Eat Right And Exercise
For Long Term Weight Control
Some ladies opt to take drastic and risky measures in their quest to be thin including liposuction or taking the drug phen-fen. Why take risks when there are three realistic methods for you to lose weight. They are:
1) Eat less or change your diet to include healthier food choices.
2) Incorporate exercise into your lifestyle.
3) Eat right AND incoprorate exercise into your lifestyle. While each of these three options is a safe choice, only option number three ensures long term weight control.
Eat Less Or Change Your Diet To Include Healthier Food Choices.
The most appealing option about diet alone is that although it does require some willpower, it doesn't require any physical effort - you just eat less or make different choices of what you do eat. Some people can lose as much as 8 - 10 pounds during a 5 day fast or crash diet. Sounds good doesn't it. So what's the problem with diet only? Of those 8 - 10 pounds, less than 20% is fat loss. The remaining 80% is water and muscle. Muscle loss is what slows down your metabolism, thus you burn less calories. This means that when you go off of your crash or fad diet, your body will be more likely to store the additional calories as fat. The end result is that you gain back the 8 - 10 pounds and more. Additionally, crash dieting can leave you feeling deprived and in some cases can lead to health problems.
Incorporate Exercise Into Your Lifestyle.
This is what it boils down to. If you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight. It takes 3500 calories more than your body can burn, to gain one pound and likewise, it takes 3500 calories burned to equal 1 pound of weight loss. Now lets figure it out. Most people burn about 300 calories during one hour or fast walking or jogging. Do this 7 days a week and you'll lose a little over a ½ pound, provided that you don't eat something extra or drink a sports drink to compensate for the additional effort you expended while jogging.
While aerobic only exercise programs can work for some, they often leave you
with that fat-skinny syndrome. You look thin, but you're still
flabby. Be sure to incorporate strength training into your exercise routine.
Eat Right AND Incoprorate Exercise Into Your Lifestyle.
Researchers have found that over a three-month period of time, serious dieters lost an average of 18 - 20 pounds and serious dieters who also
strength trained lost about 22 - 24 pounds in the same period of time. Not overwhelming differences but here are the benefits.
In long term studies, almost 90% of women who dieted and also did a combination of strength training and aerobic exercise kept weight off long term.
Only 30% of those who relied on diet alone kept their weight off.
The key is including strength training, not just aerobic exercise. Strength training, like aerobic exercise does burn calories, but the lean muscle mass that you build while doing
strength training use more calories than body fat uses. So even when you are not working out, your body will burn more calories
24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Since muscle is denser than fat, you may actually put on a pound or two as you begin your strength training program, but don't worry. One pound of muscle takes up less space
than one pound of fat, so you will look trimmer, firmer and the inches will come off.
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