How Losing Weight Helps Us Stay Young

It is easy to see that for those of us with more than a few extra pounds, losing is likely to help us stay young. We just have to look around you at the seniors that we know and see how the slimmer ones are more active, healthy and young-seeming. Of course this is a generalization and individual people can get sick no matter what they weigh, but the risks of many serious diseases are greatly reduced if a person is within the ideal range.

So what is the best way to lose and retain or regain your youthful vigor?

First, be careful not to lose too fast. Fast loss can make you look drawn and leave your skin loose in the short term, giving the appearance of more wrinkles. This will pass but at first, it can have the opposite effect of what you intended. So aim for slow and steady loss.

Losing one pound a week is a good target for the first 10-15 pounds, then 2 pounds every 3 weeks. This may not sound much, especially if you have a lot to lose, but if you lose this way you will be much more likely to keep it off. You will be adapting your lifestyle and eating habits instead of ‘keeping to a diet’. This is a much healthier way to lose weight.

Most people can use their willpower to force themselves to stick to a strict diet for a week or even a month and lose a lot of , but as soon as life gets in the way and the strict diet is broken, the willpower evaporates and the binges start until usually, all of the is gained back. This is to be avoided at all costs. The most aging thing you can do with is to gain and lose a lot of it, over and over.

In order to only lose 1 pound a week or less, and consistently lose over a long period, you will need to make sustainable changes in your habits. Either reducing what you eat or increasing exercise a little will achieve this result. If you walk an extra half hour a day including some uphill, and eat exactly the same as you did before, you could lose at the right kind of rate. Just don’t go thinking, “Well, I just walked a mile, so now I can eat an extra donut today.” That does not work!

The best idea is to increase your level of exercise a little and also try to eat healthier foods. So although you probably would be eating the same amount in terms of volume of food on your plate, you have more vegetables and less fried and sugared foods. Raw vegetables are especially good.

A large bowl of grated carrot with some pumpkin seeds or a boiled egg and a little dressing makes a filling lunch. Have as much carrot as you want, and you can fill your stomach and satisfy the natural desire to chew (the feeling of eating) without consuming many calories. If you like coleslaw, make it yourself with just a little mayonnaise and again you can eat a lot without any problem.

Eating more vegetables and fruit will have the added bonus of increasing your vitamin and mineral intake in a natural way. This is important as we grow older because our bodies find it harder to use the nutrients that they get, so we need to eat more vitamins for the same beneficial effect. For women, it is also very important to increase calcium intake after the menopause to guard against osteoporosis. High levels of calcium are found in some vegetables such as spinach and soybeans as well as in dairy foods.

Exercise is important too and again it is better to increase your level of fitness gradually, rather than following an intensive fitness program for a week or two and then giving up. Walking is good for bone strength and general levels of fitness. Yoga is great for increasing flexibility, which should help with early symptoms of arthritis or other forms of stiffness. It also helps us look young. Someone who moves in a flexible way looks a lot younger than someone who walks and moves stiffly. Plus of course, regular exercise helps achieve the aim of losing .

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