Many of us are on a quest to lose weight. According to polls, approximately 40% of all women are on a diet at any given time. Yet, overweight and obesity continue to be one of our nation's leading health problems. Consider these statistics:
o 58 Million Americans are Overweight; 40 Million are Obese; 3 Million are morbidly Obese
o Eight out of 10 people over the age of 25 are overweight
o 78% of Americans don't meet basic activity level recommendations
o 25% are completely sedentary
Being overweight is more than just a vanity issue, too. There are serious health risks related to being overweight. And, the higher your weight climbs, the more health complications you're at risk for. Some of the most serious weight related health risks include:
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o Type II Diabetes
o Heart Disease
o High Blood Pressure
o Cancer
To maintain your health, it's critical to get your weight under control. We all know that diet and exercise are the key components of weight loss and maintenance, but many of us have become discouraged because we have tried and failed many times. So, rather than following the same diet steps that failed you before, why not try a new approach this time? There are many things we know today about dieting that we didn't know years ago. Here are some ways you can make weight loss and maintenance come more automatically, so that you can keep the weight off for good.
Exercise Right
We all know that exercise is important to weight loss. However, many of us think of exercise in terms of simply burning calories. And, while aerobic exercise is important for burning fat and calories and for helping maintain a healthy heart; we now know that weight training is just as important.
In addition to spending 30 minutes doing aerobic exercise most days of the week, you should also add weight training to your exercise plan. It doesn't take hours; 3 20 minute sessions a week is enough for most people. Weight training helps build muscle. This is important because muscle burns more calories, even at rest, than fat. So, if you can increase the amount of lean muscle in your body, you'll speed up your metabolism, burning more calories every day- even when you're not exercising.
This is a critical part of weight loss and weight maintenance. Many of us work hard to reduce the amount of calories we ingest when we really should be working harder to increase the number of calories we burn. Significant calorie restriction doesn't work well over the long term, so we shouldn't make it the core of our weight management program.
Watch What You Eat
For years we've been programmed to watch how much we eat. However, it's more important to concentrate on eating the right foods than it is to simply cut calories. Here are some substitutes you can make that will help you lose weight without feeling hungry
Cut out white flour and replace with whole grains - White flour is processed by the body just like sugar, so for many of us it packs on the pounds. Eating 100% whole grain breads and pasta instead of those made with white flour will help you lose weight. In addition, you'll be adding fiber to your diet, which is good for your overall health.
Cut out processed foods - You can speed weight loss by eating unprocessed foods. In particular, foods containing anything "hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated" are enemies of weight loss and heart disease. Another villain to watch out for is "high fructose corn syrup". This is a sort of artificial "super sugar" that really puts on pounds. These ingredients are used by food manufacturers to increase shelf life, but they are very bad for our bodies. By buying natural unprocessed foods like fresh fruits and vegetables and fresh meats, you can eat in a way that's more healthy overall as well as helpful to weight loss.
Watch the Sugar - Sugar also makes it easy to gain weight. Many people have no idea how many calories they consume through sweetened beverages like sodas. Even juice has a lot of calories from sugar. And, while juice is healthy and contains vitamins, you'd be far better off getting those vitamins from a piece of fresh fruit instead of a glass of juice. You get more fiber and less sugar.
Add foods that help burn calories
It's just as important to eat foods that speed calorie burning as it is to cut out foods that put on weight. Here are some things to add to your diet to help speed weight loss.
Green tea - Replace those sodas (even if they're diet) with green tea. Green tea is full of anti-oxidants, which can help you stay healthy overall. Green tea has been shown to prevent serious illnesses like heart disease and cancer when it's part of your regular diet. In addition, green tea's combination of anti-oxidants and caffeine speed up the metabolism in a way that other caffeinated beverages cannot. Research has shown that people who drink green tea burn more calories in a day than those who do not consume it.
Green tea is available in many forms, including bottled varieties for convenience.
Raw vegetables - Most raw vegetables require more calories to digest than they actually contain. So, munching on celery, carrots and broccoli will actually burn calories.
Cinnamon and hot peppers - Both of these spices are known to speed up the metabolism. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your coffee or tea, and add hot pepper to meals.
Making simple changes in your lifestyle and diet that you can maintain for the long run are important steps to weight management. This time around, spend less time worrying about how much you eat and more time consuming the foods that can help you lose weight automatically.
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