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Proven Ways to Lose Weight

The best way to lose weight and keep it off is through healthy eating and regular exercise. While fad diets can help you lose weight in the short term, they can be unhealthy and are rarely permanent weight-loss solutions. To lose weight and maintain your fitness, you need to burn more calories through exercise than you take in through eating.

  1. Reduce Calories

    • To lose just 1 pound, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you eat. There are a few quick and immediate ways to reduce your calorie and fat intake. One way is to lower the amount of sodium (salt) in your diet. Sodium leads to water retention, which causes short-term weight gain. Another good strategy is too avoid sodas, a large source of empty calories. One regular can of soda consists of 150 wasted calories, and the body converts the excess sugars contained in sodas to fat. Drink water or tea instead. You also should avoid eating fatty meats, including beef. The body requires protein, and beef is a great source for that, but consuming beef that is high in fat is bad for your health. Buy beef that is at least 90 percent lean, and your cooked portion size should not be larger than 3 ounces.

    Strength Training

    • A good strength training program will help increase your metabolism. The idea is not to bulk up but to burn calories. The way to accomplish this is to lift light weights with a high repetition count. Light weight can be classified as something that fatigues the muscles after 12 consecutive reps. When you are able to complete 15 or more reps with ease, it's time to increase the weight. This type of workout will create lean muscle tissue and tone the body. The major benefit after one of these workouts is that the body still will burn a large amount of calories over the following 24 hours. This time frame of calorie burning includes sleeping and periods of inactivity. The body requires time to breakdown the muscles and rebuild them, and the muscle rebuilding process requires energy, which comes from calories and fat.

      Types of exercise that can be performed are squats, bench presses, push-ups, leg raises, tricep pull-downs, crunches, lunges and military presses. You should complete a strength building program two to three days per week for 20 to 40 minutes per session. Never do strength training on back-to-back days. You need at least 24 hours between workouts for the muscles to recover.

    Cardio

    • Another way to burn lots of calories is through a regular cardio program, activity that you can perform for an extended period of time that will raise the heart rate. Some basic activities you can do include, but are not limited to, running, walking, swimming, cycling, racquetball or machine training with an elliptical trainer. You should only undertake activities that you are physically able to do. When selecting your cardio program, do what you enjoy. If you hate to run, for example, don't; your dislike of running will lead to inconsistency, causing you to stop the program. Perform your chosen cardio exercise for 20 to 60 consecutive minutes. Do some cardio activity from three days per week to every day, depending on your ability and fitness level.

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