Sunday, July 14, 2013

5 Tips For Successful Weight Loss

By Barb Taylor


Losing weight requires hard work and discipline. Most people start out with a strong commitment to succeed only to give up after a week or two. Problem is, you can be doing things that you are unaware of that can preventing your from losing weight. Some of these things include:

Thinking You Burned More Calories Than You Actually Have

When working out it is easy to overestimate the number of calories burned. Especially if you are using an online calorie expenditure chart.

The majority of these tables are inaccurate by as much as twenty percent.

The best way to accurately determine the number of calories you burn is to use a heart rate monitor.

Not Building Muscle

When trying to lose weight it is important that you have a weight loss program which includes both weight lifting and cardio exercises. Strength training builds muscle and muscle speeds up your metabolism and burns more fat, thus promoting weight loss.

So if you find that your weight loss has slowed or stopped completely. Add in strength training, alternating it with your other workouts. This should help to break through the plateau.

Overindulging In Cocktails

When you drink alcohol, your body will work to eliminate that first prior to burning off any food you eat.

Alcohol also makes you more likely to snack because it desensitizes the part of our body that regulates hunger.

It is also high in calories and has no nutritional benefit. Having an occasional drink is fine but more than a couple per week and you may be sabotaging your weight loss and health.

Skipping Breakfast

While skipping meals sounds like a great way to drop unwanted pounds, it can actually have the opposite effect.

Skipping meals can decrease your metabolism and cause your body to start storing food.

Also when you skip meals you tend to overeat when you finally do have a meal

To combat this, do the opposite. Eat 5 or 6 little meals each day to keep your body from becoming hungry. The key to making this work is not exceeding your total daily calorie count for all meals combined.

Anticipating Immediate Results

Setting unattainable weight loss goals is one of the main reasons so many people do not achieve their weight loss goals. They turn on the tv and see that there favorite celebrity just lost 30 pounds in a month and that becomes the goal they set for themselves.

Losing weight and getting healthy doesnt happen overnight. Set your weight loss goal at one to two pounds weekly. This is the range that experts consider healthy.

Also people who lose between one and two pounds per week tend to have more success keeping it off.

Being aware of things that can hinder your weight loss is key. These weight loss tips can be an instrumental part of a long term successful weight loss plan.






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