Setting reasonable goals and making healthy lifestyle changes is crucial to successful weight loss. Weight loss should be accomplished gradually --- meaning it requires dedication and patience. Routine exercise combined with a well-balanced, low-fat and nutritious diet can set you on the path towards achieving your weight-loss goals. Consult your doctor before beginning any new weight-loss program.
Fundamentals to Weight Loss
Medical professionals typically recommend that individuals aim to lose around 1 to 2 pounds per week depending on their current weight, the Mayo Clinic notes. Therefore, the ideal time frame for a 20-pound weight loss three to five months. Rapid weight loss slows your metabolism, which ultimately contributes to equally rapid weight gain. Sustainable weight loss is achieved by making healthy lifestyle changes rather than through quick and unhealthy fixes.
Diet
Your diet is essential to effective and sustainable weight loss. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. Using the nutritional information on the packaging of foods you consume, determine how many calories you're currently consuming. Then, noting that 3,500 calories equals 1 pound, aim to cut 500 to 1,000 calories each day --- through diet, exercise or a combination of both --- to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, the Mayo Clinic suggests. Your diet should be rich in fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains while limiting your intake of fatty, salty, high-cholesterol foods.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Cardiovascular exercise not only supports weight loss, but also helps you to keep the weight off. Cardio exercises elevates the heart rate to levels which support maximum calorie and fat burning. Performing 30 minutes or more of cardio exercise each day supports weight loss and promotes muscle growth, definition and toning. Effective forms of cardio exercise include running, bicycling, jumping rope and kickboxing. These exercise can help you burn more than 500 calories per hour, the Mayo Clinic calculates.
Weight Training
Weight training not only builds muscle, but it helps build stamina and endurance that can give you a boost in your cardio workouts, too. As you increase your body's muscle mass, you increase the rate at which your body burns calories --- helping to further support weight loss. Performing 30 minutes of weight training with resistance machines and free weights following a cardio workout can help promote faster, healthy weight loss. Before beginning a weight-training regimen, be sure to learn the proper technique and always stretch to avoid injury; don't weight train on consecutive days to give your muscles time to recover properly.
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