Weight
Loss Tips
Losing weight is both a challenge
and an adventure. The best weight loss tips are simple and
effective suggestions on how you can overcome many dieting and
weight loss pitfalls. In my personal quest for losing weight, many
of the weight loss tips listed below helped me achieve my goals.
Any weight loss tip that contributes to consuming fewer calories
and burning more calories for you is a good thing. Little things
add up on any diet plan. And actually, the word diet is a problem
for long term weight loss. The reason I say this is that you
should really try to create more healthy and permanent eating
habits, not just a short term plan to lose weight.
Diet plans are good in that they get you started and also help to
achieve a specific weight loss goal. But for long term success in
keeping the weight off, you really need to pay attention and try
not to fall back into the routine that put you on the diet in the
first place.
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And a lot of these weight loss tips apply to the long term. Not
all may work for you, but all have some merit and are worth a
shot. What ever weight loss goals you may have, short or long
term, many of these little tidbits of advice can help.
I thought about organizing them according to impact, or nature, or
other ways. But many don’t really fit into tight categories. So
I just used three very broad sections. Head stuff, eating, and
exercise.
Keep checking back as I do get
some input from readers and add to the list from time to time.
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We've put our weight loss tips
into 3 categories. Each section can give you a hand full of ways
to help you lose weight with just a few small changes to your
daily routine. Nothing radical, just some good old fashioned
common sense methods to give you a little boost each day.
Head Tips
(keeping your eye on the ball)
When you decide to adopt a
weight loss plan, be sure to include a long range goals. Once you
loose the amount of weight desired, it's just as important to
figure out how to maintain your new weight. So changing your
eating habits will help a lot in long term maintenance efforts.
Although there are many effective weight loss diets, almost all
successful ones abide by these 5 rules.
1. If you fail, don't
abandon your efforts. Never give up.
2. Don't punish yourself, absolute denial is not necessary.
3. Multiple meals per day are more beneficial than standard
3.
4. Figure out how to work exercise into your daily routine.
5. Watch out for carbs and sugar, choose the lower fat
items.
Watch what you eat but don't just focus on your diet, try to eat
healthy. Making good choices will work forever, and can greatly
improve your health.
Don't cause yourself undo stress
over eating the wrong thing. Try to change your eating habits
gradually and realize that small changes add up. Don't panic and
punish yourself if you run off the tracks. Just swing back into
your plan and move forward.
The key to any plan is that you must burn more calories than you
take in every day. If you really want that dessert, plan on
burning extra calories by extending your exercise.
Leave notes on kitchen appliances, cupboards, pantries. Put
alternatives in the notes to help motivate and give you a choice.
You don't have to have an absolute count of calories, a running
total will work. It's impossible to accurately count restaurant
items anyway, so just use a best guess and move on.
A good goal to start with is one pound per week. Don't set
unrealistic goals and set yourself up for failure. One pound a
week is great over a long period of time and will allow anyone to
achieve their goals.
Eating
Tips (calories, fat, food)
Two American drink favorites,
coffee and tea, combined with sugar are damaging to any diet.
Caffeine can increase insulin in your body and reduce burning of
stored fat. Throw in the sugar most people add and what little
calories you may burn will be the sugar, not the fat. Try reducing
caffeine by 50%.
Speaking of caffeine and sugar,
most soft drinks are loaded with both. So make sure you count them
in your 50% reduction in caffeine intake.
Eat slower! Allow time for your stomach to signal you it's full.
Plus most digestive problems can be eliminated by eating slower,
and drinking more water with meals.
Eating foods without sugar or fat can take away some of the taste
and enjoyment of your meals. Use more seasoning like any kind of
pepper, garlic, herbs, and spices.
Don't skip meals, burning fat is all about eating too. Five or six
small meals allows you more fat burning time and keeps your
metabolism up.
Only eat when you're hungry, ignore the clock. Small meals every
3-4 hours is better.
If you like chocolate, go with the dark varieties rather than the
milk flavored. Dark chocolate has more antioxidant properties and
small amounts are actually good for you.
The best portion control trick (especially with restaurants that
serve way too much food) is to eat half and take home the other
half to eat in a few hours. And you'll save on your grocery bill
too.
Use apple cider vinegar on vegetables. Apple cider vinegar has
many beneficial effects and is known to prevent high blood
pressure and for breaking down fatty deposits.
Sugar is to your weight loss goals as Darth Vader is to the
rebellion. And it is every where you look. Because sugar can make
anything tasted good, food manufacturers add it to everything so
you'll like it and buy more. In the 1970s a new sweetener, corn
fructose, was developed. If possible, it is even more detrimental
to weight loss than sugar.
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All fat is not bad!
In fact we all need a little fat in our daily diets such
as essential fatty acids, Omegas 3, 6, and 9 are good for
you.
Good
Fats:
Monounsaturated
MUFAs, or monounsaturated fats can lower cholesterol,
including LDL cholesterol, the bad kind; while increasing
HDL cholesterol, the good kind.
Nuts such as almonds,
pistachios, walnuts, and peanuts contain MUFAs. Avocados,
olive and canola oils, also contain MUFAs.
Polyunsaturated
Polyunsaturated fats also lower LDL cholesterol. Salmon
and fish oil, as well as soy, safflower, corn, and
sunflower oils have polyunsaturated fats.
Bad
Fats:
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats increase LDL cholesterol, the bad kind.
Saturated fats can be found in most animal products as
dairy, meat, eggs and some seafood. A few plant foods can
also be high in saturated fats like palm kernel, palm oil,
and coconut oil.
Trans Fats
Trans Fat, a product of our scientific community, created
to make food last longer and work better in the food
production process. Hard stick margarine, vegetable
shortening, microwave popcorn, fast food French fries
(although a few large fast food chains have recently
switched to MUFAs) all contain Trans Fats. Recently many
producers of packaged foods have eliminated Trans Fats and
now state so on the labels, which is a very good thing.
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Like a glass of wine or an
alcoholic beverage at night with dinner? So do I but it can add
some calories. One way to reduce the caloric intake is to mix
equal parts of wine with water (I have one glass serving but break
it into two glasses - half water - after a day or two you don't
even notice). Same with the hard liquor, use a half of shot in two
instead of one with full shot.
Exercise
(burning calories)
There is a huge debate on the
best time of day to exercise. Some say the morning is the best
since you are less likely to skip the workout and you start
burning fat first thing in the day. Others say that you will burn
more fat if you exercise late in the day or early evening. I say
the best time is when you have the time and will do it.
When doing any kind of exercise, raise your level of activity for
short bursts. This is called Interval Training and is supposed to
be very effective for weight loss and burning more fat. It also
helps raise the cardiovascular effect of any exercise routine.
Any daily exercise is good for losing weight. That being said,
never push yourself beyond any physical limits.
Try to work your exercise into
your daily routine, do something you like, do it with others, take
your pet. Do what ever you can to make it enjoyable and something
you look forward to rather than a forced participation.
Start out slow and warm up
gradually.
If you hurt yourself or feel any
pain - that's from anywhere - stop immediately and seek medical
help. Never take a chance with any chest pains or signs of labored
breathing.
Walking, dancing, jogging,
swimming, bicycling (stationary or real), sport activity like
tennis, basketball, softball, etc. can all help you burn more
calories.
Sitting at a desk all day? Get up
and stretch every hour, tap your feet, walk around on your coffee
breaks, park far away from entrances, take the stairs.
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Hourly Calorie Burn Rate
(not exact but a good rule of thumb)
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Any of these weight loss tips can
help. Small changes, one at a time, can make a big difference in
losing weight. Regardless of your diet plan, keep it simple and
pay attention to the little things you can do everyday to help you
achieve your weight loss goals.
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The content on this site is
presented only for informational purposes and does not replace medical advice from a practicing
physician.
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