Dieting and exercise are both essential to the long-term success of any weight loss plan, according to Vanderbilt University. In addition, these habits will benefit you in many ways even if you are not overweight. You can change your diet by eating less, eating healthier, or both. Likewise, you can exercise using aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise, or both.
Dieting Program
There are two benefits to changing your diet. One is that you will lose weight by consuming fewer calories. The other is that you will become healthier, feel better and boost your immune response by eating healthier foods that meet your body's nutritional needs without clogging your arteries. If you are overweight, you should both eat healthier and reduce your calorie intake. If you are not overweight, you should eat healthier, but you need not reduce your overall calorie intake. Concentrate on eating fruits and vegetables, because most people do not eat enough of them. If you want to lose weight, concentrate on high-volume foods that do not contain many calories, such as steamed rice, so that you can fill your stomach and still reduce your calorie intake. Focusing on eating healthy foods more than on reducing food volume is essential to long-term dieting success, according to licensed dietitian Kathleen Goodwin. Eating slowly will help you reduce the amount of food that you eat, because it takes your body about 15 minutes to catch up with the amount of food you eat and tell your brain not to be hungry anymore.
Aerobics Program
Aerobic exercise burns calories by raising your body's metabolism while you exercise. It burns calories and it exercises your heart. This will increase your endurance, reduce your risk of heart problems, increase oxygen flow to the brain, and elevate your mood. An aerobics exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate to 60 to 80 percent of its maximum for at least 20 minutes. Twenty minutes is a minimum, not a maximum. Preferably, you should exercise for at least 30 minutes as many times a week as you can. It takes time to lose weight through aerobics--even high intensity exercises will burn no more than a few hundred calories per hour, according to the Mayo Clinic, and you need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound. Aerobics exercises include jogging, bicycling and even mountain climbing. Nevertheless, aerobic exercise need not be unpleasant or tedious--dancing or sex will do just as well, provided that they are performed vigorously enough. To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Most gyms contain running tracks or treadmills with readouts that will tell you how fast your heart is beating. Once you are familiar with how aerobics exercise feels, you will be able to enter the aerobics zone without needing a readout.
Weight Training Program
Weight training is considered anaerobic exercise because it usually does not continuously elevate your heart rate to the required extent for at least 20 minutes. It burns calories, however, and builds muscle mass. Since muscles need more energy than fat to operate, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn simply by pumping your heart, expanding your lungs and digesting your food. You should lift weights for at least 20 minutes twice a week, counsels the Mayo Clinic, although you may exercise for up to 45 minutes three times a week if you are in good enough shape. Perform three sets of each exercise at a weight you can lift no more than 12 times in a row, and rest for a couple of minutes between sets. Try to cover every major muscle group over the entire week, but never lift weights two days in a row.
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