Lose Weight and Fat!

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Gaining Weight is Too Easy!

Gaining weight is easy, especially for those who are no longer twenty-somethings. As you get older, metabolism slows down--it's normal, it's natural, and not easy to control. However, with a little diligence on your part, you can stop fat gain and start the process of losing fat you have previously gained. It can be a simple as a change in lifestyle.

Activity and Portion Control

The two most important lifestyle changes conducive to fat loss are activity and portion control. One without the other might help you lose fat, but it won't keep it off. That requires a more comprehensive lifestyle change. Often people try fat loss products and lose weight and fat only to have pounds and flab rebound on them when they stop using them. This can lead to the erroneous belief that they cannot lose weight. This is a myth--losing weight is a process of planning and implementation. To overcome this myth, plan ways to add activity to your life, plan meals and, at least until it becomes second nature, measure portions to ensure you do not overeat.

Ways to Add Activity

Simple ways to add activity to an already busy schedule are walking 20 minutes a day or more, washing dishes at the sink instead of popping them into the dishwasher, sweeping the kitchen floor every night before going to bed, making up the bed in the morning instead of leaving it rumpled (even though you will be sleeping in it again at the end of the day), parking farther from the shopping center door to increase distance walked, or even standing at your desk three or four times a day and stretching.

 While by themselves these activities might not make a difference in your overall weight, they can help you feel better. Put together, the incremental changes add up to calorie and fat burning movement.

See your physician before

starting any exercise program
 or before making
drastic changes to your diet.

Walking

Walking is the best way to lose belly fat, even walking for a short period of time. It is more important to get started, than to try to walk a mile or so in the beginning. Many people just starting a fat loss program have trouble walking to the mailbox and back. If you are one of them, walk to the mailbox and back twice today, three times tomorrow, and four times the next day. Incremental changes are the most effective way to lose excess fat.

One company requires data entry workers to take a ten minute break twice a day and do stretches as a group. The goal of the company is to help reduce repetitive stress injuries. A happy result was that some individuals toned up a bit and lost a few pounds of fat--enough to show what just a little exercise can do for the body.

Portion Control

Portion control is more than just calorie counting. It requires an understanding of how much a portion is, and how to measure it. Some foods, especially store packaged foods, have a portion of one, while the package contains two or more portions. Small cookie and chips packages are examples of this. Individuals purchase the item and consume it, not realizing that they have just eaten enough of the food for two or more people.

Portion control also has to do with the combination and quantity of different foods on the plate. Eating only all carbohydrates or all proteins is not healthy, yet that is what some people eat. One person was observed eating two dinner rolls, a large helping of potato salad, a macaroni casserole, and cake. The little amount of meat in that amount of casserole probably did not weigh more than half an ounce. Basically, this person ate a full plate of carbohydrates--metabolically the equivalence of more than a cup of pure sugar!

Reach Your Goals

Small steps will lead to fat loss. Walking and fat loss go hand in hand--walking is vital in any weight loss program. To burn fat quickly, you will have to add weight training and more strenuous aerobic exercise to your activities. Start slow and build up little by little until you reach your fat loss goal.

For your safety and health, it is imperative to see your physician before starting any exercise program or before making drastic changes to your diet. Be safe, be healthy, lose fat and flab, keep it off, and be happy!