Many of us are on a quest to lose weight. According to polls,
approximately 40% of all women are on a diet at any given time.
Yet, overweight and obesity continue to be one of our nation's
leading health problems. Consider these statistics:
* 58 Million Americans are overweight; 40 Million are Obese; 3
Million are morbidly Obese
* Eight out of 10 people over the age of 25 are overweight
* 78% of Americans don't meet basic activity level
recommendations
* 25% are completely sedentary
Being overweight is more than just a vanity issue, too. There are
serious health risks related to being overweight. And, the higher
your weight climbs, the more health complications you're at risk
for. Some of the most serious weight related health risks
include:
* Type II Diabetes
* Heart Disease
* High Blood Pressure
* Cancer
To maintain your health, it's critical to get your weight under
control. We all know that diet and exercise are the key
components of weight loss and maintenance, but many of us have
become discouraged because we have tried and failed many times.
So, rather than following the same diet steps that failed you
before, why not try a new approach this time? There are many
things we know today about dieting that we didn't know years
ago. Here are some ways you can make weight loss and maintenance
come more automatically, so that you can keep the weight off for
good.
Exercise Right
We all know that exercise is important to weight loss. However,
many of us think of exercise in terms of simply burning calories.
And, while aerobic exercise is important for burning fat and
calories and for helping maintain a healthy heart; we now know
that weight training is just as important.
In addition to spending 30 minutes doing aerobic exercise most
days of the week, you should also add weight training to your
exercise plan. It doesn't take hours; 3 20 minute sessions a
week is enough for most people. Weight training helps build
muscle. This is important because muscle burns more calories,
even at rest, than fat. So, if you can increase the amount of
lean muscle in your body, you'll speed up your metabolism,
burning more calories every day- even when you're not
exercising. This is a critical part of weight loss and weight
maintenance. Many of us work hard to reduce the amount of
calories we ingest when we really should be working harder to
increase the number of calories we burn. Significant calorie
restriction doesn't work well over the long term, so we
shouldn't make it the core of our weight management program.
Watch What You Eat
For years we've been programmed to watch how much we eat.
However, it's more important to concentrate on eating the right
foods than it is to simply cut calories. Here are some
substitutes you can make that will help you lose weight without
feeling hungry.
Cut out white flour and replace with whole grains - White flour
is processed by the body just like sugar, so for many of us it
packs on the pounds. Eating 100% whole grain breads and pasta
instead of those made with white flour will help you lose weight.
In addition, you'll be adding fiber to your diet, which is good
for your overall health.
Cut out processed foods - You can speed weight loss by eating
unprocessed foods. In particular, foods containing anything
"hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated" are enemies of weight
loss and heart disease. Another villain to watch out for is "high
fructose corn syrup". This is a sort of artificial "super sugar"
that really puts on pounds. These ingredients are used by food
manufacturers to increase shelf life, but they are very bad for
our bodies. By buying natural unprocessed foods like fresh fruits
and vegetables and fresh meats, you can eat in a way that's more
healthy overall as well as helpful to weight loss.
Watch the Sugar - Sugar also makes it easy to gain weight. Many
people have no idea how many calories they consume through
sweetened beverages like sodas. Even juice has a lot of calories
from sugar. And, while juice is healthy and contains vitamins,
you'd be far better off getting those vitamins from a piece of
fresh fruit instead of a glass of juice. You get more fiber and
less sugar.
Add foods that help burn calories
It's just as important to eat foods that speed calorie burning
as it is to cut out foods that put on weight. Here are some
things to add to your diet to help speed weight loss.
Green tea - Replace those sodas (even if they're diet) with
green tea. Green tea is full of anti-oxidants, which can help you
stay healthy overall. Green tea has been shown to prevent serious
illnesses like heart disease and cancer when it's part of your
regular diet. In addition, green tea's combination of
anti-oxidants and caffeine speed up the metabolism in a way that
other caffeinated beverages cannot. Research has shown that
people who drink green tea burn more calories in a day than those
who do not consume it. Green tea is available in many forms,
including bottled varieties for convenience.
Raw vegetables - Most raw vegetables require more calories to
digest than they actually contain. So, munching on celery,
carrots and broccoli will actually burn calories.
Cinnamon and hot peppers - Both of these spices are known to
speed up the metabolism. Add a sprinkle of cinnamon to your
coffee or tea, and add hot pepper to meals.
Making simple changes in your lifestyle and diet that you can
maintain for the long run are important steps to weight
management. This time around, spend less time worrying about how
much you eat and more time consuming the foods that can help you
lose weight automatically.
* http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/70/6/1040
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Marcus Stout is President of the Golden Moon
Tea Company. For more information about tea,
(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea)
green tea (http://www.goldenmoontea.com/blacktea)
and black tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com
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