Stay in shape after weight loss

With the healthcare industry coming up with newer programs and medications to aid the obese, people are also experimenting with different options to control their weight gain.

Overweight people try out different diet plans, diet pills, exercises, and they also join Weight Control Programs to lose their weight. They often succeed with their objective, but only to put it all back again once the dieting fever is over.

After significant weight loss, it becomes very important to pursue an exercise regimen strictly. Exercise is crucial to keep your muscles firm and helps tighten the skin. The diet plans must be followed even after losing weight. One of the biggest drawbacks to a substantial weight loss is the flabby skin that is visible and which often takes months to disappear.

The best way to maintain palpable weight loss is to keep on exercising daily as a routine. Daily work-out is an excellent way to lose weight and burn fat, improve fitness and boost energy levels. Jogging or walking is considered one of the best exercises for strengthening bones, controlling weight, and balancing your body. It stimulates the mind, increases self-esteem and a sense of achievement which can add a new dimension to your day.

How much your skin tightens depends on various factors: your age, length of time the skin was stretched; how much weight you lost (and to some extent how fast you lost it), and the amount of elasticity in your skin. Another contributing factor is the genes.

Regular work-out helps your body by tightening and toning up the skin and your muscles. It definitely improves and shows up on your appearance. For stomach, the best option is to maximize the metabolic rate. In trivial terms, metabolic rate is defined as “how fast we burn the calories we consume.” Our body burns calories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Our individual metabolic rates depend upon factors like whether we are at rest or we are active, and when we ate last. The way to maximize the number of calories we burn each day is not to give up sleep but to maximize our metabolic rate while we are active. Every study pertaining to weight control has laid stress on the fact that the people who are most active are most successful in sustaining weight loss. Most scientists agree that exercise is the single best interpreter of weight maintenance success.

An equally important way is to seek and encourage the support of friends and family. Include them wherever possible in the healthier aspects of your new life. Support is extremely essential for anyone with weight loss and fitness related goals.

Hence the baseline is to burn more calories than you consume, by either reducing your caloric intake, or increasing your daily activity as you lose weight; so by the time you get to your goal weight, you can keep it off with your activity.

The end result is a great start of long term weight-loss plan and a healthier you!

How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy

Weight control is a prevalent concern for many women after pregnancy. Although common during pregnancy, weight gain is difficult for many women to handle emotionally. Many women are unclear about how to separate fact from fiction concerning this "post-pregnancy" weight control. First of all, women need to understand how much weight gain is actually "normal" during pregnancy. Do try to keep in mind that your pregnancy weight wasn't gained overnight so it won't disappear that quickly, either. As a matter of detail, you gained that weight so that you would have plenty of reserves for feeding your baby.

Eat healthy foods. This really is unnoticed, though. Emphasize nutrient rich foods, which are not having too much fat. Avoid oily snack foods and so-called healthy foods like cheese and complete milk. Eat more fruits, vegetables, grains, pastas and beans and avoid red meat and salads laden with dressing. Try to build some outdoor activity into your day. In some way walk with your baby every day and try to get a jogging stroller added to your wish list. Sling makes carrying your baby more resourceful and burn more calories. Drink plenty of water. Avoid soda, cool drink and juice. Some foods are they were truly empty calories. Combining 200 fewer calories per day of higher fat foods that's just a couple portion of dressing or a piece of cheese with 20 minutes of a good walk with your baby will lead to exactly the weight loss and conditioning you want. Add in a little formal or informal yoga and stretching and you'll get there even sooner.

Weight loss after pregnancy can be slow and many new mothers find it difficult to continue a diet after having a baby. Babies do not recognize your desire to lose weight and regain your figure. As a result regular meals can be difficult. However, please avoid the fast or 'starve' yourself into regaining your pre-pregnancy shape. Stock up with healthy, filling, convenient snacks, like soups, low-fat pasta sauces, lean meats, whole meal bread and cereals, fresh vegetables and fat-free dairy products. There seems to be a myth that weight loss after pregnancy can only be successful if it occurs quickly. Somehow, many women feel that if they have not lost all the pregnancy weight by 1 year after delivery, something is wrong with them, they are not standard, or they have failed in some way. In fact, the truth is that weight loss after pregnancy can take a very long time, sometimes even few years, without signifying that something is wrong.

Gradual weight loss is the standard, not the exception, and the rate of weight loss depends on several factors, such as whether there were difficulties with the pregnancy or delivery. Pregnancy complications can make a woman feel weak with her mobility. Certain diseases like postpartum inflammation of the thyroid gland, which is a general complication that shows itself soon after delivery, can cause massive weight struggles if they are severe. Exercising every single day, even if that exercise is just walking, is an absolute must and the lack of exercise is what often holds up the process.

Consulting a dietician is a best way to obtain an individualized plan. The dietician will assess key issues like your food preferences, schedule. etc in order to create a customized individual plan. As well, while you follow the dietician's plan, you need to keep up daily exercise to optimize your weight loss. We are only human. Fast weight loss will not stay off, but rational weight loss will stay off. Weight loss will simply not be acceptable if exercise is lacking. This is true for many reasons; including that exercise helps to keep your body's metabolism from decreasing extremely while dieting.

How to Lose Weight After Pregnancy

Weight control is a prevalent concern for many women after pregnancy. Although common during pregnancy, weight gain is difficult for many women to handle emotionally. Many women are unclear about how to separate fact from fiction concerning this "post-pregnancy" weight control. First of all, women need to understand how much weight gain is actually "normal" during pregnancy. Do try to keep in mind that your pregnancy weight wasn't gained overnight so it won't disappear that quickly, either. As a matter of detail, you gained that weight so that you would have plenty of reserves for feeding your baby.

Eat healthy foods. This really is unnoticed, though. Emphasize nutrient rich foods, which are not having too much fat. Avoid oily snack foods and so-called healthy foods like cheese and complete milk. Eat more fruits, vegetables, grains, pastas and beans and avoid red meat and salads laden with dressing. Try to build some outdoor activity into your day. In some way walk with your baby every day and try to get a jogging stroller added to your wish list. Sling makes carrying your baby more resourceful and burn more calories. Drink plenty of water. Avoid soda, cool drink and juice. Some foods are they were truly empty calories. Combining 200 fewer calories per day of higher fat foods that's just a couple portion of dressing or a piece of cheese with 20 minutes of a good walk with your baby will lead to exactly the weight loss and conditioning you want. Add in a little formal or informal yoga and stretching and you'll get there even sooner.

Weight loss after pregnancy can be slow and many new mothers find it difficult to continue a diet after having a baby. Babies do not recognize your desire to lose weight and regain your figure. As a result regular meals can be difficult. However, please avoid the fast or 'starve' yourself into regaining your pre-pregnancy shape. Stock up with healthy, filling, convenient snacks, like soups, low-fat pasta sauces, lean meats, whole meal bread and cereals, fresh vegetables and fat-free dairy products. There seems to be a myth that weight loss after pregnancy can only be successful if it occurs quickly. Somehow, many women feel that if they have not lost all the pregnancy weight by 1 year after delivery, something is wrong with them, they are not standard, or they have failed in some way. In fact, the truth is that weight loss after pregnancy can take a very long time, sometimes even few years, without signifying that something is wrong.

Gradual weight loss is the standard, not the exception, and the rate of weight loss depends on several factors, such as whether there were difficulties with the pregnancy or delivery. Pregnancy complications can make a woman feel weak with her mobility. Certain diseases like postpartum inflammation of the thyroid gland, which is a general complication that shows itself soon after delivery, can cause massive weight struggles if they are severe. Exercising every single day, even if that exercise is just walking, is an absolute must and the lack of exercise is what often holds up the process.

Consulting a dietician is a best way to obtain an individualized plan. The dietician will assess key issues like your food preferences, schedule. etc in order to create a customized individual plan. As well, while you follow the dietician's plan, you need to keep up daily exercise to optimize your weight loss. We are only human. Fast weight loss will not stay off, but rational weight loss will stay off. Weight loss will simply not be acceptable if exercise is lacking. This is true for many reasons; including that exercise helps to keep your body's metabolism from decreasing extremely while dieting.

The 4 Secrets to Weight Loss Success

Weight loss plans come in all shapes and sizes. Some are fad diets that are too restrictive to follow more than a couple of weeks, while others are provided by professionals that make customized plans for us. All of them give us some guidelines on what we should and shouldn’t eat to ultimately reach our weight loss goals. No matter how many food plans we try, healthy or unhealthy, there are some fundamental things you must know in order to be successful in a weight loss program that, believe it or not, have nothing to do with food.

1. Readiness- Are you ready to make change in your life right now? How would you know? The reason many weight loss plans fail is because people are not truly emotionally ready for change. In order to have true lifelong weight loss you have to commit to trading your old habits in for a new, healthier lifestyle. This has more to do with readiness for change than a desire to shed pounds- there is a big difference. The good news is, as you start on the journey to change these old habits you will be amazed how much better you feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally. This is the place where the people who have experienced long term weight loss have entered and want to stay. When you are truly committed to changing your lifestyle you will achieve lifelong weight loss and so much more!

Ask yourself a few questions. Are you ready to make permanent dietary changes for you and your family? Are you ready to start exercising regularly? Are you ready to defend your new lifestyle changes to those who are undermining your efforts? Don’t fret if you aren’t completely ready to dive into change. This is the stage to keep up the learning process by reading articles and gathering information. You will know when the time is right and that will be when you answer an unequivocal “Yes!” to the above questions.

2. Developing a vision. When I ask people what their goals are for a weight loss program the answer is always, “to lose weight of course”, or “to lose x amount of pounds”. It is crucial to have another more, heart-felt reason to lose weight other than losing pounds and appearance. This is because when times are tough, and they will be during any change process, you will need a heart-felt or internal reason to lose the weight to keep you motivated. Losing weight for appearance is ok but it is an external reason and will not help to keep you motivated for long.

In the past my clients have chosen things like, being able to play with their kids, running a marathon, backpacking trip they have longed to go on for years, and a big motivator is often a health condition. I call this your vision. It is imperative to take a few minutes to learn what your vision is. What is important to you that you will be able to achieve with weight loss? Write this vision down and plaster it everywhere so you always see your end goal and it will always help to motivate you further when times are tough.

3. Self Talk – is yours negative or positive? Unfortunately it’s true that we are our own worst critics and like hearing any critic it often leads us to failure because we believe the critic is right. Furthermore, we start to believe things are true that are absolutely not true. For instance, if a child is told they are a klutz from an early age they will likely always think they are a klutz. We believe what we are told repeatedly.

What do you tell yourself? One common statement I hear a lot of these days is, “I can’t eat carbohydrates because once I start I can’t stop”. This is a belief that you have set up from constant defeating self-talk and once you believe it then no doubt you will act it out. However, there is no scientific reason why a person would not be able to stop eating after having a bite of carbohydrates. Your belief makes it your reality. So whenever you hear yourself say I can’t do something or any other self-defeating talk. Stop yourself and change the sentence to a positive. For example, I realize that carbs have been a challenge for me in the past but I can eat a portion and put the rest away for later. Keep working on your own positive reinforcement by being gentler with yourself and tell yourself all that you CAN do.

4. Be prepared for change. All weight loss programs require us to change a habit yet no one warns us about the process of change. The first thing to know is that the beginning of change is difficult and uncomfortable. This is because it forces us to get off autopilot and focus on our new behaviors. Luckily it takes about 21 days to make a new habit and the uncomfortable part goes away and our new habits become autopilot.

For example: Imagine you get your dream job and it requires that you have to get up at 5:30am. Yikes! You normally get up at about 7:30 am. So, what do you think will happen that first morning when the alarm goes off at 5:30? You aren’t going to feel so great and your body is going to beg you to get back into your warm bed! This will go on for about 2-3 weeks until your body stops fighting you and realizes this is the new habit. The same thing will happen to you when you change eating and exercise habits. Just expect a little resistance and keep going! Your new healthy changes will eventually become your new habit. You just have to keep at it.

How To Lose Weight Sensibly and Keep It Off

Who should lose weight? Health experts generally agree that adults who are overweight and have weight-related medical problems or a family history of such problems can benefit from weight loss. Some weight-related health problems include diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, or high blood sugar levels. Even a small weight loss of

10 to 20 pounds can improve your health by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Your body weight is controlled by the number of calories you eat and the number of calories you use each day. So, to lose weight you need to take in fewer calories than you use. You can do this by becoming more physically active or by eating less.

Following a weight loss program that helps you to become more physically active and decrease the amount of calories that you eat is most likely to lead to successful weight loss. A weight loss program should also help you keep the weight off by making changes in your physical activity and eating habits that you will be able to follow for the rest of your life.

To lose weight and keep it off, you should follow a weight loss program that will work for you. Three types of weight loss programs commonly used include: do-it-yourself, clinical and non-clinical programs.

Any efforts to lose weight by you or with a group of like-minded others through support groups, worksite or community-based programs fits in the "do-it-yourself" category. Individuals using a do-it-yourself program rely on their own judgment, group support, and products such as diet books for advice.

Clinical program may or may not be commercially owned. Services are provided in a health-care setting such as a hospital, by licensed health professionals such as physicians, nurses, dietitians, and/or psychologists. In some clinical programs, a health professional works alone; in others, services are provided by a group of health professionals. This program may offer services such as nutrition education, medical care, behavior change therapy, and physical activity.

Non-clinical programs may or may not be commercially operated, such as through a privately-owned weight loss chain. They often use books and pamphlets that are prepared by health-care providers. These programs use counselors (who usually are not health-care providers and may or may not have training) to provide services to you. Some programs require participants to use the program's food or supplements.

Other weight loss methods used to treat severely overweight patients include low-calorie diets, prescription weight loss drugs and surgery. If you are considering a weight loss program and you have medical problems, or if you are severely overweight, programs run by trained health professionals may be best for you. These professionals are more likely to monitor you for possible side effects of weight loss and to talk to your doctor when necessary.

The key to successful weight loss is making changes in your eating and physical activity habits that you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. The first step is to look at your eating and physical activity habits, thus uncovering behaviors such as television watching, that lead you to overeat or be inactive. Next you'll need to learn how to change those behaviors.

Your Weight Loss Problem

I don’t know anything about you but if you’re anything like me then you struggle with a weight loss problem. Your weight loss problem consists of you struggling to keep your weight down, or struggling to make your weight go down.

Most people who see me wouldn’t believe that I have a weight loss problem, but I do. I’ve battled bulimia and constant gains and losses in weight, of ten pounds each time. That’s what I call a big weight loss problem.

A lot of women and men with the same or a similar weight loss problem would sympathize with me I’m sure. I want to look good (who doesn’t?) so that always motivates me to go on a diet.

But after sticking to a diet for a week and dropping the unwanted weight my love for good tasting food overpowers my need to feel attractive and the weight piles back on pound by pound.

There is always exercise to help with a weight loss problem, I remind myself as I lie lazily on the couch chomping down on one of my non-diet treats. “Sure!” I groan “I don’t feel like wearing my butt out without seeing any results for weeks at a time.”

Whenever I start a workout regimen I only stick to it for a few weeks (usually less) and then I get bored and drop it. So my weight loss problem continues.

How many other women I wondered (or men, for that matter) get bored while exercising? I thought about that for awhile then I set about to find a solution to help all those poor people (and myself too, of course) with this weight loss problem.

First I asked myself: What did I like to do? What did I find Interesting?

“Hmmmm, well” I thought “I like dancing, but long periods of it are exhausting. I like to read, to listen to music, and I really dislike being on my feet for over long periods of time.

What could possibly combine all or most of these to make my exercising interesting and help solve my weight loss problem?

The solution to my weight loss problem was amazingly simple!

I own an old stationary bike, and I do mean OLD, but the important thing is that it operates. You can do this with any form of stationary bike, whether it’s a twenty year old model or an up to date model.

It doesn’t matter whether you own the stationary bike or use a gym’s or your local YMCA’s or YWCA’s facilities.

My weight loss problem solution is this:

Find something engrossing to read. It could be a novel or your favorite magazine. Or listen to music that you enjoy, you could even use audio books or any different CD’s or things you could listen to.

I suppose if your bike was somewhere around a television or computer with a DVD player, you could even watch your favorite movie.

The next step is to mount your stationary bide and start biking while reading or doing any of the above listed activities, and not to get off for at least 45 to 60 minutes, except for an occasional rest every quarter of an hour.

I usually just keep biking away the whole time and sometimes I bike longer because I’m so engrossed in what I’m reading, and I won’t allow myself to read it once I’m off the stationary bike.

After a week of this, without change in my eating habits, or any dieting, I’m maintaining a healthy weight. Best of all I’m not putting on any new pounds, and my legs look visibly slimmer.

So I've kissed my weight loss problem goodbye, and I'm saying hello to slim jeans and size 6 dresses, and you can too.

For the first time in a long while I actually look forward to putting on a bikini.

Aerobic Cross Training for Weight Loss

Do you sometimes get bored with your aerobic exercise? Do You sometimes feel like you're not getting the results you should from your aerobic exercise? If so, then aerobic cross-training is for you.

Aerobic cross-training refers to using two to three different types of aerobic exercise during an exercise session. For example, if you plan to exercise for 60 minutes, you might start with 20 minutes of walking or jogging, followed by 20 minutes of biking, and finish with 20 minutes of rowing.

Now, please don't get the impression that you have to be in great shape to do this or that it has to be 60 minutes long. You can start with something as simple as a ten minute walk followed by ten minutes with an exercise video. This is cross-training too. You can gradually build up from there.

Here are some of the exercises you can use in your cross-training program; walking, jogging, biking, rowing, stair climbing, swimming, exercise videos, etc. Any combination of aerobic exercises will do. You simply go from one to the next with very little time between them.

Aerobic cross-training is beneficial to you in several ways:

1. It provides variety which eliminates the monotony often associated with doing the same exercise for a long period of time.

2. If your exercise sessions are less monotonous and more enjoyable, you are much more likely to exercise more often and for longer periods of time.

3. You are less prone to over-use injuries that sometimes occur from doing the same exercise movements over and over again.

4. You tone more muscles because you are using more muscles. For example, walking tones mostly the lower body muscles and rowing tones upper body muscles also. Even exercises like walking and biking that both tone lower body muscles, tone them at different angles and each tones some small muscles that the other doesn't.

5. Aerobic conditioning is very specific to the muscles being worked. For example, you can walk ten miles a day and still be somewhat breathless after climbing stairs because you haven't trained the muscles for that specific movement. Aerobic cross-training allows you to develop more comprehensive aerobic training.

6. Aerobic cross-training is effective for weight loss because your are toning and training the fat-burning systems of more of your muscles. It turns more of your muscles into 24-hour fat-burning machines! You are also more likely to exercise on a regular basis and for longer periods of time. this also promotes weight loss and fitness.