How To Lose Weight

Roughly one-third of the population of the United States is considered to be obese. While some individuals choose to lose weight for cosmetic purposes, there are underlying health concerns which should be addressed. Obesity is in the top two for leading causes of death in the U.S. because it places individuals at a significantly higher risk for heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular ailments which can include strokes. It has also been proven that being overweight and inactive considerably increases the risk of diabetes which is the sixth leading cause of death. With this in mind, whether it is through diet, exercise, weight loss products or a combination of the three - it has become vital to understand how to lose weight.

Weight Loss through Diet
  Sometimes minor dietary changes are all that is needed to provide significant weight loss over time. Consider the fact that in order to lose one pound it is necessary to cut back on approximately 3600 calories. It is quite possible to lose one pound per week from dietary changes alone by eating roughly 515 fewer calories per day. That might sound like a lot but sometimes minor adjustments can facilitate that quite easily. One chocolate bar is equivalent to 500 calories or more and the amount of oil and/or butter consumed in the course of the day can quickly add up to 900 calories.

Snack Healthy
Learning how to lose weight with healthy substitutions is an effective way to diet. A small snack size bag of potato chips is at least 500 calories and that's not accounting for the dip. It is imperative to find all the hidden fats that most of us are totally unaware of. If you are going to consume products such as chips, always substitute baked chips for fried chips and find a fat-free alternative for dip – in which case salsa is perfect. Some people enjoy rice cakes that are low in calories, fat free and come in an assortment of flavors. Condiments are another source of hidden calories that are often overlooked. Mayonnaise, for instance, is made from whipped oil and egg. Many people fail to account for all that fat when slathering it onto their low-fat turkey sandwich on whole grain bread. If you are one who likes to have a chocolate bar or cake now and then, consider fresh fruit instead. Even if that seems too boring, use fat-free whipped toppings or fat-free yogurt on the fruit to make it more appealing.
 
Abstain from Refined Sugars and Starches
There are plenty of carbs that fall into the low glycemic index which can be safely eaten in moderation. Most whole grain products, although high in carbs, are composed of healthier, low glycemic, slow burning carbs. Cook with brown rice instead of white rice and use buckwheat noodles (soba) in place of pasta which has little nutritive value which results in wasted calories. Most importantly, the best advice for how to lose weight and improve overall health is to increase the daily intake of dietary fiber. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli are extremely low in calories and high in fiber. Not only does fiber keep foods moving through the intestines, fiber is also proven to absorb a certain amount of fats before they can be absorbed through intestinal walls, to be stored by the body. That is exactly why high fiber foods are considered to be heart- healthy foods.

Weight Loss through Exercise
Some individuals find that they are eating the appropriate amount of calories that should enable them to stay within a healthy weight range; however, for some unknown reason they are overweight. That unknown reason is probably a lack of physical activity. Learning how to lose weight through exercise highly depends on a person's level of fitness. There are plenty of activities that could easily allow them to lose a pound a week, even if caloric intake remains the same. In order to understand how to lose weight through exercise, it is important to calculate the calories expended per hour for any given exercise. For instance, a 190 pound person who is totally out of shape could walk at a slow pace for an hour and burn approximately 216 calories. That's a good place to start.
A daily walk after dinner would account for a loss of about 2 pounds per month from that added activity alone. Walking at a slightly faster pace puts the calorie consumption up to 300 per hour. Leisurely swimming burns an average of 516 calories per hour and general dancing burns 388 calories per hour for that 190 pound person. As levels of fitness progress, exercises can be increased to burn calories much more quickly. It is always important to remember to slowly and safely build up to more taxing exercises when out of shape. When learning how to lose weight through exercise, one should always begin with activities that are within their level of fitness. For a more systematical approach, consider signing up with a local gym and get a trainee to design a program for you.

Weight Loss Equation
Understanding how to lose weight usually means that it is necessary to make dietary alterations along with adding exercise to the weight loss regimen. Dietary supplements can significantly speed up the process by providing the extra energy to increase activity as well as the ingredients to help to curb appetite. That being said, dietary supplements of any kind are there to “supplement” a plan of action and should never be relied upon as a singular means to lose weight. An effective weight loss equation would involve combining all of the above methods to create a program that is both practical and exciting while being completely effective. Remember that the body loves routine and that consistency is the key to success.
                 Because  "HEALTH IS WEALTH"