Dr. William McCarthy: Hi! I am Dr. William McCarthy, of the Northern Virginia Area Bariatric Consultants, Weight Loss Center. And today I am telling you how to overcome weight loss challenges.

Now, I am going discuss the importance of sleep. The importance of breakfast and the importance of being hydrated, while you are on a diet.

First of all let's talk about sleep. Lack of sleep can be a major interference with weight loss. Sleep disturbances can be caused by variety of reasons, may be just bad habits, may be we stay up late watching the news, watching a television show, perhaps playing internet games; that can also be due to stress. May be we just lie and toss and turn at night, perhaps we wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, or may be we just have chronic insomnia.

Another reason for sleep disturbance is called sleep apnea; this is frequently a result of excess weight. What happens if a person has interference with their breathing at night, they actually have lack of oxygen to the brain and that can be a very serious and sometimes even fatal problem.

Weight loss will help this, but many times it needs to be treated first, because a person who has sleep apnea is not sleeping properly. Secondly, if you have sleeping problems due to depression or due to stress, we may need to do other things, such as exercise, or learn to relax or take a warm bath before bed.

Occasionally sleep disturbance is mainly to be treated by a professional, such as a counselor or may even need medication.

Next, we are going to be talking about breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Studies have shown that people who don't eat breakfast are more likely to be overweight and people, who keep weight off, are people who maintained a good breakfast at the beginning of the day.

Why do we need breakfast? First of all if we have a good breakfast, it decreases our hunger. It also increases our metabolism during the day and makes us feel much better. We also tend to eat less at night if we have a good breakfast. So having a good breakfast is part of a program for losing and maintaining weight loss.

Next, we are going to talk about hydration. Hydration is drinking enough fluid, drinking enough fluid is critical to weight loss. Some people actually try to dehydrate themselves in order to lose weight. It looks good on the scale, but it's merely dehydration and it's actually not good for you and it's going to in habituate loss in the long run.

Fat burning is a metabolic process and requires adequate fluid intake. You must drink enough water or non caloric, non caffeinated beverage during each day, in order to maintain an adequate degree of weight loss.

So that's the importance of sleep, breakfast and hydration for your diet.