So often when you are thinking about losing weight, you wonder how? Lose fat with a combination of the right diet and moderate exercise. It is far easier than it sounds. I do not deny that it will take some commitment and work, but once you start losing those extra pounds, you will become so motivated that it will be easy. The first step is the most important. Once you are on your way, it will become a way of life.
You are now probably wondering where to start. This is totally up to you. You have to decide what you think will be best for you. Some people find it the easiest to start with moderate exercise and once they start losing weight they become motivated to diet as well. Other people though, especially if they are very obese, prefer to go on a healthy balanced diet first, and once they have lost some weight they feel more comfortable with exercising and will then start an exercise routine to speed things up. You know yourself, so you are the one to make this decision.
So, it is clear, if you are saying: "I need to lose weight, but how? Lose fat with a combination of a healthy balanced diet and moderate exercise. You decide the order that will suit you best.
Now it is time to look at each of these two elements:
1. A healthy balanced diet
2. Moderate exercise
A healthy balanced diet:
When you are considering a healthy balanced diet keep in mind that it is not a good idea to eat too little. This means, stay away from those fad diets! The problem with eating too little is that your body will try and preserve energy for the vital organs and go into "starvation" mode and your metabolism will slow down, making weight loss more and more difficult.
Okay, so you have to eat a little less and you have to eat healthy, but in moderation. A starvation diet is not going to make you lose more weight in the long run, on the contrary, it will make you gain weight in the long run. Of course, the best option is to vary the amount of calories you eat each day so your body cannot detect a pattern and slow down your metabolism. Other than this, any healthy balanced diet will do. You will be able to find many of them online.
What are the characteristics of a fad diet?
To make sure you do not fall for a fad diet here are the things you have to be on the lookout for:
* If you are only allowed to eat very little
* If you mainly eat only one kind of food
* If whole food groups are left out completely (here you have to keep in mind that you will have to eat less of certain kinds of food because they are very fattening and contain a lot of calories, so if a diet cuts down quite drastically on certain kinds of food it is not necessarily a fad diet, only if you are very limited in the food groups to choose from.)
* If you are not allowed to exercise while you are on the diet (It does not mean the diet has to encourage exercise, most will not as they think it may scare off potential clients, it must just not be expressly forbidden, because that means it is dangerous and the diet contains too little calories for you to exercise safely.)
What is moderate exercise?
This is the easy one. Moderate exercise is any exercise you enjoy at least three to for times a week for at least thirty to forty minutes a time. Make sure the exercise increases your heart beat. You can go for a brisk walk, jogging, kick a ball with the kids etc. anything you enjoy, as long as you get moving. As you become more fit and lighter you can move on to more strenuous exercise to speed up the weight loss even more.
Caution: never go on a strenuous exercise routine before first checking with your doctor, even if you feel perfectly healthy.
This then, is the answer to your question: "I need to lose weight, but how? Lose fat with a combination of a healthy balanced diet and moderate exercise.
- Prev:Trying to Tone My Thighs and Lose Weight Advice
- Next:How to Lose Weight From Your Thighs