Healthy and Balanced Weight Reduction
Healthy and balanced weight-loss is accomplished via healthy eating and workouts. I know you have been told this repeatedly once again, yet it is the simple fact. Losing weight this way is preferred for the long term. Maintaining a balance between healthy eating and a vigorous workout will certainly help in achieving your weight loss goals.
The Eating Plan
Actually starting out on an eating plan than involves skipping on any of the leading food types, be it carbs, healthy proteins or fats , may not actually ensure your body is supplied with all the essential vital vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that are present in a varied and balanced range of foods. Even with the NHS guidance in the UK that “minimizing the variety of calories we eat is essential to weight-loss”, falling short to take into account exactly what those calories are consisted of is obviously simply misguided. It isn’t as simple as cutting calories, but keeping track of calorie intake and daily calorie burn is still part of most healthy weight loss plans.
Healthy and balanced weight loss can really help you in staying healthy and fit. To ensure that you can lose weight in a healthy way, you will have to be committed to a weight loss program that you know works and is safe. Although your goal is to lose the extra weight, any diet or nutrition plan that you adopt must be completely nourishing to your body.
There are so many stories about hyped up fad diets and diet pills that can make you lose weight quickly. It is obvious to note that even if these systems generate immediate results, there is always a health cost and a long-term cost. Fad diets and extreme diet pills are simply quick fixes, and they really have nothing to do with a healthy balanced lifestyle. Some crash diets are infamous for being miserable simply because they are so discouraging to dieters. They create a yo-yo effect and the basic pattern is exemplified by quick small weight losses only to be gained again a month later. Some crash diets actually promote fat retention because they fool your body into reacting as if it was starving.
5 Tips on Healthy Weight Loss
1) Once you have found the best diet and exercise program for yourself, try to keep your weekly weight loss target to no more than 2 pounds per week. Most doctors consider this to be a healthy rate of loss, as your body begins to adapt to the new eating and exercising lifestyle.
2) Remember that your fitness and exercise program should be optimized so that you burn more calories resulting in a faster metabolism. Make sure that your exercise program includes strength training as well as cardio. Muscle will burn more calories than fat will, so the more muscle you build the more calories you will burn also resulting in the shrinking of your fat cells.
3) Setting realistic goals and committing to them will keep you motivated. These goals should be both qualitative and quantitative. For instance a good quantitative goal would be be to hit a target weight by a given amount of time, say a two month period. A good qualitative goal would be to feel more confident or feel more healthy, light , and energized in a given amount of time.
4) Make sure to find support from friends and family before embarking on a weight loss program. A cheering section is a great help to stay motivated and committed when the going gets tough. Always surround yourself with the people that believe in you and what you have set out to do.
5) Really pay attention to what you put in your body. Remember that nutrition is the key o achieving your weight loss goals as well as the way to maintain overall great health for the long term. We will touch on nutrition more in depth later in this article. But basically cutting way down on your sugar intake, consuming more whole foods such as whole wheats and grains, and also consuming more dark green vegetables, is a recommended strategy to optimize your overall nutrition.
The Mainstream Diet – Huge Obstacle to Your Weight Loss Goals
According to the American Heart Association at Heart.Org, about 154.7 million Americans age 20 and older are considered overweight or obese. Of these, about 78.4 million are considered simply obese. Obesity is defined by what is called the BMI or body mass index. A body mass index of 30 kg/m2 is considered to be obese. The real scary part of this data is that 12.7 million boys and girls from age 2 to 19 were suffering from obesity.
Obesity is the precursor to other degenerative diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Obesity truly is a dangerous epidemic in the United States that is growing at an alarming rate and it really is mostly due to America’s mainstream nutrition.
To put it simply, we consume too much sugar in the U.S. as well as too many calories per sitting. According to Medicinenet.Com, the per capita yearly consumption of added sugar in the United States is 156 lbs. This “added sugar” is basically the sugar found in candy, soft drinks, and junk food as well as other mainstream foods such as some yogurts, TV dinners, foods from fast food restaurants and processed foods. Most of the added sugar in the American diet is actually found in the soft drinks we consume, about 30%.
Your body still requires carbohydrates to function properly. But the over consumption of added sugars is detrimental to your health and is no necessary. It really cannot be emphasized enough just how bad sugar is for your health. Check out this great infograhic at Foodbeast.Com describing the American addiction to sugar. Also, make sure to see our post about sugar, blood glucose level and the glycemic index.
Takeaway – Give up the soft drinks and the extra sugar ASAP.
A Healthy Lifestyle is he Way to Go
Your attitude about food, health and losing weight will ultimately determine your success in losing the pounds. If you are overweight and want to lose it, it is not enough that you simply lose the pounds. You must also completely change your lifestyle and your relationship to food. So how do you start to do that?
One simple way is to start treating your body like the temple that it is. Also, your attitude about food must change. For example, downing a pint of rocky road ice cream when you are upset is really not a treat. It is a coping mechanism that stems from a psychological need to feel safe. This in turn creates an addiction. Be aware of your patterns first, and eventually you will be able to change them.
Your mindset and perspective will determine the outcome of your endeavor to lose weight and ultimately change your lifestyle to a healthy one.
Below is a great video about how sugar intake affects your body.
