How to Achieve Healthy Weight

Your body weight is controlled by the number of calories you eat and the number of calories you use each day. So, to lose weight you need to take in fewer calories than you use. You can do this by becoming more physically active or by eating less. Following  a weight-loss program that helps you to become more physically active and decrease the amount of calories that you eat is most likely to lead to successful weight loss. The weight-loss program should also help you keep the weight off by making changes in your physical activity and eating habits that you will be able to follow for the rest of your life.

 

 

Weight Loss Programs

Principles of Healthy Weight Loss

• Follow sensible and healthy guidelines for eating and physical activity for achieving and maintaining healthy weight.
• Excess weight is caused by an interaction of genetic (inherited) and environmental (social and cultural) factors, which include metabolic (physical and chemical) and behavioral (psychological and emotional) components. Because of the complexity of weight loss, gain, and maintenance, women need to understand that a quick and effortless weight loss is worthless.
• As sedentary lifestyle is a significant barrier to successfully maintaining weight loss and preventing further weight gain, it is important to add more activity in your daily routine.
• Losing weight requires burning more calories than the body takes in, by either reducing caloric intake or increasing caloric expenditure, or preferably, both.
• Remember, achieving and maintaining even a modest amount of weight loss can reduce the severity of illnesses associated with obesity.
• Medical, pharmacological and surgical interventions may be options for women with more serious cases of overweight and obesity. These interventions, used in conjunction with a plan for healthy eating and physical activity, should be utilized in conformance with applicable treatment guidelines.

Maintaining Weight After Weight Loss

Once you have achieved a healthy body weight what lies ahead is effective weight management, which involves behavior modification which is a lifelong commitment and includes at least two components:

• Healthful eating in accordance with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, emphasizing a reduction in total calories, a lowered fat consumption, and an increase in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and
• Increased frequent and regular physical activity of at least moderate intensity.

The Risks Associated With the Fad Diets, Dieting and Other Weight Loss Products.

A diet designed to promote healthy weight loss promotes a weight loss of no more than two pounds � or one percent of total body weight/a week. Medical authorities recommend that losing weight at such a rate reduces risk of health problems that have been associated with more rapid weight loss (greater than three pounds per week). Some people may lose weight at a slightly higher rate. However, a rapid weight loss of more than two pounds a week is unhealthy and should be avoided.

 

Fad diets that ignore the principles of the Dietary Guidelines may result in short term weight loss, but may do so at the risk of your health. How you go about managing your weight has a lot to do with your long-term success. Unless your health is seriously at risk due to complications from being overweight or obese, gradual weight loss should be your rule � and your goal. 

 

Many women look for quick and easy solutions to their weight problems. They find it hard to believe in this age of scientific innovations and medical miracles that an effortless weight-loss method doesn't exist. 

So they succumb to quick-fix claims like "Eat All You Want and Still Lose Weight!" or "Melt Fat Away While You Sleep!" And they invest their hopes (and their money) in all manner of pills, potions, gadgets, and programs that hold the promise of a slimmer, happier future. Some pills may help control the appetite, but they can have serious side effects. (Amphetamines, for instance, are highly addictive and can have an adverse impact on the heart and central nervous system.) Other pills too, are utterly worthless. 

 

Any claims that you can lose weight effortlessly are false. The only proven way to lose weight is either to reduce the number of calories you eat or to increase the number of calories you burn off through exercise. Most experts recommend a combination of both.

 

There is no product available NOW OR IN THE FUTURE that substitutes for proper diet/exercise techniques. If you remember this, you've learned more than 95% of the people who are currently pursuing physical improvement. KNOWLEDGE IS KEY!