be ready for summer swimsuit season. You need to understand that the maximum amount of weight that you can hope to lose in terms of fat loss with dieting alone is maybe a pound a week so you are going to have to plan to also do some exercising to increase your weight loss to more than a pound a week in order to be able to achieve your goal. Since your ultimate goal in losing weight is to look good in a bathing suit then it certainly will not hurt to build a little muscle while you are losing weight so performing some weight training would be an excellent choice of exercise. Since you are going to be weight training you should plan into your diet the additional amount of protein necessary to support the growth of new muscle. Generally speaking people performing moderate to intense weight training need about a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day. Since a normal diet will usually be lucky to achieve only half this amount of protein each day you need to plan in a lot more protein based foods into your diet and also consider taking a protein supplement every day to achieve the amount of protein your body will need. Hopefully by now this little scenario for losing twenty pounds in three months is enough to give you some idea of the kind of planning you need to do to successfully lose weight. Start planning your weight loss success and you will have a much greater likelihood of achieving your goals.