If you are used to following a calendar at work, using a diet and exercise planner at home may be a natural segue into managing your healthy lifestyle. Combining diet and exercise can make weight management easier. It can prevent feelings of being deprived by too many dietary restrictions, as well as help you avoid exercise burnout. Weight control has reached crisis proportions in the United States, with over two-thirds of adults overweight or obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in 2008. Consult your doctor before beginning any new diet or exercise regimen.
Benefits
With a diet and exercise planner, you can set goals and milestones to drive your weight-loss efforts. Many people find that with concrete goals they can focus better. Motivation is a key factor in weight-management success. You may find that completing goals will motivate you and keep you on track. Research published in 2010 in the "Journal for Medical Internet Research" found that using interactive websites helped participants maintain long-term weight loss.
Features
Your diet and exercise planner should contain several features to make tracking easier. At its simplest, it will include a calendar with event and task scheduling functionality. Since you might be repeating the same activities weekly, you may want to make sure reoccurrence scheduling is included. The power of a diet and exercise planner is the visual depiction of your progress. Some planners may include reporting and graph functions. To make entry quicker, your planner may include an extensive database of calorie counts from food and beverages as well as calorie burn for common activities.
Effects
One of the effects of using a planner is that it will help you make exercise and healthy eating a habit. This can make it harder for you to deviate from your goals. A study published in 2010 in the "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition" concluded that lifestyle habits were a major factor in development of cardiovascular disease. Lack of exercise and weight gain were among the habits of individuals at risk. With a planner, you have a clear measure of both. Awareness can help you reduce your risk of chronic disease.
Types
You have several options for creating your own diet and exercise planner. Web applications are a popular form of planner, giving you an additional opportunity to interact with other individuals following a healthy lifestyle. The emotional support may also help you lose weight, explains the Mayo Clinic. Desktop applications allow you to record your entries in the privacy of your own home. Mobile applications give you the freedom to record your diet and exercise entries while on the go. You can also opt for a simple system of recording this information in a notebook.
Prevention/Solution
Weight gain may occur without you being aware of it at first. You may begin postponing workouts or indulging in too many unhealthy foods. A diet and exercise planner will give you real-time feedback about your choices and their impact on your lifestyle. In this way, you can halt negative habits before they overtake your successes.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Obesity and Overweight
- "Journal for Medical Internet Research"; Associations of Internet Website Use With Weight Change in a Long-Term Weight Loss Maintenance Program; K. Funk et al.; July 2010
- "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Simple Advice on Lifestyle Habits and Long-Term Changes in Biomarkers of Inflammation and Vascular Adhesion in Healthy Middle-Aged Men; P. Sjögren et al.; September 2010
- Mayo Clinic: Weight loss: 6 Strategies for Success
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