Unfortunately, there are no magic bullets when it comes to weight loss. It is simply a matter of burning more calories than you take in, either through diet or exercise or a combination of the two. Fad diets generally do not work, because permanent changes in your health and lifestyle habits are required to effectively lose weight and keep it off. However, there are strategies and tips that can increase your probability of success when you embark on a weight loss program.
Strategies For Success
The Mayo Clinic offers six strategies for successful weight loss, beginning with making a commitment to stick with your plan, no matter what stresses in your life try to intervene. Find your inner motivation,make a list of your reasons and find people to support you. While you may want to lose 10 lbs. the first week, this is not a realistic goal. Make sure your goals are SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Begin eating healthier foods, including fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and eat breakfast. Get moving with the kind of exercise of physical activity you like. Try for 30 minutes most days. Change your perspective to include healthy diet and exercise habits as a way of life.
Diet
Your body needs calories to keep functioning. Calories come from carbohydrates, fats and proteins in food. Regardless of the food source they come from, calories are either used as energy or stored as fat. If you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight. There are 3,500 calories in one pound. To lose one pound a week, you cut 500 calories from your diet each day. Half of these could come from exercise and half could come from diet. Simple ways to cut calories include eating smaller portions and substituting lower calorie foods for high-calorie ones. For example, a 3 oz. bag of ranch flavored tortilla chips has 426 calories. By substituting 3.5 cups of air-popped popcorn for 100 calories, you save 326 calories and keep your salty snack.
Exercise
The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association's 2007 guidelines for healthy adults under age 65 include moderate-intensity cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous activity three times a week. Along with this, they recommend eight to 10 strength-training exercises of eight to 12 repetitions twice a week. For weight loss or weight loss maintenance, 60 to 90 minutes of activity may be required. For example, high-impact aerobics burns 493 calories for a 155-lb. person; circuit training burns 563; and cleaning gutters burns 352.
Tips for Diet and Exercise
Some tips for weight loss, involving both diet and exercise like: replacing eggs and cheese with scrambled egg whites; switching from cream soup to vegetable-based soup at lunch and dinner; and skipping your afternoon frozen yogurt with ground nuts altogether. Exercise-wise, walk briskly for 30 minutes; shovel snow for 30 minutes; do one hour of housework; or practice tai chi for 45 minutes. If you pick one strategy from each list, you may be able to lose 1 lb. a week.
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