Single Best Way to Lose Weight

With the obesity problem that we face in America and the superficial society that we live in, it seems that everyone wants to lose weight. As a result, everybody wants to know what the single best way to lose weight is. Although it seems that there is no single answer to this question and there are hundreds of diets and tips that claim to be the best, there is in fact a very simple answer. The single best way to lose weight is the one that is most healthy and the one that you will be able to maintain.

Dieting

• The most important step to being on a diet is speeding up your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism helps convert fat to muscle, burn calories and provide extra energy. One of the ways to increasing your metabolism is to eat more often, but in smaller portions. Do not skip breakfast or meals in order to cut down calories. Although it is true that your overall calorie intake usually needs to decrease, it does not mean you need to starve yourself. On the contrary, you need to keep yourself from being both hungry and full. This is done by eating from six to eight small meals a day. A snack is considered a meal. Thus between every hour to two hours a day, have a small meal. This will keep you satisfied throughout the day, prevent you from over indulging during a single meal, and speed up your metabolism. An example of a small meal is half a turkey sandwich, or a cup of yogurt and a banana. Besides keeping the meals small, you should also cut down on foods that are high in sugar and trans or saturated fat. Most people are aware of what is healthy and what is not. It is important to keep the meals healthy. However, do not deprive yourself of your cravings. Once a week, it is OK to have a small unhealthy meal that you most enjoy to help prevent you from breaking from the otherwise healthy lifestyle.

Exercise

• The best way to increase your metabolism, burn fat and gain lean muscle is to exercise. Lean mass helps speed up your metabolism, which helps speed up your weight loss. Aerobic exercises such as running, swimming and biking help burn off fat calories as well as speed up your metabolism for up to eight hours after you stop working out. It is important to exercise regularly and to do it at an intense level. Although doing aerobic exercises for a long time at a static pace is good for burning fat, doing high interval training is in fact the best way to lose weight. This involves rapidly speeding up your heart rate by going as hard as you can in small intervals while resting or casually walking in between sets. As always, consult a physician before participating in any high intensity training program. Because regular aerobic exercises can get boring, find a sport or activity that you like that forces you to be active. This will help you maintain your goal of loosing and keep your weight off. Lastly, do not ignore resistance and weight training. One of the most common mistakes that people make is they only do aerobic exercises, incorrectly believing that weight training does not get rid of fat. Weight and resistance training build lean muscles, which burns off fat and speeds up your metabolism. A combination of weight training and aerobic exercises is the best way to increase your metabolism and lose weight.