General Information

Diet, Exercise and Losing Weight Losing weight and keeping it off requires a combination of changing eating habits and regular exercise. To change your eating habits, eliminate those foods especially high in fat such as bacon and processed meat and eliminate all visible fat on meat. Cut out rich sauces and gravy, butter, ice cream and nuts. A diet consisting of broiled lean meat, steamed or boiled vegetables and fresh fruit will not only help you lose weight but is better for your body and general good health. It may be necessary to cut the quantity of food you eat in order to lose weight as well as maintain your target weight. Exercise is an important part of a weight loss program because it speeds up the body's ability to burn fat. Eventually, exercise will speed up the body's metabolism and you will burn fat faster whether you're actively engaged in exercise or not. Remember to start slow, exercise for 20 minutes two or three times a week. After performing at this level for a few weeks, increase your workout to 30 minutes, eventually building up to four times a week. Once you begin your fitness program, stick to it. You'll find your mind as well as your body benefits from keeping in shape.

Safe Weight Loss

One word a person who has started a new diet is sure to hear often is -- calories. Calories are the unit used to measure the amount of energy in food. It takes a certain amount of calorie intake each day to retain an energy level. When you are trying to lose weight, you'll need to decrease the amount of calories to between 1200 and 1600 per day. One pound of body fat equals 3500 calories. In order to lose weight, you'll need to incorporate exercises into your diet program. Exercise will help you burn excess amounts of calories varying from 1 to 5 calories per minute depending upon the exercise. By keeping track of calories as you eat, and maintaining a regular exercise program, you'll soon be on your way to a healthier body.

Hazardous Weight Loss

Crash diets are dangerous because they often push the body to near starvation. In this condition, the body begins to use muscle and bone tissue to supply it with nutrition. So, at the end of the diet, the weight loss may reflect muscle and bone loss instead of the fat you had hoped to lose. As soon as the diet ends, and you begin eating normally, the body begins to store fat to keep it from having to turn to muscle for energy again. Crash diets can lead you down a long road of disappointment and bad health. When you are serious about losing weight, see your doctor. He or she will provide a program of diet and exercise that will lead you to the result you want.

Types of Diets

Today's society has placed such an emphasis on being thin that dieting has become a way of life for many people. It's extremely important to follow a safe diet in weight reduction. The safest and most effective way to reduce weight is to adopt a nutritionally balanced, low calorie diet while increasing your level of physical activity and modifying eating behavior. There are many types of diets available. A dieter may follow meal plans from public health clinics, hospital dieticians or nutrition techs. Another approach is to follow a commercial plan or join a non-profit weight loss organization. Both of these options offer support groups to assist dieting difficulties and emotional health. Most of these groups offer a sensible approach, nutritionally sound diets, behavioral modification techniques, and a moderate physical exercise plan. Many fad diets bring immediate weight loss but much of what is lost in the first days of the diet is water weight. People on these diets will probably lose flesh, but over long periods of time, these diets do not provide sufficient amounts of important nutrients. Before beginning a diet plan, check into its nutritional value. Thoroughly research all diets, especially those involving liquid protein, special food combinations, or the premise that enzymes in fresh fruit burn off fat.

Fighting Cravings

Often, food cravings stem from habit or boredom. You may not be hungry or you may actually want something besides food. Try to understand what the craving is actually for, and look for something healthy to satisfy your craving. For example: if you're craving a sweet, try fruit. The natural fructose (fruk -tos) will satisfy your sweet tooth. If your cravings are based more on habit than hunger, try to replace the habit with something more productive or healthy. For example: if you feel a need to have a mid-evening snack every night, try exercising instead. Get your mind off of the need for satisfying the craving. If you are overcome with a craving for a particular food and nothing else will satisfy, go ahead and eat a small portion of the food. Otherwise you may end up eating large portions of other foods in your quest to satisfying the craving.

Dieting Tips

A successful weight control program involves a combination of diet, exercise, attitude and behavior. Here are a few tips to help you achieve your weight control goal and keep your program more interesting. Try new variations of your old standbys. For example: try tuna salad mixed with grapes or raisins or bananas on raisin toast. Eat vegetables raw or steamed to retain the fiber and vitamin benefits. Park your car far away from the door of your office or when you are shopping, use the stairs instead of an elevator. Plan a specific exercise around your schedule. Try and form an exercise group with your friends so you can socialize while you exercise. Recognize your stress factors and learn how to reduce this stress in ways other than eating. Keep a positive attitude and self image by focusing on your current successes.

Drugs

Safe and Effective

Weight Loss - Safely - Effectively

There are no secrets or new developments in how to lose weight. You must take in fewer calories each day than you expend or burn. There are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, and in order to lose one to two pounds a week, you must eat 500 to 1000 calories less per day than you did before you started the weight loss. Whenever caloric intake is decreased, and weight loss occurs, the body will tend to first burn protein, or actual muscle mass for energy, and then fat. This can only be prevented by greatly increasing the daily intake of protein. This increase with also insure that comfort and energy levels are maintained. To deal with hunger that occurs when the number of calories is decreased, an appetite suppressant medication can be prescribed. This medication should be used only under the supervision of a qualified physician. Diet pills are frequently not enough as they will produce a 10 to 15 percent weight loss. To reach your goal, a supervised diet or less than 1200 calories may be needed. An important factor in maintaining a desired goal weight is involvement in a formal physician supervised program that helps you make permanent lifestyle changes. A good program can help you to be successful and not fall into the 90 to 95 percent group that regain their weight in one or two years.

Obesity

Obesity - Disease or Habit

The truth is out. Obesity is a chronic disease. Dr. C. Everett Coop, and other national experts just issued guidelines for obesity treatment urging physicians to take obesity seriously as a chronic illness. Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in this country. It affects over a third of the adult population, and 20 percent of teenagers. In addition to being a health risk itself, obesity caused or aggravates many other chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, adult onset diabetes and heart disease. Obesity is defined as being 20 percent or more over ideal weight -- about 30 or 40 pounds. Unfortunately, many physicians and the general public aren't convinced that obesity is a disease. They still feel that overweight people just have to eat less and exercise, and they will be fine. The cause or causes of obesity is still unknown. Much research is now being done and there are many studies that indicate that our genetic make-up plays a major role. However, our lifestyle is also important. Fast paced society leads to a decrease in exercise and increase in the eating of high fat foods. Treatment of this chronic illness is still difficult and because it is chronic, lifetime treatment is needed. Physicians interested in the treatment of this disease offer a multidimensional program that helps the patient not only with safe weight loss, but also with long term maintenance of that weight loss.