subject: Lose Weight with These 5 Tips [print this page] 1. Forget that Fad Diet1. Forget that Fad Diet
Why isn't fad dieting a good idea?
Diets don't work. Lifestyle changes do. Diets are temporary. When you diet, you're usually not eating the way you will need to eat over the long term. So when you quit dieting and resume your former habits, the extra weight, of course, will come back. There is no magic or surprise in that. When you diet, you deprive yourself of foods you love to eat. When you quit dieting, you return to eating those foods as much as you used toor more. The extra weight comes back.
Dieting often means eating so little food that you're hungry all the time and don't have enough energy. When you quit dieting, you return to eating as much as you did before, or even more. And the extra weight comes back.
Many diets do not include the right balance of foods to keep you healthy.
Dieting can even lead to eating disorders in some people. Others can actually get a certain fear of food. Yet others fall into an unhealthy cycle of losing and gaining weight, which may be harder on the body than just being overweight, potentially causing serious health issues.
2. Know your Healthy Weight
As part of our new diet or weight loss goal, most of us immediately try to set our goal weight. Where do most of us go for this target healthy weight? We go straight to standard height and weight tables. This is not necessarily the right approach though.
There are many measures and parameters out there. In general, a healthy weight is a weight that lowers your risk for health problems. Body mass index (BMI) and waist size are good ways to tell if they are at a healthy weight. However, what is more important is having healthy eating and exercise habits. Once you are active and eating well, your body will settle into a weight that is healthy for you.
For this very important reason, a lifestyle change, and not fad dieting, is important. If you want to get to a healthy weight and stay there, healthy lifestyle changes will work better than dieting.
Staying at a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do. It can help prevent serious health problems, including, diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, hypertension, stroke, sleep apnea, and respiratory disorders.
So using your BMI calculator and measuring your waist size may be a helpful weight loss parameter, but the key to permanent weight loss is to get to your own personal healthy weight!
3. Measure your progress.
What gets measured gets improved. There is truth to this statement. Do not weight yourself every day, but do measure yourself every week, and at the same time of day. This is the only way that you will be able to tell what is working for you and what is not. Your body may be reacting well to one change in your diet and not another. Remember, what works for you may not work for another.
4. Incorporate healthy eating habits.
Remember, it is a lifestyle change, not a fad diet.
What are healthy eating habits?
For healthy eating habits, you want balanced foods, varied foods, and moderate portions.
Balanced diet. Try to eat from all the food groups every day. The food groups are grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, and proteins (meat, poultry, fish, beans)
Vary your foods. Becoming bored with your foods may cause you to binge. You do not want that. Choose different foods in each food group. For example, don't reach for an apple every time you choose a fruit. Eating a variety of foods each day will help you get all the nutrients you need. Write down a cheat sheet for yourself with a list of all the foods you like in each food group and vary them!
Moderation. Don't have too much or too little of one thing. All foods, if eaten in moderation, can be part of healthy eating. Do not deprive yourself, just eat in moderation.
5. Become more active.
Increasing your overall level of activity, such as going up and down stairs, parking a bit further, walkingall these help you arrive to a healthier weight. Of course, incorporating at least a half an hour of active exercise into your daily routine has been shown repeatedly not only to help with your weight loss, it also improves both your physical and mental health. Being active helps to increase your overall metabolic rate, which helps speed the overall weight loss process. So key number 5 to overall weight loss success: become more active!!
What is the most important word of weight loss advice?
KEEP YOUR POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!!
Do not give up on weight loss. Be patient. Give yourself time. The key is to make changes that are permanent and to focus on what you are eating on a daily basis. When you focus on this goal, you will see resultsand very importantly, do not get a fear of food. Enjoy your food but understand how it affects your body. Understanding how particular foods, and the particular quantities, affect your body, is the key to controlling your weight. With knowledge comes success!!
For more information on this topic, please visit:http://agelessnfit.com/2010/06/07/the-5-keys-to-weight-loss-success/
