Tuesday, March 18, 2014

10 Lifestyle Changes Needed For Effective Weight Loss

By James Spann


There are a lot of people who are looking for the perfect diet in order to lose weight. The sad truth is, most dieters fail. This is because the period of weeks or months spent on a reduced calorie diet is often followed by a return to your old bad habits. To keep the weight off, you need to make permanent lifestyle changes. A few proven strategies:

Make Daily Workout A Practice.

By some estimates, you can develop a habit in as little as three weeks. The key is consistency. Schedule your workout at the same time every day. If you miss a day or two, get right back into the routine instead of giving up.

Your regular workouts should consist of some cardio exercise as well as resistance training. Both are needed for effective weight loss. It is best to alternate upper body and lower body resistance training on different days. Cardio can be done every day, if you wish. Include resistance training in your exercises. If you are trying to lose weight with cardio along, you will not be very successful. Resistance training produces muscle tone, which enables the body to burn calories even when you are asleep.

You should relax no more than 30 seconds between your weight lifting exercises. This will result in greater calorie burn than relaxing longer than 30 secs between workouts.

Cultivate a Physically Active Lifestyle

Walk to the corner store instead of driving. Swap the drive-through for parking and walking. Choose parking spaces far away from your destination and walk. Swap sedentary hobbies like gaming for active ones like skateboarding or gardening. By making your everyday life more active, you burn more calories and stay fitter.

Cook A lot More At House.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans say that they don't know how to cook. If you are living on a diet of convenience food and take out, it's much harder to eat a wide variety of healthy foods. An individual should learn how to cook and shop for fresh food regularly in order to take control of his or her diet.

Avoid Late-Night Snacks.

If an individual eats right before bedtime or in the middle of the night; he or she is likely to gain weight while sleeping. This behavior will lead to weight because the regulation of energy by the body's circadian rhythms is different than throughout the day.

One of the most important reasons why you should avoid eating late at night is due to the possible risk of weight gain associated with this habit. While many people are aware of the fact that eating late may contribute to weight gain, they are not always aware of how this can happen. Increases in your body weight during this period are caused primarily by changes in the rate at which your metabolism functions while sleeping versus waking hours. When you eat during the day, you are relatively active, and your metabolism is functioning rapidly. In contrast, during sleep, your metabolism has slowed a bit-and because of this, the food that you have recently eaten will be metabolized and digested at a much slower rate than if you had eaten during the day. This contributes to increases in body weight, and possible obesity.

Always Eat A Healthy Breakfast

Your morning meal is the most crucial dish of the day. Not only does it offer you energy to start a brand-new day, eating breakfast also enhances weight control, boosts concentration, lowers cholesterol, and improves the body's overall efficiency.

Drink Plenty Of Water

The majority of the human body is composed of water. Amongst other important functions, water also acts as a natural appetite suppressant and enhances metabolism - including burning calories. With so many significant functions, drinking adequate water is crucial to the proper functioning of the human body.

Dehydration also causes a reduction in blood volume. A reduction in blood volume causes a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles. And a reduction in the supply of oxygen to your muscles can slow down metabolism. Hence, fewer calories will be burned. Also, drinking adequate water with meals or snacks throughout the day will make you feel full and thereby result in eating less. It is recommended that the average individual drink from 8 - 12 glasses of water a day. Increase this amount if you are a very active person.

Learn to Love Healthy Foods

If you are used to eating high-fat, salty, processed foods, a whole foods diet will taste strange to you at first. Learn a variety of healthful ways to prepare fresh foods. Instead of drowning broccoli in melted cheese or butter, toss it in olive oil before roasting it. Choose lemon juice, hot sauce and spices to add flavor instead of reaching for the salt. And, cut out the soda. Just removing highly sweetened drinks from your diet will help you adjust your tastes to prefer natural and healthy foods. You should eat every three to four hours throughout the day - 3 basic meals and 2 or more healthy snacks (fruit, nuts, dark chocolate, popcorn, peanut butter and crackers, etc.). This will keep your metabolism up, resulting in more calories burned than if you only ate 3 square meals, and, help to keep your appetite in check .

Give Yourself A Rewards Day.

Increase your motivation to workout regularly and eat healthy meals by rewarding yourself at least once a week. This reward can be your favorite dessert, a weekend getaway, or attending a great play or musical.

Acquire Enough Sleep.

The loss of sleep can result in weight gain. So, attempt to obtain six to 8 hours of sleep a night. The weight gain is induced by the bodily hormone, ghrelin, which increases whenever there is sleep loss. This hormone, in addition to others, promotes the mind to long for more for fattening foods like doughnuts, ice cream and various other sugary foods.

Eat Mindfully

When we absent-mindedly snack on chips or cookies because we are anxious, bored or unhappy, we can take in hundreds of empty calories. When you sit down to eat, make the food the center of your attention. Savor each bite. Do not eat while watching TV or working. By engaging in mindful eating, you will find that you are more satisfied and eat less.

When it involves weight loss, the most essential point to remember is that the long-lasting success will only come when you decide to make life modifications that will result in you making the most effective selections related to healthy and balanced meals and regular exercise. These options will inevitably determine the quality of the rest of your life.




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