According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, more than seventy percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. (1) Carrying too much weight in itself is hazardous to our health, contributing to illness and disease. It happens as the result of several factors, many of which are within our control. We’ve found some tips for losing weight that may help to painlessly shed excess weight.
Maintaining a proper weight is important for feeling your best and prolonging good health. Getting to your ideal weight is best achieved using a committed multi-faceted approach without stressing about it too much.
Losing weight is a simple matter of burning more energy than you consume. Changing what you eat plus increasing or maintaining activity levels work in tandem to make the pounds melt away.
Why Lose Weight?
Obesity is a contributing factor for life-threatening illnesses, such as:
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular disease
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Liver disease
- Neurological dysfunction
- Respiratory problems
- Stroke
Obesity also correlates to other conditions that affect your quality of life, like:
- Circulatory problems
- Depression
- Joint pain
- Sleep disorders
When faced with knowing we are overweight, the idea of dieting will cause even the most passionate to shiver. Following are some tricks for losing weight to make the task less daunting. Painless, even. A few simple changes can make a tremendous difference.
17 Steps to Losing Weight
Losing weight is a big lifestyle commitment, so the more you know, the better it’ll be. Read on to find out how to melt fat and feed your body what it needs.
1. Consider a Low-Carb Diet
Complex carbohydrates are broken down into simpler sugars that feed your cells. What isn’t used for energy is stored as fat.
To achieve and maintain weight loss, limiting carbohydrates reduces the amount of sugar that can be stored in your fat cells. Eating more proteins and healthy fats to replace excess carbohydrates are more filling and take longer to digest, which can help keep blood sugar stable and prevent you from over-eating. This is the easiest healthy, efficient, and sustainable way to start losing weight and keep it off.
In a study of resting energy expenditure, it was found eating that a low-carb diet speeds your resting metabolism. Therefore, you use energy more efficiently and evenly. (2) Weight control by changing what you eat rather than focusing on caloric intake is more effective than fretting about how many calories you ingested at lunch. Most people following a low-carb diet fill their plate with fresh produce instead of grains, bread, and pasta.
Here’s a breakdown of their guidelines (3):
- 40 grams of net carbs a day
- 6-8 servings of vegetables daily (totaling 15g net carbs)
- 3 servings of protein (4-6oz per serving)
- 3 servings of added fats (1 tbsp each)
- 3-5 servings of other carbohydrates (5 net carbs per serving/ totaling 25g of net carbs)