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Consumers spend millions of dollars every year on various diet plans, weight loss fads and more. With the US and Canada with the most overweight populations in the world something needs to be done. We cannot continue to live like this with all of the associated health issues that come from being overweight. We happen to think that there is another approach that is following a healthy balanced diet to lose weight instead of starving ourselves. No more yo-yo weight loss and then weight gains. It is time to follow a healthy balanced diet to lose weight and keep it off.

Healthy Balanced Diet to Lose Weight

A friend of mind recently lost 15 pounds in the last 4 months. I asked him why he did it and how he managed to lose so much weight so fast.

The reason he found the will power to lose weight was that his doctor told him he was a pre diabetic and unless he did something he was going to become a diabetic and would have to go on insulin. This was the motivation for him to get serious about losing weight.

Once he decided to lose weight he found that the next part took real will power and a change in diet. He still exercised, but not excessively. He focused on finding a healthy balanced diet plan. He still ate most items, but in much smaller quantities.

The one big change that he made was to reduce his carb intake. This meant that he cut way back on breads, rice and potatoes. He still would have very small portions from time to time. Once he increased his fruits and vegetables along with protein the weight began to fall off.

Now that is how you lose weight without spending a great deal of money and still have a healthy balanced diet!

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The best way to lose weight is about living a healthier life than what you may be living now. You will need a complete lifestyle change and you will need to be committed. The body loses about 2 pounds a week optimally and that’s 2 pounds that stay off. When you drop at a faster rate your body could potentially rebound and either plateau your weight loss or put extra weight on. If you are committed then you should reach your goal to lose weight.

There are 5 most important things that must go together in any workout program to lose weight. These are part of changing your complete lifestyle to one that is healthier. They also help you to naturally optimize your metabolism. The faster your metabolism the better your body uses your food for energy, instead of storing it as fat.

I put them in the order of importance  to lose weight for maximum weight loss.

Eat more. Yes eat more.

More meals that is. It is best to eat a small meal every 3-4 hours. The meal should be just large enough to where you are not hungry, as opposed to eating you are full. There is a difference, think of it as no bigger than the size of your two fists put together. Eating 1 or 2 meals a day slows your metabolism down. You should have at least 4-6 meals a day. For most a ratio of carbs-proteins-fats should be 50%-25%-25% is good, but each person is unique.

Drink more water.

Most of us don’t have enough water. This means our bodies are dehydrated. Two things a dehydrated body has trouble doing, one is releasing water. In order to lose fat you must be able to release water, because fat cells in your body are composed of mostly water. A dehydrated body cannot build very well. Muscle tone indicates a constant building state in your body. If your body isn’t building that means it is losing muscle and it’s never good to lose muscle that slows your metabolism and makes you look flabby.

Maintain a balanced workout regimen of cardio and resistance (weights). Cardio is good for fat burning and it’s easy to do and to progress yourself. Resistance is a little harder because it’s not as easy to know what to do. If weights aren’t your thing then try Yoga or Pilates. Both are very effective resistance and core training and can help you maintain lean muscle and increase your overall metabolism.

Smart supplementation

This is your best solution to making sure you get the nutrients your food doesn’t give you. A daily multivitamin will suffice in most cases, and if you don’t like pills they sell it in liquid form. Plus cleanses, as well as detox formulas are awesome for eliminating toxins we take into our bodies without knowing.

Sleep is a very important part of any healthy lifestyle regimen. When we sleep our bodies and minds refresh themselves and allow us to function at an optimal level. Sleeping allows muscles to rebuild themselves and when they do that, it speeds your metabolism.

You may ask why I gave you this long list instead of just telling you what exercises to do. The reason is if you think that exercising is all you need then you are mislead. If exercising is all we needed to look and feel great then everybody who works out at the gym would have great bodies and be healthy. If you have been to a gym before you know its not true.

Do you hate the scales you use to weigh yourself? If you are one of these people who weigh themselves everyday, you probably have a little bit of paranoia as you approach the scales. Wouldn’t you like to forget about weighing myself every day. Instead focus on healthy living and maybe weigh yourself once a week or once a month. If you are honest with yourself, consumers can tell if they are adding weight or not. Their clothes fit differently. Even a few pounds will make a difference, especially around the waist.  So why not forget about weighing myself everyday.

Why Should I Forget about Weighing Myself

Your weight will fluctuate on a daily basis, even on an hourly basis depending on your eating habits. Drinking a lot of liquid along with a salty diet will add temporary pounds. A hot day will cause a great deal of water loss. Consumers can routinely lose a pound or two over night.

Many people stress out when they gain a pound or are not losing weight fast enough. Instead consider focusing on healthy eating, being careful about total calories consumed and keeping active. This is one of the best ways to manage weight loss over a period of time. Weigh yourself once a week to make sure you are still on track. Adjust your habits as needed to manage your weight loss over several months.

In our previous post we the 6 ways of reducing Belly Fat. They are: Eat Less sugar; Eat more protein; Eat less Carbs; Eat more Fiber; Do more Aerobic Exercise and Track your Food Intake against your calories allowed for the day. Sounds easy, right! Not so fast. The writer has been tracking his food intake using a handy app on his phone which provides calories consumed, tracks all of the nutrients as well as fat, carbs and protein consumed for the days and weeks. Without trying to actually change my food intake or the type of food, it is pretty interesting what the app is telling me.

Reducing Belly Fat – Food Tracking

Over the past seven days 52% of my food intake has been carbs compared to 50% objective as set by the app. Fat was 31% compared to 30% and Protein was 17% compared to an objective of 20% as per the app. This is without actually making any changes to my diet or watching how much I ate each day. Calories were also on target and all of my nutrients were not in bad shape. Sounds good right?

Not so fast. Because I am not losing any weight at all. While I am maintaining my weight, I really would like to lose weight. I am also not following the 6 ways to lose belly fat. I need to cut down on my carbs, increase by protein and do more exercise. More to come as I battle this belly fat weight loss challenge.

For more posts about weight loss and belly fat, click here.

There are lots of lists of tips for losing weight. One list is shown in the picture. We will name a few more in this post that did not make the attached list in this post. But the fundamental tip is to make a decision to lose weight and be committed to losing weight. If you cannot do this, then the chances of success are much lower that you will lose weight and keep it off.

There are so many temptations in our world these days. Both in terms of quantity, selection and from fast food that is laced with lots and lots of calories. You really need to have a strong commitment to losing weight. You need this to face all of the temptations that her available to us. Use whatever tips that are on the list in the picture and from the tips that we list in the following paragraphs to help you maintain your weight and help you lose weight.

Tips for losing weight

Forget fad diets – The reek havoc with your body and they are not sustainable in the long term. Focus on a healthy diet instead.

Follow the 80/20 rule – if you’re dieting all of the time, you will have significant cravings for some of the fun foods like dessert. Make sure that 80% of the time you’re following your diet and save 20% for the fun stuff.

Focus on the positives – make your own decisions and focus on good food for you, rather than focusing on what you cannot have.

Get your sleep – the Ranger light so that you can get sufficient sleep to ensure a well balanced body.

Change up your workout – doing the same thing over and over game gets boring and also your muscles get training to those exercises. Add some variety to spice up your workout routine.

Careful at restaurants order wisely at restaurants to manage your total calorie intake.

Travel with snacks – to avoid becoming over hungry and eating too much.

Eat lean protein – for example turkey fish and chicken are lean protein examples that are good for you.

Drink lots of water – Stay hydrated throughout the day and also to fill you up to avoid eating food to deal with that hunger feeling.

Exercise when you can. – Take advantage of every opportunity to stand, walk or get in some additional exercise.

For more details about losing weight and exercise, click here.

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Losing weight the healthy way is pretty straightforward once you put your mind to it and have a little bit of knowledge. We were inspired to write this article based on a story that we read about a man whose name is Bryant. He was 40 years old, weighed 442 pounds, and was eating up to 8000 cal a day. He indicated that he needed 5500 cal to maintain his weight and that was amazing to him.

The average person needs less than 2000 cal to maintain their body weight assuming the regular active day.

Losing weight the healthy way

He did not know how his diet had gotten so out of control. But he viewed food as immediate gratification while going to the gym takes work. Walking takes work and moving takes work. This man through a lot of hard work and managing his diet was able to get down to 178 pounds!

He started by taking baby steps gradually reducing his diet from the 8000 cal per day until he was down to only 2100 cal per day. Simply reducing his calorie intake made a huge difference in helping him to lose weight. In addition he started exercising more which in turn burned more calories. he kept a log of how many steps he would take every day , how much exercise he would do every day and of course how many calories he ate every day.

Admittedly it takes a great deal of focus, and hard work to commit to exercising every day. It also takes commitment to reduce your diet but his results clearly show that it can be done. For more information about losing weight the right way, click here.

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We have all been there, why I cannot lose weight? We try to lose weight. Go to the gym but somehow we just cannot remove the pounds and lose weight. We wonder what is going wrong and are thinking about giving up as far as losing weight is concerned.  Well there is a reason many people fail to reach their goals even if they do go to the gym. There are a number of reasons and most of us just have to realize that we need to focus on really doing what is needed to lose weight. If you recognize yourself in any of the following descriptions, then this could be the reason you are not losing any weight or at least not achieving the goals you have set for yourself.

Why I Cannot Lose Weight?

Going to the gym couple of times a week, but hit the wall before we even break a sweat. If this is you, then you have to realize that you need to push through this wall and really burn some calories. Doing a lackluster exercise routine is not going to help lose weight.

Doing the Same Thing every day or every couple of days will train the body to adjust to that routine. Varying your exercise routine will train different muscles and will challenge your body to respond. Complete cardio training one day and do muscle training the next and focus on different groups of muscles. Each time make sure that your break into a sweat.

Not Pushing Yourself is one of the best ways not to lose weight. Find a partner or someone to compete with. Set objectives for yourself that are increasingly more difficult.  Before you know it the exercise you did when you started will seem like a breeze.

Couch Potato the Rest of the Day – being a couch potato after your exercise with the corresponding snacks that usually go with it will not only ensure that you do not lose weight, you actually could gain more weight. Be active all day long to sustain your loss of weight.

Over Eating is another way to ensure that you gain weight. Use smaller plates which cause you to consume smaller portions. Eat slowly so that your stomach has time to fill up and tell your brain that you are full.

Waste Time at the Gym – is another great way to avoid exercise and not lose weight. Look around you at the gym. How many people actually are working out vs. socializing?

Recovering from a Work Out – allow your body time to recover from a strenuous workout. The muscles you pushed need time to heal, so work one set one day and another set the following day.

Know Your Target Heart Rate – your target heart rate is based on your age and your current weight along with activity level. work this rate so that you can gradually do more at the same heart rate.

Balanced Routine – means varying the routine from one day to the next, working different muscle groups every day. Set the routine and cycle back every few days so that muscles are aging put to work after healing from the last workout.

Have Fun While Working Out – if you are having fun, there is an increase chance you will continue exercising. It will not be boring and you will enjoy your time at the gym, playing sports or whatever it is that is fun.

Hopefully this will help you answer the question, Why I Cannot Lose Weight. For more information about losing weight, click here.

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