A Smart Guide to Losing Weight the Right Way

Weight Loss

What Does Sustainability Have to do with Weight Loss?

Do you know what the hardest thing is about losing weight? Your first guess might be calorie counting or exercise, but that’s not it. The most difficult part of any weight loss strategy is sustainability.

A healthy lifestyle requires a commitment, something you can follow for the rest of your days. That is how long you will work to keep that weight off, so whatever plan you choose needs to be about making changes not just eating less. Those changes will include a combination of a smart diet, regular exercise, and a disciplined lifestyle. Losing weight the right way is the only way to stay healthy and keep those pounds off, but where do you start?

Have a Realistic Diet Plan

Fad diets take you down a dangerous path. Many promise and deliver fast weight loss, but the only way to sustain it is by creating a reduced calorie diet that is nutritionally balanced.

Weight loss is essentially a math game. You need to burn more calories than you eat daily. When you do, your body uses fat to make up the difference. Extreme low-calorie diets will do this but it comes at a cost. When you deprive yourself of the nutrients your body needs, you become malnourished and sickly.

The more malnourished you are, the slower you burn calories. Your body can only survive so long without proper food, so eventually, you start eating again. When you do, your body reacts by storing calories as fat in case you get malnourished again and you gain weight.

The number of calories you eat is important, but balancing them to create the proper mix of macronutrients is just as critical. You need the right combination of:

  • Protein
  • Carbohydrates
  • Fat

By creating a balanced meal plan, you make every calorie count.

Get Busy Burning Calories

Exercise is the second half of an effective weight loss plan. Between 20 to 50 percent of your caloric needs comes from physical activity. Everything you do burns calories, including breathing, but exercise helps you burn more.

If you think of your body as a furnace, calories are the fuel. If you never turn the furnace on, the calories just sit there. Exercise is how you turn your furnace on and get it burning. Regular exercise lowers your risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain kinds of cancer, too.

How much exercise do you need? The average adult needs at least 150 minutes of moderately-intense exercise a week. If you enjoy exercises that are more intense like jogging, Zumba or cycling, that number drops to 75 minutes. The more exercise you do the better, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Working with a fitness trainer is an especially good way to explore new exercise options and find routines that you can love enough to keep doing.

It is the combination of a balanced diet plan and plenty of physical exercises to burn those calories, so you can sustain a healthy weight for the rest of your life. Contact TexasFITT in Arlington, Texas today and get started on your journey to weight loss and optimal fitness!