Strategies For Effective Weight Loss

An astonishing 55% of the population is considered overweight or obese (97 million American adults, according to the new NHLB guidelines). Only 14.4% of the adult population claims to engage in regular, vigorous exercise. More than a quarter of Americans, or 28.7%, admit they do not participate "in any physical activity." Only one-third of weight problems are related to genes. Although some rare genetic diseases are associated with obesity, you still maintain a majority of the control when it comes to your weight.

Weight loss of only 5&endash;10 percent of body weight may improve many of the problems associated with overweight, such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Even a small weight loss can make a difference. Just as little bad habits over many years can lead to obesity, good habits can also accumulate. Simply cut soda and coffee out of your diet and in six months you could be twenty pounds lighter. Try adding other small changes like parking a little farther from the office and walking a little more each day. Take the stairs a couple of times a day.

Slow steady weight loss is the best way to take off weight. Slow weight loss helps the individuals learn how to keep their eating under control by learning how to deal with stresses in healthy ways instead of covering them up with food. These individuals learn to adapt their diet to help them stay trim the rest of their lives, not just for the short time they are on the diet. These individuals generally do not go back to the bad eating habits which led them to obesity and/or addiction.

Reduce your calories by 3,500 and you will lose 1 pound. That does not mean starve yourself. The goal is to maintain a healthy, balanced diet while reducing total caloric intake. If you are trying to lose weight, starving yourself is one of the worst things you can do. The key is, slow and steady weight loss. Losing weight too fast can be detrimental to your long term success. If you are trying to lose weight, do so slowly and steadily. A generally safe rate is l/2&endash;l pound a week until you reach your goal. Avoid crash weight-loss diets that severely restrict calories or the variety of foods. Extreme approaches to weight loss, such as self-induced vomiting or the use of laxatives, amphetamines, or diuretics, are not appropriate and can be dangerous to your health.

Water, first thing in the morning, is better than fruit juice. Fruit juice is high in sugar. Since most of us are dehydrated in the morning, water is the best thing to do the trick anyway. Generally, overweight people do not have enough liquids in their diet... The body needs at least eight cups of liquids each day to maintain basic functions Excess liquid is used to break down fats. Without the daily minimum of water, the body has difficulty breaking down the fats in the diet. Ten to twelve cups of water can quite literally flush fats from the body.

A few deep breaths before eating can help you lose weight. Not only will it help you to slow down but the oxygen will help to metabolize the food better. It's called deliberate eating. It means not just giving in to hunger but enjoying and savoring the food completely. By taking a few deep breaths before starting a meal you feel fuller faster and after eating feel more satisfied

When it comes to dieting, some exercises are better than others. The goal is to burn calories and different exercises do that at different rates. Here are some examples of the energy expended by a 150-pound person in 30 minutes of continuous exercise:

Aerobics 200-250 calories
Bicycling, Stationary 250-300 calories
Bicycling, Actual 300-400 calories
Running, 5-6 mph 300-350 calories
Stair climber 200-250 calories
Walking briskly 150-180 calories

A major US survey has found that dieters who give up alcohol lose no more weight than dieters who include moderate amounts of alcohol in their diet. Alcohol, though, contains 7 calories per gram, so it's nearly twice as fattening as carbohydrates or protein. In addition, alcohol can encourage the munchies. This leads to extra calorie intake which can cause weight gain.

Calories in Sample Drinks
4 Fluid oz Wine 95 calories
1 Brandy/Whiskey 125 calories
12 Fluid oz Beer 145 calories
Regular soft drink 80-100 calories

Weight loss depends on your overall calorie intake. Reduce your calories by 3500 and you will lose 1 pound. So since alcohol is fairly high in calories with little or no nutrition, you will certainly save calories by abstaining.

Cutting out coffee will help you lose weight. If you do nothing else but remove coffee from your diet you'll lose about ten pounds in two months. And that's not even considering the sugar and the half and half you add to it. If you replace coffee with Green Tea not only will you get all kinds of great antioxidant benefits but you'll also get a cupful of things called catechin polyphenols which, amongst other things seem to help the body burn calories

Diet soda can be deadly to your diet. Liquid calories don't trip our satiety mechanism. They don't make us feel full. So we keep on drinking them and don't see them in the same way we do food. We always think about overeating&endash; never overdrinking but liquid, especially soft drinks, can have a lot of calories. There are approximately nine packages of sugar and close to 150 calories in one 12-oz can of soda or juice. Smoothies and coffee drinks can have anywhere from 250 to 500 calories! And that's excluding the whipped cream. If a person who drinks 3 cans of soda per day stops drinking soda all together, that person will lose about 7 pounds in six months just from not drinking soda. We see the word diet and think it means that it contains no calories and we just keep drinking. Couple that with a standard starvation diet that usually accompanied diet soda (you are on a diet of course so that means starvation ) and before you know it you've downed a couple of hundred calories a day while your depriving yourself of real nourishment.

Stress can actually make you gain weight. We suspect that it has something to do with a hormone called Cortisol that the body releases when it's under stress. Cortisol is essential to health, without it we would probably pass out during stressful times but it has a few negative side effects such as weight gain. What's worse, cortisol tends to promote fat storage, specifically around the waist, which is a real problem area for many people.

Ten Helpful Hints For Dieting Success:

• Don't skip breakfast since it is the meal that will keep you going all day long.
• Drink eight or more glasses of water a day. Drink at least one glass before every meal. Water helps your body operate at its highest calorie-burning mode and also helps control the appetite.
• Avoid going to a party on an empty stomach. Eat a salad and drink a glass of water or club soda before you go.
• As soon as you are done eating, leave the table so you won't pick at your food and eat more.
• When you eat out, ask for all sauces and dressings on the side.
• Try on new clothes. This is one of the best self-motivating tools you can use to eat right.
• Take only half of what your appetite calls for. You'll be surprised that you may not want a second helping.
• Be aware that it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to recognize that you're full. The key is to eat slowly. If you eat too fast, you'll simply out race your body's internal controls.
• Brush your teeth after eating so you won't eat anymore.
• Read ingredient labels when grocery shopping.

More Weight-Loss Tips:

1. Be autonomously motivated
It's great to be inspired to lose weight for a special occasion, a reunion or a party but studies have shown that the people who are most likely to maintain their weight loss are the ones who aren't motivated by anything outside of themselves. These are people who have simply decided that it's time for them to lose weight and improve their health.

2. Set realistic goals
Even with the best behavior-modification programs people can typically reduce their weight by 10 to 15 percent . If you try to lose 20 or 30 percent, you're likely to either fail and be discouraged or simply regain the weight. By setting realistic targets you set yourself up for success, once the target has been reached it's easier to define a new one with the confidence that comes from success.

3. Replace bad habits with good ones
There's nothing wrong with having a snack in the afternoon, in fact it's a great idea, just make sure that the food you chose is a piece of fruit or a low fat yogurt and not a donut.

4. You will have bad days, they come with the territory
It's important to realize that. Factor disappointment into your overall plan. One day of weakness does not undo one month of hard work

5. Think less about losing weight and more about gaining health
You may start out trying to fit into that new dress and wind up saving your life. Obesity is only one symptom of an unhealthy lifestyle. Think healthy, not just skinny. Diet sodas, Wow chips, and artificially sweetened candy bars may help you cut calories, but healthy they're not. Each time you chew on a high- or low-calorie candy bar you miss a chance to swallow some phytochemicals neatly packaged in a wedge of watermelon or a handful of berries. Luckily, the same foods that cut your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke should help you trim that extra padding. Don't think of them as punishment.

6. Shrink your servings
People who frequent restaurants are more likely to be overweight. That's not only because of the type of food they eat but also the portion size. Restaurants find it extremely cost effective to serve large portions. The cost of food is a very small percentage of overhead, people get used to large portions and think that's the norm.

7. Curb liquid calories
Liquid calories don't trip our satiety mechanisms: you don't feel full after a soda or juice although you may have just downed as many calories as a small meal.

8. Make movement part of your life
This doesn't necessarily mean five sets of tennis or marathon running. Gardening, raking leaves, mowing the lawn, and washing windows also count. People who boost their lifestyle activity are just as successful at keeping the weight off as people who participate in formal exercise programs. In fact, overweight children lose more weight when told to limit sedentary activities than when told to exercise (or to do both). "Getting kids to turn off the TV or spend less time at the computer works better than urging them to increase their aerobic activity.

9. Exercise for weight maintenance
Surprisingly, exercise doesn't actually make much difference when you're trying to lose weight. Fairly strenuous exercise (30 to 40 minutes three or four times a week) produces only a two to six pound weight loss over six months, that's because exercise just doesn't burn that many calories. However it is a great way to keep weight off and make you healthier, and as we keep saying the secret is to think about gaining health not losing weight.

10. Be patient
It's not easy to make such a radical change in your lifestyle you're relearning habits that may have taken you a lifetime to learn, so have a little patience with yourself.

Info from Irwin Naturals

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Disclaimer

Tanning & Natural Health News is a publication of Tan Plus /Essentials Of Life, Barclay Square, 350 Route 108, Somersworth, NH. This publication is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be presented as medical advice. Product statements made have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.