Let’s face it, there are tons of fad diets clogging up the market, and virtually all of them promise to help you lose a lot of weight in an unbelievably short amount of time. Even if the claims are true (they rarely are), it’s more important to go about weight loss the healthy way.
Before you do anything else, you need to talk to your doctor about your desire to lose weight. They will be aware of any underlying health issues you may have, they have access to the latest research on weight loss, and they can also make recommendations based on your particular needs. Also, nothing in this article is intended to be medical advice, so what your doctor says is what counts.
It seems as though a new fad diet is thrust upon us on a daily basis. While there are a few exceptions, the vast majority of fad diets are not healthy. They typically restrict calories down to a dangerous level, severely limit the foods you can eat, or rely on pseudoscience to support their shaky claims. There may be cases where false claims don’t really matter all that much, but bad diets can actually lead to major health problems. If you want to lose weight, then weight loss the healthy way is always your best option.
Your body needs a wide range of nutrients to be healthy. The old conventional wisdom was that your body only needed a few major vitamins and minerals to experience optimal health. In fact, there was a time when it was imagined that people would pop a few pills each day and get everything they need. However, science has now seen that we need a wide range of nutrients, micronutrients, phytochemicals and more, and the only way to get them is to eat them in the form of food.
What this means is that weight loss the healthy way starts with the food you eat. You will go far if you stick to a few basic rules.
1. Eat food as close to its original source as possible.
2. Eat a wide variety of foods.
3. Compare food labels at the grocery store, and choose the healthier options.
Of course food alone isn’t enough to get healthy while losing weight; you also have to engage in physical activity. Aerobic exercise will burn the most calories while you are doing it, and resistance exercise will build muscle which burns more calories when you are at rest. Go ahead and work up a sweat, but don’t overdo it, otherwise you run the risk of injury.
Weight loss the healthy way includes eating right and getting some exercise. It isn’t as difficult as some people believe, but it does take commitment and practice. The only catch is that reading about it isn’t enough; you need to follow through and take action if you are serious about losing weight for good.
