Back to Basics for Healthy Weight Loss

Are you trying to lose weight to achieve a healthy weight? While there are plenty of ways to lose weight, maintaining your weight loss over the long term is often unsuccessful. It's time to go back to the basics of a healthy weight:

• Prevention of weight gain or stopping recent weight gain can improve your health.
• Health can improve with relatively minor weight reduction (5 to 10 percent of body weight).
• Adopting a healthy lifestyle – eating smarter and moving more – can improve your health status even if you don't lose any weight.
• If you want to maintain a healthy weight for the rest of your life, it's all about energy balance. Here are three basic steps for success:

1. Make Smart Choices from Every Food Group
Your body needs the right fuel for your busy schedule through a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods that are packed with energy, protein, vitamins and minerals from food groups. Here's an easy way to eat more produce: Enjoy one fruit and one vegetable as a snack daily.

When you go shopping, look to the four corners of your supermarket:

• Fruits and vegetables from the produce aisles
• Whole grains from the bakery
• Low-fat milk products from the dairy case
• Lean proteins from the meat/fish/poultry department

2. Get the Most Nutrition from Your Calories
The biggest nutrition problem for most Americans is posed by high-fat, high-sugar foods and drinks, such as snack foods, candies and soft drinks. Eating smarter does not mean you have to immediately go sugar-free and fat-free. You can make a big difference in your calorie intake by just eating and drinking smaller portions and by making these choices less often. The key is to moderate, not eliminate. 
3. Balance Food and Physical Activity

What you eat is just one part of the energy balance equation. The other is your physical activity. Most of us take in more calories than we spend on our daily activities. The minimum for good health is 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity each day. To reach a healthy weight, you may need to be physically active longer (60 minutes a day) or participate in more intense activities. How much activity do you usually get now? If it's only 15 minutes, try adding a 15 or 20 minute walk during your lunch break.


What has happened when you implemented one of these healthy weight tips?


Source: http://www.eatright.org/Public/content.aspx?id=6847