Weight loss: What Do I Have to Do?

The simplest way to take off unwanted pounds is through basic arithmetic: take in fewer calories than you burn each day and the weight comes off.

However, weight loss isn’t always that simple. If “eat less, exercise more” doesn’t seem to be working for you, you may need to pay closer attention to the details of nutrition.

Metabolism
Metabolism is the rate at which nutrients are used by the body as energy. Think of your metabolism as your body’s furnace. The furnace needs fuel to produce heat, and the hotter it gets, the more fuel it uses. If you are taking in too few calories, your body’s metabolism slows down to conserve energy. Moving your body creates heat, which burns calories.

Stoke Your Furnace Every 4 Hours
When you wake up in the morning, your body is at its resting energy expenditure. To get the furnace going, you need to give it some fuel. That’s why eating breakfast is such an important part of a healthy diet.

The furnace also needs regular fueling all day long to keep burning at its optimum rate. Give your body quality energy to keep it going – healthy snacks and meals, with the occasional indulgence. Make a point of eating something every four hours to keep your metabolism humming. When you start to get that starved feeling, your metabolism is already slowing down to compensate for the lack of fuel.

Balance and Portions
Review the Food Guide Pyramid and see how your usual diet stacks up. Make sure you are eating enough of all the food groups. Nothing is forbidden on the food pyramid – but some foods must be eaten sparingly for best health. Too much sugar and fat contribute to the body’s fat storage, so keep an eye on where these high-risk foods are entering your diet.

At the same time, watch your portion sizes at all meals and snacks. We tend to “supersize” everything, but it’s not difficult to reduce all portions by one-quarter to one-third without feeling deprived. On packaged foods, pay attention to the serving size listed on the label and try to stick with a single serving. If you eat out, split a meal with a friend, have half the meal boxed up, or order sauces and dressings on the side so that you can control the amount of fat on your plate.

Exercise and Monitoring
You didn’t think you were going to get through this without exercising, did you? Cardiovascular exercise burns stored fat, especially when you work in your optimum heart rate zone.

Don’t neglect strength-training, which is critical for maintaining healthy bone density and builds muscle. Strength-training also boosts your metabolism, helping your body burn more calories even when it’s at rest.

Stretch your whole body every day to keep your muscles flexible and stimulated. (This is a great way to take a break in the middle of the afternoon!)

As you build muscle, don’t forget that muscle weighs more than fat. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t see much change in the numbers on the scale. How do your clothes fit? How strong do you feel? It can help to have a body fat analysis done quarterly to track the changes in your body fat percentages.

You already know all the benefits of exercise, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat them: In addition to helping you manage your weight, exercise can help manage other health conditions, stress and your overall mood.Some things don’t change. You still need to take in fewer calories than you burn to lose weight. To lose a single pound of fat, you need to burn 3500 calories. It's that simple!