Whether your goal is to lose the last 10 lbs. or hefty 100 lbs., diet and exercise will be key. In order to lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. Carrying around excess weight can be taxing on your on your body but dieting improperly can be as well. Before you decide to lose a significant amount of weight you should understand some of the fundamental principles around dieting and speak to your physician first.
Heathful Weight Loss
The actual practice of moderate dieting is not unhealthful. In short, you are creating a caloric deficit by burning off more calories than you are consuming through diet and physical activity. Healthful dieting is losing 1/2 to 2 lbs. every week, according to the Student's Center for Health at West Virginia University. While this seems slow, done correctly and continuously, in theory, this can result in more than a 100-lb. loss in a single year without side effects to your body. West Virginia explains a basic way to lose 1 lb. per week. A single pound is 3,500 calories. If you remove 500 calories a day from your caloric consumption, either by eating fewer calories or exercising, over the course of a week you will burn 3,500 calories and lose 1 lb.
Healthful Dieting
While exercise can help burn calories, removing calories from your diet is generally the easiest way to create a caloric deficit. Removing calories from your diet does not mean missing meals. In fact, eating smaller meals more often may help increase your metabolism. The key to removing calories from your diet is substituting low-calorie foods for higher-calorie foods, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Fruits, vegetables, healthful unsaturated fats, lean protein foods and complex carbohydrates that do not raise your blood sugar levels should replace foods that are high in saturated fat, trans fat and simple sugars that elevate your blood sugar levels. For example, substituting fish for red meat can take several hundred calories off your consumption. Eating fruit as a snack instead of ice cream or cookies can remove a couple hundred more.
Unhealthful Dieting
While it might be tempting to remove calories from your diet by missing meals or creating an enormous caloric deficit by eating an unbalanced diet of low-calorie foods, this type of dieting unhealthful and not usually sustainable. According to West Virginia University, people who skip breakfast are heavier than people who eat several meals a day. People who skip breakfast often eat large portions for lunch because their blood sugar is very low. Rapid weight loss, beyond 2 lbs. a week, can lower your metabolism and thyroid levels, making it significantly harder for you to lose weight. Diets that are too low in calories can make you extremely fatigued, develop gallstones and even cause you to develop an irregular heartbeat.
Yo-Yo Dieting
Most people on unhealthful diets, quickly lose weight but return to their prior eating habits because of the side effects from malnutrition. The weight is then quickly regained. This is called yo-yo dieting. It is unhealthful and unproductive, according to the Bloomberg School of Public Health at John's Hopkins University. Often the weight lost is muscle and the weight that is regained is fat. The net result of the yo-yo cycle is an overall gain in body fat and a worsened body composition. Sustainable weight loss is achievable but requires commitment and often several dietary and lifestyle changes. Weight loss, especially if you are far above your ideal weight, will significantly benefit you internally and externally.
Member Comments