If you are ready to start losing weight, so that you look sexier and healthier then the best recommendation anyone can give you is to develop an understanding of the simple solutions to lose one pound a week.
Understanding how to lose one pound a week will help you build a foundation for additional healthy weight loss.
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Everyone with a goal of losing weight usually wants to lose it right now or lose more weight than is realistic over a short period of time.
Start out learning how to lose one pound a week and use that as your foundation for additional ongoing weight loss.
An online or offline journal or notebook can be a crucial tool for helping you achieve your weight loss goals.
This tool will allow you to keep track of what you eat, the number of calories, the exercise you performed, and how you were feeling that day.
An excellent option is creating a simple online blog for your own personal use and each day posting the details about how your diet and exercise plan went for the day. An online blog also gives you easier access to diet, exercise, and weight loss forums. These forums will be full of members that are trying to lose weight, maintain their weight or have successfully lost weight. They can be a valuable and motivating resource when trying to brainstorm new and different diet options, ways to exercise, and encouragement to help you stick with your plan.
If you do nothing different to change your activity level on a day to day basis and decrease your calorie intake 500 calories you will begin to experience weight loss. Depending on how much you are currently eating daily you may find that is too much of a decrease in caloric intake for you to stick with comfortably. The same rule applies if you decrease your calorie intake 250 calories per day and continue with the same activity level; however, this will only give you about one half pound of weight loss per week.
The next step is changing your activity level so that you begin to burn enough calories to achieve that one pound of weight loss per week. If you have decreased your caloric intake 250 calories then all you need to do is increase your activity level enough to burn 250 calories per day if you want to lose one pound weekly.
What activity do you have to do to burn the 250 calories?
The first step is looking at your current activity level and finding ways to become more active without it interfering with your daily routine or creating more stress in your life.
Anything that disrupts your day, adds to the time you spend away from your family, or affects doing things you have a passion for will ultimately increase your daily stress level. This added stress will increase your odds of not sticking with your weight loss plan, so make sure that whatever you do to increase your activity level fits in with your current routine and mindset. Going to the gym to workout is a great option, but if it consumes 1-2 hours out of your day that you need to complete other daily task and family time it will not be long before you are making excuses not to go.
Walking is one of the simplest ways to increase your activity level.
Walking for one hour per day will burn approximately 200 calories per hour, depending on how fast you walk.
If your job requires you to primarily sit during the day, then start getting up and walking around during breaks and lunch time. Consider taking the stairs coming into work, during your lunch hour, and when you leave to go home. Park further from the main entrance of your work location if you can still safely walk to and from work. This simple change in your activity level will start burning the calories that are keeping you from losing one pound per week.
The success and failures with most weight loss plans stems from not having the discipline to stick with the diet or motivation to start exercising and keep exercising to achieve your weight loss goals.
If you want to be successful at weight loss then developing an understanding of how we gain and lose weight and then implementing this knowledge will help you stay on track with your weight loss plan. Instead of quitting out of frustration you will be more inclined to stick with your diet and weight loss program, because you know that with time you will begin to see the pounds drop off. This will improve your self esteem and boost your motivation to stick with the weight loss program.
If you are going to be successful with a diet program you must also learn how to pick the right foods, how to prepare the right foods, how often you should eat, why exercise is a must, how much exercise, and what kind of exercise is appropriate to help you reach your goals.
An important step before you even change what you are eating for each meal is to look at how you have been eating.
Do you find that you may only eat once or twice per day.
Do you find that you only eat once per day, but the meal is high in calories.
Do you find yourself eating three healthy meals per day, but tend to cheat between meals with unhealthy snacks that are high in calories and fat?
The critical issue is to be honest with yourself, so that you can take the steps necessary to make small changes in how you eat to help improve your success with losing weight and becoming more healthy.
When you have taken an honest look at how you eat, then make a commitment to eating 5-6 small meals per day. This will keep your metabolism boosted for ongoing burning of fat and the calories you consume. This concept should not create a sudden sense of panic, since you are probably eating a similar number of times per day if you honestly account for all the snacks eaten throughout the day. We are just modifying something you are already doing and making it healthier to help boost your metabolic rate for more optimal fat burning.
There are foods that need to be removed from the diet in order to lose weight and to maintain health.
The foods high in fat and fried foods should be the first items eliminated or decreased from your diet. These fatty foods are deposited in the fat stores of the body and will keep you from losing pounds and inches.
Decrease your intake of dairy products that have significant fat content by buying low fat milk, such as 1 percent or 2 percent milk.
Start eating foods high in protein such as whey, lean beef, chicken, tuna, turkey, salmon, and eggs. Eating foods high in protein will help boost your metabolism and rebuild muscle that is broken down during your weight loss exercise routine.
The fatty acids in the fish are beneficial for a healthy diet and will help improve the strength of your bones, teeth, nails, and hair.
Be attentive to avoiding snack foods with significant fat content or high in calories. Eating fruits or vegetables for snacks is a healthy approach and will give you better control over your calorie intake.
Foods such as nuts, seeds, and flax oil are great sources of the essential fatty acids that your body needs to function properly. Eating the nuts and seeds as a snack instead of chips or other unhealthy snacks will keep you moving towards your healthy weight loss goals.
Drinking adequate water is essential for optimal health and weight loss. If you try to drink at least eight 8 ounce glasses of water daily it will keep you well hydrated and feeling full, so you are less likely to give in to those cravings for unhealthy high calorie and high fat snacks. Adequate hydration of the cells and organs of the body is necessary for proper functioning and to help get rid of the bodies waste products.
Adding a good multivitamin to your diet will help replace the needed nutrients you may have been missing as a result of your previous dietary habits.
In this fast paced multitasking world we all want results now. Procrastinating on weight loss and better health can leave you frustrated or suffering from chronic medical problems such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes and possibly death.
Trying to lose 10-20 pounds over a short period of time and keeping it off frequently leads to unhealthy habits and frustration when you regain all the weight that you lost. It is not very good time management if you lose a significant amount of weight each time you diet, but end up still weighing the same at the end of the year.
Depending on your current weight you have the potential to lose 52 pounds this year instead of experiencing the yo yo effect you may have during previous attempts at weight loss.
It does not matter if you are morbidly obese or just wanting to drop a few pounds for the beach or a friends wedding, beginning right now take a step back, take a deep breath and focus on learning, understanding and implementing a simple solution to lose one pound a week.
Your success each week will boost your self esteem and motivate you to keep following this simple diet and exercise for weight loss routine that will have you looking sexier and healthier for years to come.
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A Simple Diet And Exercise Plan To Lose One Pound A Week
Go to http://LoseOnePoundAWeek.com for great information on how you can lose one pound a week. Dr. Curtis McElroy is a physician with an interest in health, wellness, fitness.