Before embarking on any diet or exercise program, let us clear the cobwebs and get to know the basics. There is so much information about obesity and weight loss, we get overwhelmed and confused. Each specialist advocates his or her own version of how to lose weight and if we are to blindly follow all the weight loss help, we are sure to get even more discouraged at the lack of progress.

The basics for any program’s success can be summarized as controlling our input and output. Input of calories from food varies and depends on our menu. Red meat, butter, ice cream, soft drinks give us more calories than fruits, vegetables, fish and water. To reduce the intake of calories, we can take more fish and less of red meat, more fruits in place of ice cream and water instead of soft drinks. Let us garner all the weight loss help we can, including low fat recipes and supplementary nutrition.

The extra weight also puts a strain on our internal organs, including hearts. That is the reason for more overweight people getting heart attacks compared with lean and trim ones. But why should we reduce our calorie intake? It is to avoid adding fat to our already obese bodies. An input of 3500 calories gives us a pound of fat for our body to carry around.

Ah, now we begin to see the sense behind all those programs on dieting and how to lose weight. They are simply different roads to reach the same destination. Consult your doctor and chose whichever program appeals to you. The program is only a roadmap and we have to make the effort to travel all the way and not give up in the middle.

Let’s face the other side of the issue. Controlling, or rather increasing our output of calories. Ideally, we should expend all calories we ingest else, the surplus calories are stored as fat by our body. As we are already overweight, we should expend more calories than we take in, so that fat is converted back as glucose by our body to meet the requirements.

Here again, let us check with our physician before we start on any plan. Ways to make exercise fun are many, including exercise bikes, inversion tables and multi-gyms for homes. Just as there are several diet programs to control our intake, there is equal number of exercise programs to increase the outgo of calories.

Results will be better if we take up programs for both intake as well as outgo, to increase the chances of our success. Yeah, now we see the best answer to the question of how to lose weight. Come hell or high water, we now only need to stick to them till we achieve what we aimed for. Let us wish each other good luck!

Before starting on a dieting or exercise program, it is better to know the basics. Fruits, water, vegetables and fish contain fewer calories than red meat, ice cream, soft drinks or butter. Nutrition supplements and low fat recipes have the same underlying concept of controlling the input of calories. Any calories that are not spent end up as fat in the body and obesity puts a strain on our internal organs. Exercise programs are great helping you lose weight as they reduce fat stored in our body. The answer to the question of is a regimen of diet and exercise, carried out with discipline.

- J Boda

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Filed under: Fitness • Food • Health • Weight Loss

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