The Best Way To Lose Weight is

Posted by Wendy on April 29th, 2008 at 09:47pm

The best ways to lose weight is with a healthy diet and a regular, sustainable exercise program - but you knew that already - didn’t you?

A recent Gallup poll indicated that 31 percent of American women between the ages of 19 and 39 are on a diet at least once a month and 16 percent consider themselves perpetual dieters. The overall recidivism rate for weight loss today is more than 90 percent. That means that fewer than 1 out of 10 dieters are able to keep the weight off.

Despite the metabolic effects of yo-yoing, failed dieters should not lose heart. It doesn’t mean you throw in the towel - it just means you diet sensibly and knowledgeably with healthy diet plans, easy weight loss programs and sustainable exercise plans.

And, more significantly, it means you put as much effort into maintaining your new weight as you did in reaching it. Unfortunately, that is not what most struggling weight-watchers really want lo hear.

It’s not as exciting to keep the weight off as it was in losing it. There’s not as much motivation, but you have to learn to change your behavior permanently.

I learned from personal experience. At 15 I weighed almost 200 pounds. I followed a career in nutrition and some continual work at changing my attitudes about food have helped me lose weight and keep it off.

Weight management is not a temporary thing. If you want a different weight you have to change the behavior that is supporting your current weight. That means changing the way you think about and behave around food as well as changing what you eat.

But behavior change is easier said than done. Many people are willing to make changes to get the weight off, but then go right back to the lifestyle that they had before, or it creeps back over the course of several months.

Our society prefers a quick fix. Even though it took you 10 or 20 some years to gain 30 or 40 pounds, you want to learn how to lose weight fast and have the results pretty much right away. And to have that we are prepared to sacrifice our health by embarking on unhealthy low-calorie rapid weight loss programs.

But the best way to lose weight is a slow and healthy diet in which you lose only 1 to 2 pounds a week. This way your body adjusts to your decreasing weight in a slow manner so you don’t lose muscle mass.

Just as important as your diet is a regular exercise program. Not only does it help preserve your metabolic rate allowing you to burn more calories, but it encourages your body to use up fat rather than muscle tissue as you lose weight.

Exercise becomes even more important as you age because your metabolic rate slows down naturally as you get older. In addition your body produces a higher percentage of fat cells than muscle cells the older you get. The good news however, is that regular exercise works to inhibit both of these natural processes.

So the best way to lose weight really is a healthy diet program coupled with a regular exercise program that you can (and will) stick with.

Tags: best way to lose weight, exercise, Healthy Diet