Weightloss and Wellness

Tag: Eating Healthy

Exercising for Weight Loss

Exercising Correctly to Reach Your Ideal Weight.

Geert Pieters

Do you have to exercise for weight loss? There seem to be conflicting opinions on this. But most would agree that a combination of eating right and exercise is the best approach to losing weight.

You can compare our bodies to very fine tuned machines that use whatever we put into them to operate. If we put junk into our bodies, we can still go on, but not in the most optimized fashion. In a nutshell, our bodies run on blood sugar (glucose).

Exercise plays an important role because it leads to a depletion of blood sugar in our blood stream which then causes fat cells to release fat to replace it. Our body then uses this fat for energy instead of just storing it. And that’s how exercise for weight loss fits in.

There are a couple of myths that need to be dispelled right away:

1. Exercise means going to the gym every day for at least an hour (or something similar)

2. You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want and then exercise to make it go away.

Let’s start with the first one. In order to be effective, exercise must be performed regularly. If you honestly believe that you can go to the gym every single day to work out for an hour, then that’s fine. Most people find this a stretch. But they feel that it must be done.

Exercising Routines

So, they will dive into their exercise routine for a week or two and then get completely burned out and quit. Wrong. Your exercise routine should consist of doing something that you enjoy in a consistent fashion. Does it have to be every day? No. But it must be something that you can stick to regularly (three to five times a week is something to shoot for).

You should try to get a combination of aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise which gets your heart rate up and muscle building workouts such as weight lifting. Exercise burns calories and speeds up your metabolism.

While exercise will make you hungrier, it shouldn’t be an excuse to eat the wrong kinds of foods all the time. How often do you hear people say “Well, I’ll eat this piece of pie and work it off later”? That’s fine occasionally and you can afford to splurge every once in a while when you maintain a consistent activity routine.

Eat Healthy Foods

But what you put into your body is even more important if you are exercising. The right foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein, fatty fish, etc.) will give you more energy and keep you feeling good. The wrong types of foods (excess fats, processed foods, too much sugar, etc.) will only inhibit the effectiveness of your exercise and weight loss plan.

Exercising for weight loss will get you the results you are looking for: a slimmer you for life.
Follow Us

October 10, 2021
Eating Healthy To Lose Weight

Eating Healthy To Lose Weight

pasja1000 / Pixabay

To begin with, eating healthier will help you lose weight. Therefore, the vast majority of people who eat healthy have healthy body mass indexes. Portion control and exercise blended with healthy eating is a very good approach to weight loss.

Here are 7 tips for eating healthy to lose weight..

1. Count The Calories

Count calories, you’ll have a better chance of weight loss. Be accountable for what you eat, you will stop and think about eating healthy.

2. Quality Instead Of Quantity

Make your calories actually count. A good way to do this is to track nutrition as well as caloric intake. Being nourished will reduce cravings and eating healthy to lose weight will often take time and effort at first but soon you’ll probably start craving the quality and realise just how much better eating healthy feels.

3. Cut The Condiments

A lot of healthy foods are less healthy by the time you’ve prepared them because they’ve been slathered in high calorie and low quality condiments. Use condiments sparingly. You don’t have to eat bland but find lower calorie and healthier ways to make sauces and dips.

4. Swap The Snacks

Crave crunch at night? Try raw veggies instead of potato chips. Reach for low fat frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. Grab a bowl of frozen grapes instead of chocolate chip cookies.

5. Try Healthy New Recipes

One of the challenges of eating healthy to lose weight is thinking up healthy foods. We often default to our old favourites because we don’t feel creative. Find some websites with healthy recipes. You can even join mailing lists and have them mailed to you. Try a healthy new recipe each week and it could be easier to eat healthy than you thought.

6. Be Prepared

Cook extra so you can reheat leftovers. Go to the grocery store with a well thought out list in hand. These things will contribute to being better able to avoid temptation. Don’t bring junk food into your pantry and it won’t be there to woo you away from healthy eating.

7. Brown Bag It

Bring healthy snacks with you. This is part of being prepared. A stash of low fat snacks at work, a snack or two stashed in the bag, and highly portable fresh fruit can all help you give the 3:pm chocolate bar a miss and / or avoid the box of donuts in the break room.

Yes, eating healthy to lose weight takes effort but the results can be overwhelmingly positive.

Follow Us

January 5, 2012