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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Top 10 Ways To Lose Weight

By Renee Carter


Dieters spend upwards of $30 billion per year on commercial weight loss products, and yet the obesity epidemic has not taken a turn for the better. In fact, although they’re making an effort to lose weight, women have become fatter than ever before.


Is it because most weight loss remedies are only temporary, or is it because many overweight people expect immediate results and give up when they don’t lose weight by the next day? The answer probably includes a bit of both.

There’s no doubt that taking off the weight is less fun than putting it on, but by making minor changes in your daily life, you will lose weight and reap the benefits within weeks.

Lose weight tips #10
Eat a big breakfast

Most women I know tend to eat very little in the morning and eat progressively more and more throughout the day. You’re objective should be to eat a big breakfast to fuel your body so that you feel full and energized for the entire morning.

Let me guess - you never feel hungry in the morning, right? Well that’s probably because you eat so much at night that you wake up feeling full. But if you eat more in the morning and less during the evening, you will wake up feeling famished.

And because you’ll feel full for so long, you won’t want to pack in the food during lunch and dinner, nor will you want to snack on everything in the house at night.

So what constitutes a “big” breakfast? A boiled egg, a bowl of natural oatmeal with walnuts, cinnamon and raisins (if you can’t stand oatmeal, go for a sugar-free cereal), a fruit or fresh juice (no sugar), and a cup of coffee or tea.

Lose weight tips #9
Cut out 500 calories a day
By removing as little as 500 calories from your daily diet, you will lose one pound per week without exercising (1 pound = 3500 calories). Don’t confuse calorie-restriction with starving, however…

If you usually eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then skip it and opt for a salad (without dressing) instead. Put down the candy bar and pick up carrots instead. All of these small changes will have a big impact on your weight loss.

Lose weight tips #8
Keep junk food out of the house

Most of us can’t resist junk food; it’s fast, it tastes great and you can eat it with your fingers. But the bad thing about junk food is that it eventually shows up on our hips and thighs.

The easy solution is this; you spend all day faced with candy bars and hip-thickening foods at work, so the last thing you need is to come home to the same temptations. Your best bet would be to keep all junk food out of the house. After all, if it’s not in the house, you won’t be able to eat it.

Lose weight tips #7
Cut salt out of your diet

Salt can be found in most foods we eat, so adding more to your meals is not helping your waistline.

Salt’s synonyms include baking soda, baking powder, MSG, and soy sauce, and whenever you use any of these ingredients in food, you are not only going to end up retaining water, you will gain weight, and it’s usually not just because of the salt itself.

Most salty foods tend to be high in calories, low in fiber and processed. By vowing to cut salt out of your diet, you will stop retaining water and avoid foods that contain a lot of salt (most of which are bad for you anyway).

Lose weight tips #6
Switch to low-fat

Most dieters think that skipping meals will help them lose weight, and it sometimes does. The problem, however, is that your body thinks it’s starving and the minute you go back to eating the way you usually do, your body will store those calories because it thinks that you might starve it again.

So rather than skip meals, which will only slow down your metabolism, opt instead for the low-fat options of the foods you enjoy so much. Just don’t fool yourself into believing that because it’s low-fat you can eat double the amount.

Lose weight tips #5
Replace fat with fresh
Typical snack foods include chips, chocolate and candy; they’re convenient and readily available almost everywhere you go. But now that you’ve decided not to bring junk food into your house, purchase fresh fruits and vegetables instead.

When you get home, place some carrots into individual plastic bags, and remove some grapes from their stems and place them into bowls. This way, when you head to the fridge in search of snack, you can opt for something with negligible calories that needs no preparation.

Lose weight tips #4
Cut out sodas

Do you know how many calories a large soda contains at a fast food restaurant? Almost 300. That’s 300 useless calories going into your system. And diet sodas are no better because sugar substitutes don’t allow your body to feel full; possibly making you eat more than necessary.

And if you tend to drink a lot of soda, imagine how many calories you’ll be saving by switching to water instead? That alone will help you lose about a pound per week.

Lose weight tips #3
Write down what you eat

Although I thought it a dumb idea to write down what I eat, when a dietitian insisted that I try it for just one week, only then did I realize that I really wasn’t eating as well as I had imagined.

By writing down what you eat, you will figure out when you eat the most, and when you eat the worst. If I was depressed, chocolate or ice cream was there; if it was the weekend, you could bet that I was eating some sort of decadent dessert.

If you have to write it down, you will have to hold yourself accountable and if you want to stop eating garbage, the only way to train your brain to start taking initiative is by showing it what you’re really ingesting on a daily basis.

Lose weight tips #2
Drink water

Water. Most women don’t realize it, but when you’re in the mood for something but can’t quite figure out what it is, or when you feel stuffed but are in the mood to eat some more, it’s quite possible that your body is actually thirsty.

The next time you think you’re hungry at an inappropriate time, down a full glass of water instead and wait a minute. If you don’t feel satisfied, then it’s possible that you are hungry, but we commonly mistake thirst for hunger.

Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water every day (if you weigh 150 pounds, you should be drinking about 75 ounces of water, or approximately 9 glasses of filtered or spring water each day), and you will begin to notice a difference in your skin, your weight and your mood.

Lose weight tips #1
Buy a pedometer

Do you have any idea how many steps you take each day? Well, if you drive to work and work in an office, chances are you probably don’t take more than 4,000. The average woman should be taking at least 10,000 steps each day.

I strongly recommend that you purchase a pedometer and go about your regular day to see what you have actually been doing up to this point. If my assumptions are correct, you will need to step up your activity by doubling your steps.

It will become a fun game and you’ll want to take the stairs, park your car further away and even go for a walk at lunch, all because you want to meet the 10,000 march mark.

Before you know it, you’ll feel healthier and will make walking a part of your everyday routine.

Lose weight in a week

If you expect to drop 10 pounds in a week, then you have an unrealistic outlook on what it takes to lose weight and keep it off. Your objective should be to make permanent lifestyle changes rather than temporary ones.

A healthy weekly weight loss is about 1 to 3 pounds per week (it may be more dramatic if your body is carrying around a huge excess and your habits have not included any of these 10 tips thus far).

The aforementioned tips don’t require any special equipment or behaviors, but they can help you reach your goals in due time.

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