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[P438]Plans For Weight Loss

by Paul Buckley, Pau

All right - that doesn't sound like much, especially if you're more than 25 pounds overweight. Study after study has shown, though, that those people who lose weight gradually - at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.

So how much exactly IS 500 calories? If you're going to reduce your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right? Here's how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:

Use milk instead of cream in your coffee. Savings? 50 calories per cup.

Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories

Drink fruit-flavored water instead of a 16 ounce soda. Savings? 200 calories

Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories

Pass by the bag of potato chips. An average snack size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories

Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear of corn has 85. Savings? 80 calories.

Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.

Love those fries and can't give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. Thin French fries absorb more oil than the thicker, meatier ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving

If you'd rather look at losing weight from an exercise perspective, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day. How easy is that to do? Take a look:

Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that's a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.

Get out your bike and take a ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories

Go dancing - and really DANCE. The longer you're out on the floor instead of at the table drinking up high-calorie drinks, the more you'll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories for one hour

Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl - if you can get up to an hour you'll be doing great! Burn: 510 calories

Get out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.

Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you'll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn: 800 calories

It’s important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. If you weigh more, you'll burn more. Want an added bonus to burning calories through exercise? When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. Three guesses which kind of body tissue burns more calories - even when you're not exercising. You got it - your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat.

For best results, mix and match food savings with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it's starving and slow your metabolism. Keep calorie ranges reasonable, and consult a doctor if you want a quicker, more drastic weight loss.

Before taking actions in any problem we encounter, there should always be a plan first. That is, if we want to come up with positive results. You wouldn't want to enter a battle without preparing how to defeat the enemy, would you? Attempting a task without planning is like building a house without a blueprint or playing against a basketball team without planed plays with your teammates. How could you expect a good outcome?

Weight loss is not at all different from the above mentioned plan-necessary situations. It also involves taking actions in proper ways that need to be perfectly planned in order to bring satisfying results. Here are the four key elements you will for making your weight loss plan a success.

Setting a Goal:

Okay, so your weight is somewhere around 20% above the considered normal for your height. You tend to eat more than 5 regular meals a day. You're certain that you're obese or at least overweight. Now, the question is, where do you want your weight to be?

Setting a goal is the first step in planning for weightn loss. Know what you want to accomplish. This way, the road you are taking is clear. You can keep track of your journey and whether or not you are going along in the right direction. With a goal in mind, you are always motivated to finish a task, or in some cases, to start doing it.

Be Definite:

Setting a specific goal when planning for weight loss improves your chances of success. You just need to be clear and definite with what you want to happen. Vague aims such as 'I'd like to be healthier' or 'I need to lose a few pounds' tend to produce half-hearted efforts and poor results. Instead, state your goal distinctly: 'I want to lose 1 to 2 pounds this week and every week' or 'I want to trim my waist line from 40" down to 38" by the end of the month'. If you need to, write it down and put it where you will always see and read it. This way, you'll always be reminded of what you want and need to accomplish by the end of the month, the week or even the day.

Be Realistic:

In establishing a definite weight loss goal, make sure that it is possible to accomplish first. How can a goal like 'I'll lose 15 lbs. in just a week' happen if all of the evidence presented by research suggests that you should only burn 1 to 2 lbs in a week? Goals need to be sensible so that they are within reason to be able to obtain. What happens when you set a goal and don't reach it no matter how hard you tried because it wasn't really achievable? You will only get depressed and disappointed which are two of the psychological causes of obesity. And the problem just becomes a vicious cycle with no end to it.

Strategizing:

After carefully defining a goal of what you want to achieve with your weight loss efforts and keeping it in mind, the next step is planning on how to accomplish it. Planning involves proper scheduling of activities to be done throughout the whole day for a certain period of time including exercises, meals, sleeping and waking. It comprises of the time these activities should be done, the duration and in the case of eating meals, the food to be consumed and what amounts. This way, inappropriate spur-of-the-moments decisions can be avoided.

A proper and effective weight loss plan consists of quality time for performing such activities. That is, allow enough time to meet the objectives correctly. For example, sleep should be scheduled to last for around 7 to 8 hours a day so that you'll be able to get enough rest. Lack of sleep may cause improper eating habits the next day.Again, plans should be relatively realistic. Include only time and activities you know for yourself you can accomplish for a given period of time.

Also, as you finish preparing your weight loss plan, you might want to write it down since you can't always remember when you're supposed to do each part of the plan. Post it in a place where you can always see and read it to remind you what your plans are for the day. Try your best not to skip anything in your scheduled plan so as not to ruin the effectivness of it.

Article Source : Weight Loss Products

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