You don’t have to bring back the past just to be happy with your weight. So, what if you no longer look the way you did when you were in high school or the same size as you were on your wedding day? For goodness sake, it’s been five or ten years since you last looked like how you exactly wanted to look like.
There’s no need to get down to the size when you were in your teens or prior to giving birth. Even if you’re overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight is already associated with a lot of health benefits, which include a lowering of blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar, as well as reducing your risk for heart disease.
In addition to the health benefits, this kind of weight loss is easier to attain and maintain. It also helps set you up for success in the long run.
According to Dr. Thomas Wadden, director of the Center for Weight and Eating
Disorders at University of Pennsylvania Medical School, just as the body temperature is programmed to stay around 98.6 degrees, body weight is naturally regulated to stay within a range of 10%-20. This weight range is known as the “set point.”
Aside from genetics, it’s the eating habits and exercise habits that also help to determine the set point. The complex set of hormones, chemicals, and hunger signals help the body naturally maintain the weight within this range.
Wadden said that overeating swamps the internal regulatory system, and, as a result, the set point increases, “which is much easier to do than it is to lower it. The body adjusts to the higher weight and ‘resets’ the set point to defend the new weight.”
It may be difficult to set a lower range but not impossible. Changes in healthy eating and exercise can help lower your set point. Maintaining a 10% loss for six months to a year helps your body adjust to the lower weight and thus reset the set point.
When you lose large amounts of weight at once, you set up an internal struggle and hormones like ghrelin spike to make you hungrier as your body tries to defend its comfortable range.
Instead, experts recommend that you try losing 10% the old-fashioned way, gradually changing eating and exercise behaviors, then maintain this new weight for a few months before trying to lose more. This will signal your body to lower its “set point” and allow yourself a chance to get used to new food choices, smaller portions, and regular exercise.
Patients who lose 10% start to realize how a little weight loss impacts their health in very positive ways. It makes them feel better, sleep better, have more energy or less joint pain. Some are even able to reduce medications.
However, when people overestimate how much weight they can realistically lose, they become frustrated. Forget trying to fit in to your prom dress or wedding gown. Instead of focusing on the numbers on the scale, set some behavioral goals: Eat breakfast every day, go for daily walks, eat more fruits and vegetables. These are easier to accomplish and they will make you feel good. Stick with these behaviors for 3-6 months and they will become part of your life.
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weight loss. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Refreshing Summer Diet as one of healthy lifestyle living
Diet is one of the habit of many people for their healthy lifestyle living. Summer is here and everyone is excited to wear not just their colorful flip flops but their skimpy bikinis and daring thongs to show off those hot bodies. Everyone wants to enjoy and to having muscle relaxant for there hot bodies. Speaking of hot bodies, many people are starving themselves on a wacky fad diet just to fit in those swimsuits. Come to think of it, weight loss is simply choosing healthy foods and taking in fewer calories than you burn. During summertime, it’s a lot easier to make better food choices because heavy, high-calorie dishes become less appealing. The hot season also keeps you out of the hot kitchen, that’s why.
Summer’s best foods are simply great for weight loss: they’re light and refreshing! Load up on nature’s bounty, whether fruits or veggies, which are at peak during summer. In addition to being low in calories, they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Delight on fresh melons and berries! Savor on cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, beets, all those produce that abound in the garden this time of year! When it comes to fresh fruits and veggies, you can forget about portion control!
To cut your staying time in the kitchen, prepare cut-up fruits and washed greens. When you need something a bit heartier, just add rotisserie chicken, prepared soups, and pre-threaded kebabs.
Here are some picks from experts and dietitians of the best summer foods to help with weight loss:
Chilled Soups – low-calorie soups like gazpacho or cucumber-dill that contain lots of chunky vegetables are a great way to start a meal. It is filling and can make you eat less at the meal.
Watermelon – Since almost half of the watermelon is water, it’s perfect in satisfying thirst and your sweet cravings.
Who doesn’t love diving into a crisp, juicy slice of watermelon when it's hot outside?
Grilled Veggies – this summertime must-have is great even for non-vegetarians! A plate of grilled onions, bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, eggplant, asparagus, and garlic in your fridge can make a variety of healthy dishes, such as grilled vegetable and goat cheese salads, grilled vegetable pitas, and grilled vegetable, ricotta, and fresh herb pasta and frittatas.
Salads – with no recipes required, salads make for quick, healthy meals. Make sure you rinse the veggies well, toss some sliced fruits, low-fat cheese, toasted nuts with a light raspberry or vinaigrette, along with a whole-grain roll for a quick, easy meal in minutes.
Flavor your salads with herbs from the garden so you can go light on the dressing. And when adding meats or fish to your salad, think of them as an accessory to the greens, vegetables, and grains.
Low- and No-Calorie Beverages – While smoothies, sweetened specialty coffee drinks, sweetened teas and sodas all go down so easily, especially when it's hot outside, the calories add up just as easily.
Since we need to drink lots of liquids to stay cool, these refreshing drinks and treats will help you enjoy this summer without blowing your diet:
• Root Beer or Orange Dream Float. 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt in 12 ounces of diet root beer or orange soda (100 calories)
• Tart Lemon Pom Spritzer. 12 ounces of lemon sparkling water mixed with the juice of 1 lemon and 1/4 cup pomegranate juice, served over ice (35 calories)
• Large Ice Skim Latte from Starbucks™ (130 calories)
• White Wine Spritzer. 5 ounces white wine mixed with 3 ounces lemon/lime seltzer water (120 calories)
Fruit-Based Desserts – Though you are on break from eating this summer, your craving are not. To replace those high-calorie desserts, opt for these naturally sweet treats that can tame the sweetest tooth:
• Grilled banana sundaes made with low-fat ice cream
• Grilled pineapple with rum and pecans
• Grilled white peaches with blackberries and honey
• Frozen, dark, sweet cherries
• A chocolate-covered frozen banana (such as Diana’s Banana™, with 130 calories)
• Frozen grapes
Summer’s best foods are simply great for weight loss: they’re light and refreshing! Load up on nature’s bounty, whether fruits or veggies, which are at peak during summer. In addition to being low in calories, they are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber.
Delight on fresh melons and berries! Savor on cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, beets, all those produce that abound in the garden this time of year! When it comes to fresh fruits and veggies, you can forget about portion control!
To cut your staying time in the kitchen, prepare cut-up fruits and washed greens. When you need something a bit heartier, just add rotisserie chicken, prepared soups, and pre-threaded kebabs.
Here are some picks from experts and dietitians of the best summer foods to help with weight loss:
Chilled Soups – low-calorie soups like gazpacho or cucumber-dill that contain lots of chunky vegetables are a great way to start a meal. It is filling and can make you eat less at the meal.
Watermelon – Since almost half of the watermelon is water, it’s perfect in satisfying thirst and your sweet cravings.
Who doesn’t love diving into a crisp, juicy slice of watermelon when it's hot outside?
Grilled Veggies – this summertime must-have is great even for non-vegetarians! A plate of grilled onions, bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, eggplant, asparagus, and garlic in your fridge can make a variety of healthy dishes, such as grilled vegetable and goat cheese salads, grilled vegetable pitas, and grilled vegetable, ricotta, and fresh herb pasta and frittatas.
Salads – with no recipes required, salads make for quick, healthy meals. Make sure you rinse the veggies well, toss some sliced fruits, low-fat cheese, toasted nuts with a light raspberry or vinaigrette, along with a whole-grain roll for a quick, easy meal in minutes.
Flavor your salads with herbs from the garden so you can go light on the dressing. And when adding meats or fish to your salad, think of them as an accessory to the greens, vegetables, and grains.
Low- and No-Calorie Beverages – While smoothies, sweetened specialty coffee drinks, sweetened teas and sodas all go down so easily, especially when it's hot outside, the calories add up just as easily.
Since we need to drink lots of liquids to stay cool, these refreshing drinks and treats will help you enjoy this summer without blowing your diet:
• Root Beer or Orange Dream Float. 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt in 12 ounces of diet root beer or orange soda (100 calories)
• Tart Lemon Pom Spritzer. 12 ounces of lemon sparkling water mixed with the juice of 1 lemon and 1/4 cup pomegranate juice, served over ice (35 calories)
• Large Ice Skim Latte from Starbucks™ (130 calories)
• White Wine Spritzer. 5 ounces white wine mixed with 3 ounces lemon/lime seltzer water (120 calories)
Fruit-Based Desserts – Though you are on break from eating this summer, your craving are not. To replace those high-calorie desserts, opt for these naturally sweet treats that can tame the sweetest tooth:
• Grilled banana sundaes made with low-fat ice cream
• Grilled pineapple with rum and pecans
• Grilled white peaches with blackberries and honey
• Frozen, dark, sweet cherries
• A chocolate-covered frozen banana (such as Diana’s Banana™, with 130 calories)
• Frozen grapes
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