Carrying extra pounds increases your risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and other medical conditions. The best way to lose weight is to combine dietary changes with frequent exercise. Include both aerobic exercise and strength-training into your workouts to burn fat and boost lean muscle mass.
Setting Goals
Set a goal weight to keep yourself motivated to lose weight. Create a series of short-term goals that emphasize healthful lifestyle choices and eliminating bad habits. Losing weight requires you to consume fewer calories than your body uses each day. Use a calorie calculator to determine your daily caloric needs, and subtract 1,000 calories each day. Create this caloric deficit by eating less, reducing high-calorie food consumption and exercising more.
Diet Changes
Processed foods often contain high levels of calories, fat and sodium. Replace these foods with fresh alternatives to cut calories. Choose whole-grain products, fruits and vegetables to make yourself feel fuller and energetic throughout the day. Limit protein consumption to 5 or 6 oz. per day, eating chicken, soy products, nuts, seeds and nonfat dairy. Avoid saturated fats, trans fats and sodium whenever possible.
Aerobic Exercise
Incorporate 30 to 45 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise into your daily routine at least five days per week. Choose activities that you enjoy to keep yourself motivated to exercise and lose weight. Swimming, dancing, running, walking, gardening, cycling and step aerobics burn calories and fat. Use a calculator to determine your target fat-burning heart rate, and maintain that heart rate throughout your exercise.
Strength Training
Some people avoid strength-training because they do not want to become bulky. Strength-training to build lean muscle slims your physique, however. Perform pushups, squats, bench press, abdominal crunches, bicep curls, triceps extensions, shoulder press, back extension, hamstring curls and calf raises to build muscle. Do 12 repetitions of each lift, using enough weight to exhaust your muscles on the final repetition.
Fad Diets
Fad diet plans often claim to make you lose large amounts of weight quickly. While some fad diets cause initial weight loss, dieters often regain the weight within several months. Avoid cleanses and other rapid weight-loss schemes, which may exacerbate medical conditions or leave you malnourished. Talk to your primary care physician before beginning a new weight loss plan to ensure that it is safe.
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