Being overweight increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In addition, being overweight stresses the joints, making exercise and everyday activities difficult. Losing between 5 and 10 percent of your body weight is enough to see improvements in your health. Once you see the results of your hard work, you may find more motivation to reach a healthy weight.
Move Your Body
Performing aerobic exercise burns calories, helping you lose weight. You can do something structured, like an exercise class, participate in a sport, such as tennis or cycling, or just dance around the house. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a total of 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week to maintain body weight. Many people who successfully lose weight -- and keep it off -- exercise for 60 minutes most days of the week, according to the National Weight Control Registry.
Plan Your Meals
Eating smaller, more frequent meals makes it easier to avoid binging. It is important to plan these meals, however, or you may find that you are eating more calories than you should. A combination of light meals, such as an egg white omelet with veggies, and substantial snacks, like low-fat yogurt and nuts, will keep you feeling full.
Cut Empty Calories
The biggest culprits are often drinks, such as soda, calorie-laden coffee beverages, or alcoholic mixed drinks. Cut foods that are high in calories and offer little nutritional value from your diet entirely.
Learn Portion Control
Eating the proper serving size automatically makes it easier to lose weight. Kaiser Permanente's Partners in Health recommends that you fill one-half of your plate with non-starchy vegetables, such as a salad or green beans. Fill one-quarter of the plate with starch, such as rice or a potato, and one-quarter with lean protein, like baked chicken or fish.
Resistance Train
Muscles require more calories to sustain than fat, so lifting weights boosts your metabolism, causing you to burn more calories all day long. Choose exercises that work multiple muscle groups, such as the bench press, squat, military press and deadlift.
Change Your Diet
Substitute fruits, vegetables and lean protein for processed carbohydrates and already-prepared meals. Processed carbs leave you feeling hungry sooner than whole foods, and are typically high in calories, as are readymade meals.
Keep a Food Diary
People who maintain a food diary lose almost twice the weight as people who do not write down what they eat, according to Kaiser Permanente's Partners in Health. Your food diary can be as basic as jotting down foods you eat and the calories they contain in a notebook. Or you can use a more sophisticated online or smartphone program that tracks calories, fat, protein, carbohydrates and nutrients.
Get Enough Sleep
Not getting enough sleep affects levels of appetite-regulating hormones in the body, according to the University of Chicago Medical Center. Even a minor sleep deficit drops levels of leptin, the hormone that tells your body it is full, and increases ghrelin, the hormone responsible for increasing appetite. People who do not get enough sleep also crave sweets, salty foods and starches.
Set Realistic Goals
Dieting isn't much fun, and it is normal to want to see results quickly. It is generally understood that two pounds a week is a safe rate of weight loss. In the beginning stages of a diet, the weight may fall off more rapidly than this; however, this is typically water weight, and once your body becomes accustomed to the new diet, weight loss will slow. Don't get discouraged at this slower rate of weight loss, because this slower rate means the weight loss will be easier to maintain.
Weigh Yourself Often
Weighing yourself frequently makes it easy to catch weight gain or stalled weight loss early. The key is to not become frustrated if the numbers on the scale fluctuate slightly. A pattern of no movement, or an upward pattern, however, means it is time to make adjustments to your diet and exercise program.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Physical Activity for Everyone
- National Weight Control Registry: Research Findings
- Oregon Health and Science University: Obesity Treatment Overview
- University of Massachusetts Medical School: How Do I Lose Weight and Keep it Off?
- University of Chicago Medical Center: Sleep Boosts Mood, Appetite
- Kaiser Permanente: Partners in Health
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