Weight-loss pills aren't a requisite to shedding surplus pounds. In fact, prescription weight-loss medications aren't for people who need to drop a few pounds; they're reserved for obese individuals whose weight impacts their overall health. The healthy way to lose weight is through diet and exercise.
Calories
If you want to lose weight the healthy way, cutting calories is essential. The calories that you consume but don't burn are stored in the form of excess body fat. Each pound of fat contains 3,500 calories. Trimming a 2,300-calorie diet to 1,900 each day results in 1 lb. of weight loss every week, guaranteed. However, it's important not to slash your caloric intake too drastically; fad and crash diets are extremely difficult to maintain and are therefore an unlikely path to success if you want to lose weight the healthy way. Moreover, if you crash diet, you're probably not burning much fat, but merely losing water weight and lean tissue.
Eating Right
Key to effective weight loss is planning your meals and snacks in advance, says the Cleveland Clinic, which advocates four to six tiny meals a day. However, this is not a license to eat what you want; eating healthfully means taking inventory of what foods you're currently consuming that contributed to your weight gain. Simply drinking sugar-sweetened beverages can add 500 calories to your daily diet. Choose filling foods laden with nutrients, such as fruit, vegetables, fat-free dairy products and lean proteins. If label-reading is too time-consuming, reduce the portion size you'd normally eat by 10 to 15 percent. Rather than dieting more stringently on certain days of the week, keep your daily calorie intake the same from one day to the next.
Get Moving
According to the American Council on Exercise, 89 percent of people who lost weight and kept it off for at least one year did so through a combination of diet and exercise. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advocates a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as walking or swimming, for healthy adults, or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic activity such as running, every week. If you've led a sedentary lifestyle, ease into a more active lifestyle. Start with 15 minutes of low-impact aerobic activity a few times a week, gradually increasing it to 30 minutes of moderately intense aerobic activity four times a week until you reach your activity goals.
Get Strong
Couple aerobic activity with strength training at least twice a week. Because your body burns calories even at rest, increasing your lean muscle mass -- which burns more calories at rest -- is also essential. Strength training accomplishes this goal. Perform a set of exercises with a weight that allows you to successfully complete 12 repetitions. Work your chest, upper back, arms and legs. If you want to focus on your lower back or abdomen, reduce the amount of weight and increase your number of repetitions.
Realistic Goals
Even people who take anti-obesity medications must cut calories and increase their level of physical activity to maintain their results after they stop taking the medication. Extra pounds didn't accumulate on your body in mere days or weeks, but over a long period of time. Therefore, it's unrealistic to expect that you can lose them the healthy way in a day or two. Medical and fitness experts recommend setting a weight-loss goal of between 1 and 2 lbs. per week.
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