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Dieting – Things You Need to Know

According to statistics, more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lot of factors – stress, excessive eating, high sugar and high carbohydrate intake, alcohol intake, etc.

Since being obese or overweight poses a threat to one’s health, dieting is very important if you want to have a healthy body. Following a healthy diet can also help you to prevent; eliminate or minimise the effects of conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, among others.

Dieting simply means lowering one’s intake of unhealthy foods, eating more healthy foods or following a specific diet program for the purposes of losing weight or for the purposes of minimizing the effects of various health conditions such as gout or hypertension. The reduction in the amount of unhealthy food intake can do wonders in terms of weight reduction if done on a regular basis and coupled with exercise.

Some specific foods can help you become healthier and enable your body to fight diseases – and consumption of these foods is therefore recommended. Although there are various diets that are designed to help the body heal naturally from certain conditions or minimize the effects of various conditions – diets for the purposes of losing weight are the most popular diets.

There are a lot of popular diet regimens in the market today all promising to make a person lose from 2 to 10 pounds per week, depending on the person’s motivation to succeed. Some of these diets require low sodium intake, some require zero carbohydrate intake and others only allow the person to eat fruits and vegetables.

Regardless which diet one may choose, the most important thing to do before starting the diet is to know why a person wants to lose weight. Is it for health reasons or to boost their self esteem? Once that is established, one has to realize also what their weight is, what the healthy and ideal weight is, and start working to reach that goal.

Crash dieting is not something that a sensible person would want to get into. Sure a person sheds off weight quickly but they will also gain it all back, even more, if they do not have the discipline needed to keep the weight off. Crash dieting is not recommended by health professionals as well because it slows down the person’s metabolism and those who go into it usually experience hypoglycemia due to very little or no food intake at all. Some who have been doing crash diets for a long time may become anorexic, a psychological problem some people have which makes them feel they are still overweight even if they are only skin and bones.

Dieting should be a natural and healthy experience for everyone who wants to shed off the pounds and become healthy. Losing weight should actually be part of your lifestyle – what you eat, how you eat and your levels of activity should all be considered when you start on your goal to become slender and healthier.

Dieting does not have to be destructive and depressing and it does not have to mean giving up food. Dieting the right way will not only make a person achieve his or her goals of becoming leaner and healthier, it will also allow a person to live longer and enjoy life without the hassles of getting sick.

Diet and Exercise – Two Ways to Lose Weight Efficiently

Dieting is a word that has become very popular in the 21st century. Having slim and lean physiques is now very trendy and is considered healthy, while being overweight is now being put in a bad light and is considered unacceptable. Being overweight also makes a person prone to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and others.

Dieting first became popular during the 1980’s when the aerobics era was popularized by Jane Fonda, the so-called aerobics queen of the 80’s. People want to lose weight for fear of being treated as outcasts by society, and the best way to do it is through dieting.

Unfortunately, most people go for crash diets which is not advisable. Crash diets may help a person lose weight quickly but the weight is also regained almost right away since people who go on these types of diets go back to their old, unhealthy habits of overeating once they felt they have lost the weight they needed to get rid of. It then become a vicious cycle and pretty soon that person will end up miserable, frustrated and still overweight.

The most popular diets found on the internet are the Atkins Diet, Grapefruit Diet, and Low Carb diets. All these diet programs promise to get rid of the excess weight and keep them off. The one thing they all failed to mention is that once you stop following their diet programs, you will regain the weight that was lost and sometimes even more.

These diets work in helping you lose weight – however, you need to start a healthy and active lifestyle so that you can maintain a slender body. If you lose weight using these diet programs, and then start eating unhealthy foods again and do not exercise, the pounds will certainly pile back on.

The key to losing weight and keeping them off is a balance of healthy food intake and regular exercise. Eating healthy food not only makes your skin look good but it also improves your metabolic rate. Not eating anything slows down your body’s metabolism thus the toxins are not eliminated from the body and keeps building up until you get sick. During crash dieting, since no food is being digested by the body, the body’s metabolism slows down and the body weakens because the body doesn’t know where to get its source of energy.

Another thing that might not be such a good idea while dieting is not eating carbohydrates. One has to keep in mind that carbohydrates are the body’s fuel and carbohydrates are converted into energy which fuels the body. If no carbohydrates are taken in, the body becomes weak and other body functions slow down as well. Some people become hypoglycemic because the body’s sugar level is low.

Eating everything in moderation is better than not eating a certain food group for fear that the pounds won’t disappear. A well-balanced meal is very important because it keeps the body functioning properly and all the nutrients needed by the body are provided by the different food groups.

Regular exercise, no matter how old a person is, is very important. It tones the muscles, strengthens the body and gets rid of the toxins in the body. The exercise doesn’t have to be very difficult. A simple walk in the park twice or thrice a week is alright for starters.

If you are starting out in fitness and exercise, you can start walking four to five times a week until your body gets used to the idea of exercising. In doing this regularly, not only are you going to lose weight, but you will also become healthier and more active. Remember, diet plus exercise equals success in permanent weight loss.