Diet and Exercise

Diet and Exercise is necessary to lose weight with any diet program. Though not the only aspects that are important to losing weight, they are the two main lifestyle changes that will impact the number you see on the bathroom scale.

Where to Get Started with Diet and Exercise for Weight Loss

There are many different strategies for both diet and exercise which means that you will need to do a bit of homework before you’ll know which one is right for you.  There are many different factors that you’ll need to take into consideration to help decide what lifestyle changes you’ll want to apply to your weight management.

For instance, the older you get, the harder it is to maintain your weight simply by restricting what you eat. A healthy low carbohydrate diet or a calorie reduced eating strategy combined with exercise are often considered to be the most effective way to lose weight.

Why Both Diet and Exercise Instead of One or the Other?

When exercise is combined with the diet, the amount of weight you lose will consist primarily of fat, whereas without exercise, there could be a loss of lean body tissue. Regular exercise also helps muscle cells take up glucose (sugar) from the blood stream and use it for energy more efficiently.

Thus, exercise may lower one's risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is common especially in obese people over the age 40. Increasing physical activity should be tailored to individual needs, preferences, and lifestyle.

Easy Exercises to Work Into Your Lifestyle

Walking is one of the easiest and most convenient exercises to lose weight that an overweight and/or an obese individual can begin to practice. Walking offers a very low risk of complications or athletic injuries. Walking is an excellent way to lose body fat, especially when combined with a weight loss diet. Read more about Safe Exercising for information and tips about low-impact exercises

The body does not start burning fat stores until about thirty minutes of activity. Walking briskly for at least a half hour a day not only consumes a couple hundred calories, but it also boosts your metabolic rate for the rest of the day, giving you a better chance to burn fat and lose weight even after you have finished your exercise. In addition, you are more likely to maintain any weight loss you achieve if you incorporate walking in your daily routine.

Low Carb Dieting

A low carbohydrate diet can't lower blood glucose alone. However, if a low carbohydrate diet is combined with exercise to lose weight, the two acting synergistically together could possibly postpone and even prevent the development of type 2 diabetes and facilitate the weight loss process; especially in people who are overweight and whose bodies have already started having trouble metabolizing glucose.

Keep in mind that low carb dieting does not mean that you’re eliminating carbs altogether.  In a well balanced diet and exercise strategy, you will need to eat some carbs.  Therefore, take the opportunity to find out how to incorporate the best quality and most nutritious carbohydrates into your foods.  These will typically consist of whole grains as those are high in nutrients and fiber, which fill you up and give your body what it needs to be at its best.

Calorie-Limited Dieting

Low calorie dieting is one of the most consistently successful types of eating strategy for weight loss.  It involves tracking the calorie intake in your foods to make sure you are consuming an amount within a certain limit. 

This means that you will have both a maximum and minimum limit to your calorie intake.  Many people who change their diet and exercise mistakenly believe that the fewer the calories they eat, the better.  However, that is not the case.  Instead, eating too few calories can be as destructive to your weight as eating too many.  Therefore, making sure you have the right amount to eat each day can help with steady gradual weight loss that can be maintained over time.