Sunday, December 21, 2008

Key To Successful Weight Loss

By Jennifer King

Many people need to lose some weight, that's a fact. You only have to look at an average bunch of people and you will see someone who is overweight. You'll know there's a problem if you look in the mirror and someone who falls into this category is staring back at you. If you've set a goal to start losing weight there are a few things to keep in mind to lose it effectively and healthily.

The first thing most overweight people do to lose weight is start skipping meals. They feel it makes sense to start skipping meals to cut down on their calorie intake. Weight loss comes with eating less calories, right? That's correct but skipping meals isn't the right way to reduce calories. Your body goes into starvation mode when you start skipping meals.

Because your body is suffering a shortage of food it will start storing fat as a natural form of survival. Binge eating is another side effect of starving yourself, as when you do finally eat you'll eat more than you normally would. Skipping a meal plus binge eating, then, will likely result in eating more calories and the body gaining even more weight from those calories than normally. After binge eating when your skipping meals the next step is food cravings, which is something you don't want to start happening.

Knowing what to eat and how much is an important part of any weight loss program. You'll soon gain weight even if you eat too much of the right foods. It's hard to do when large portions are so common. Restaurants and even most people in home cooking serve portions far larger than needed. If you're eating out ( which is not a good thing to do when you're trying to lose weight ) keep your portion sizes in mind. It's difficult, but try and not eat the full portion when you're at a restaurant, or eat a salad instead of a heavy meal.

Eat more whole grain foods, skip the white grains such as white bread, sugar and white rice. Whole grains are lower in fat and higher in nutrients. They'll also make you feel fuller because of the fiber content. A lot of diets lack proper nutrition because of the consumption of too many refined ( white ) foods.

Consume more water. Drink it instead of juices and sodas which add about 90,000 calories to the average person's diet each year Drink it between meals too. The goal is 8 glasses of water each day. It's easily possible. Drinking water will also promote health in general by keeping you well hydrated and helping to avoid overheating.

Your body needs food every 3 hours to maintain proper blood sugar levels. You don't have to eat a big meal every 3 hours, you can snack on something healthy like fruit. Quick, healthy weight loss can be yours with some proper planning. Keep these things in mind and pretty soon you'll see a slimmer you when you look into a mirror.

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