|
5 Ways to Lose 5 Pounds This Month
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Varying your exercise routine may help you remain active week after week. So try the tango, the cha-cha or even belly dancing—active dancing burns off at least 325 calories an hour. Ride your bike—good for 350 or so calories an hour—or burn up 286 calories with an hour's worth of weeding in the garden. Researchers at the University of Florida concluded that people who changed their workout every two weeks over an eight-week period not only enjoyed their exercise more, but were much more likely to stick with it compared to people who did the same form of exercise all the time.
| If you weigh... |
130 |
155 |
190 |
1 hour of general
aerobics burns off... |
~350 cals. |
~420 cals. |
~515 cals. |
Give up some—but not too much—of the bread, pasta, crackers and pizza you usually eat in a month. Let's figure you have four bagels a month—give up two and save 320--500 calories or more. (The largest deli bagels can weigh in at 500 calories apiece.) Give up two English muffins? Another 300 calories? Cut out 10 slices of white bread—800 calories. Pasta? Eliminate three meals and give up as many as 2,200 calories, counting sauces. You can see how it would help you cut 300 calories a day from your diet without much feeling of sacrifice. But don't cut out too many carbs: A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May 2006 found that people on a diet that restricted carbs to 26 percent of calorie intake saw their good HDL cholesterol levels drop and their bad LDL levels rise, while those who opted for a diet with 54 percent carbs saw a significantly greater drop in bad LDL cholesterol.
Burn 475 calories an hour walking upstairs. If thats a weeks worth of stair climbing, in a month you will burn half a pounds worth of calories. In addition, walk as often as you can at a moderate pace for 30-60 minutes. You will burn stored fat and boost your metabolism. Walking an hour a day has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes and stroke. And you will be glad to know that according to a paper presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, people who are trying to lose weight (and are taking in the same amount of calories—in this case 1,200 to 1,500 a day) do as well if they add two miles of walking a day to their schedule as do those who work out at a gym four days a week.
If you know how much food you should be eating before you sit down for a meal, you will give yourself a powerful tool for managing calories and achieving weight loss. The USDA Food Pyramid gives recommended serving sizes for most food groups, and packaged foods sold at the supermarket show serving size information on their nutrition labels. Want an easy way to remember appropriate portion sizes? This handy guide from the American Cancer Society compares food portion sizes to everyday objects:
Normal Portion Sizes
| • |
3 oz meat: deck of cards or bar of soap—the recommended portion for a meal |
| • |
3 oz fish: checkbook size
|
| • |
1 oz cheese: 4 dice size
|
| • |
Medium potato: computer mouse size
|
| • |
2 Tbs peanut butter: ping pong ball size
|
| • |
1 cup pasta: tennis ball size
|
| • |
Medium apple or orange: tennis ball size
|
| • |
1 cup chopped raw vegetables or fruit: baseball size |
It is true in weight loss, as it is in life: When you set specific goals, you are more likely to make progress. So focus on losing weight gradually and keeping if off instead of trying quick fixes that you may not stick with. Follow the NIDDKs (National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases) guidelines for safe weight loss:
| • |
Calorie reduction—but no outright ban of specific foods or food groups |
| • |
An increase in your daily amount of moderate-intensity physical activity |
| • |
Slow and steady weight loss. Depending on your starting weight, experts recommend losing weight at a rate of one-half to 2 lbs per week. Weight loss may be faster at the start of a program |
| • |
Medical care if you are planning to lose weight by following a special formula diet, such as a very low-calorie diet |
| • |
A plan to keep the weight off after you have lost it |
Looking at the Food and Drug Administration database of 3,000 Americans who have lost an average of 60 pounds and kept it off for 6 years reveals a lot about what works and what does not. The FDA reports that people who most successfully lose weight and keep it off follow this pattern: They eat a low-fat (24 percent of calories from fat), high-carb diet; they weigh themselves frequently; they are very physically active, exercising for about an hour or more a day; and they eat breakfast.
|
|
|
|
|
|