Whether individuals opt to join a health club to attain their weight loss and healthy lifestyle goals, or if they go another route, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association offers some basic tips:

1. Focus on positive lifestyle changes, not a number on a scale.
2. Set realistic goals. Don’t strive for perfection or an improbable goal that can’t be achieved. Focus, instead, on increasing healthy behaviors.
3. Use the buddy system.  Find a friend or relative whom you like and trust who also wants to establish a healthier lifestyle. Encourage one another.  Exercise together. And use your weight management program as an opportunity to enjoy one another’s company and to strengthen the relationship.
4. Know where you get your support. Spend more time with people who support you in your efforts and less time, when possible, with people who are critical or derail you in your efforts.  Always try to enlist the support of your family.
5. Keep a diet diary—accurate records of what you eat and your physical activity each day—to help you keep track of your progress.
6. Eat healthfully:
   1. Eat slowly to give yourself time to recognize when you’ve had enough.
   2. Don’t skip meals.
7. Don’t view your weight management program as a sacrifice or punishment.  View it as something you are doing for yourself. 
   1. Get your exercise by doing physical activities you enjoy with people you enjoy.
   2. Don’t completely deny yourself favorite foods to lose weight. You can still have “goodies.” Just eat less of them and in smaller portions—or substitute them with other, healthier foods you also like.
8. Slow and steady.  Don’t try to lose weight quickly.  Gradual weight loss is more likely to be permanent.
9. Focus on the positive.  It is unrealistic to expect yourself to stay perfectly on course each and every day.  Think about what you did do right today, and always look forward to what you will try to do better tomorrow.
10. Be your greatest advocate.  If you believe you can make lasting changes for a healthier lifestyle, you will.