Is There a Best Way to Lose Weight?

What are some of the best ways to lose weight? Crash diets that promise to take off big pounds in the short term, usually don’t work. Worse yet, they are not the best way to lose weight. After a period of strict dieting or a fast, people think they can go back to their old eating habits. They do that and pretty soon, those lost pounds come back. The best way to lose weight is also the best way to keep the weight off. The healthiest and most effective way to lose weight is to make changes in your diet and your exercise routine. Once you get over the initial “breaking in” period on a change in diet and exercise, you will find it’s feeding on itself. You eat better and exercise. This means you are building muscle. Your metabolism will change and you’ll burn more calories, losing weight. The continued exercise program helps you build more muscle….and so forth. You get the idea.

You can change your metabolism to burn calories faster. The first is increased exercise. The other is to simply eat smaller meals during the day. If you make changes gradually, they will be more effective and become more and more a part of a healthier life style. How do you do this? You sneak up on your metabolism. For example, park in the spot farthest away from your office or store. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. When you take a break a work, take a short walk.

When you go to eating smaller meals, make them all special. If you do that, you’re going to look forward to six small meals rather than three full ones. Did you know that when you eat three meals a day, your body gets into a feast-famine way of handling your food. Your metabolism ramps up and then ramps back down after every meal. You’ll end up converting some of your food to fat to make up for those times you’re not eating. A steady intake of food prevents this.

Each small meal doesn’t have to be a miniature version of a “regular” meal. You can divide your lunch sandwich into halves, eating one half at lunch and the other for a mid day snack. You can find a number of snacks that are healthy and only contain a few hundred calories.

Maintaining a balanced diet means there’s nothing really “forbidden”. Every once in a while, eat some of everyone’s favorite anti-oxident as a snack – dark chocolate. If you allow these treats into your diet on a reasonable and regular basis, you do not develop a mind set of deprivation and end up consuming an entire bag of potato chips in one sitting.

Eating a balanced diet that is low in calories but still includes some of your favorite treats will work to take the weight off and keep it off.