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Obesity Statistics

USA Obesity Stats

58 Million Overweight; 40 Million Obese; 3 Million morbidly Obese
Eight out of 10 over 25′s Overweight
78% of American’s not meeting basic activity level recommendations
25% completely Sedentary
76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 yrs old since 1990

More and more people are becoming overweight and the statistics are alarming. Being overweight can cause various kinds of unwanted disease such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease and all these can be prevented by tweaking our lifestyle.

Why Are More People Getting Overweight?

In our modern world, people constantly seek for instant gratification and they want instant results. When there is a demand, there will be people rushing to provide it. So here comes the fast food restaurants, processed food that can be cook quickly and canned drinks that contains huge amount of sugar. All the quick fixes that people want can be found easily but the question is, do the quick fix really help us?

There is also a huge shift in lifestyle, we are getting more stationary and not getting enough physical activities. How many of us are guilty of spending hours on the couch watching TV or sitting in front of the computer for hours?

If we think back to the past, we can roughly imagine how our ancestors lifestyle look like. They don’t have any 3 in 1 coffee or fast food that can be prepared in seconds. In order to eat, they need to hunt, gather or forage for food which requires them to spent an amount of energy (physical activities). They also do not have TV or computers that let them sit down and spent a couple of hours in front of it.

Even if when we think back to our grandparent’s life, their lifestyles are different too. They are playing with skipping ropes or “hide and seek” but what the children are doing now is holding a controller of a Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and sit still for hours. We can see that the lifestyle and food we are having now is the cause of the increasing obesity rate.

Why Do You Need To Lose Weight?

First of all, if you are in the acceptable weight range, give yourself a pat on the back and keep up the good work, and for those who think that they need some work out done and they need reasons for them to get into a good shape, here are 3 good reasons.

Do you want to move freely without lugging around the excess weight that make dread taking another step?

Do you want to have a better self image?

Do you want to be more healthy and be free of diseases?

I can come out with much more benefits and I believe you can think of a lot more if you spend some time on it.

10 Tips To Help You Lose Weight Healthily

I had seen ads that says lose weight quickly or some quick fix diets that are probably made to cater to the “quick fix hungry” people but I do not agree with the methods of quick fix diet or lose weight quickly in a short amount of time because I believe that those are not sustainable methods and can be damaging to your health. How many times had you see people go into some quick fix diet just to lose a few pounds and gain back double?

Here are the tips to help you lose weight healthily.

1. Remove sugary drinks

Are you guilty of drinking so much fizzy drinks, coffee or tea and then you ask yourself why you always fail to lose weight? Sugary drinks contain lots of sugar which will cause your blood sugar level to spike and thus stopping the production of a hormone call glucagon which helps to utilize fat as energy. Drink plain water instead, no calories or sugar added, the perfect drink for a perfect health.

2. Stop eating food in boxes or can

Go to your kitchen and see the amount of food that are packed in boxes or cans. Most of these food are either highly processed or huge amount of sugar were added into it. By cutting back on these food, you can cut away lots of unnecessary calories from your diet.

3. Eat whole food

Basically food like noodles, bread or flour are not natural food. These food tend to cause your sugar level to spike and fluctuate greatly. When your sugar level spiked or fluctuate greatly, you tend to go hungry easier and there is a greater tendency for you to snack. Eating whole food like brown rice, fruits or vegetables with high fiber can help you to feel full for a longer period of time. This equals to less snacking and less calories.

4. Small meals

When you eat small meals throughout the day(3 hours between each meal), you will not tend to binge eat because you will be constantly full. Eating small meals throughout the day will help to increase your metabolism rate and fat burning process.

5. Do not skip meals

Whenever you skip a meal, did you notice that you will binge eat on the next meal? When you start to binge eat, you will add a whole lot of extra calories to your diet. Keep to your meal plan and you will eat a more constant amount on every meal.

6. Chew your food

I personally love this tip. I did a small trial during one of my dinner where I had only a small amount of food but I chewed 50 times before swallowing the food. Not only I feel full, I was also too tired to eat anymore. This is definitely a great way to control the amount of food you are eating. I don’t recommend you to chew 50 times before swallowing because it can get a bit tiring. Start with 20 to 30 chews instead. The result will be great.

7. Exercise regularly

Exercising is definitely a good habit that you want to pick up. It keeps your mind fresh and help to shed some pounds. Find a sports that you like so that you can keep at it for long term. Find a buddy if possible, both of you can help to encourage each other along the way. By the way, weightlifting is a great way to increase your metabolism rate which will help to burn the fat away.

8. Have something before your meal

Have a cup of water or have some salad before your meal will help you to feel full faster. Doing this will help you to cut back on the amount of food you will eat.

9. Have an adequate amount of fats in your diet

Stop! Do not go grab the bacon now. When I mentioned fats, I mean healthy fats such as nuts, eggs, seeds or avocados. Denying yourself of fats will affect your hormone level which will cause you to have a stronger urge of craving.

10. Have healthy proteins

Having good healthy proteins such as chicken or if you are vegetarian, soy food does the job too. Protein has a high thermic effect that will help your body to burn more calories to break down the protein into smaller amino acids and it will also help to keep you full longer than carbohydrates. Protein is needed for building muscles which also contributes to increasing your metabolism rate.

You do not need to make a drastic change to your lifestyle in a shot. You can start by cutting down the amount of junk food you eat and slowly add in healthier eating habits, food and exercises into your lifestyle. Good luck with your weight loss journey and I hope I can hear some success stories from my readers.

Week 2 of my 30 Days Challenge

(If you have not read my 30 Days Challenge, you can read it here at 30 days challenge to a healthier body)

Everything is still going fine for me and there are only some cravings for food like pizza and pasta. Other than that, everything seems fine. Breakfast that only consist of veggie and fruit juice doesn’t seems that bad, in fact I kind of like it.

When I started my 16 weeks exercise in quest of 6 pack abs, I was weighing around 160.6 lbs. Before I started my 30 days challenge, I did a 2 weeks trial without any processed starch(noodles,pasta,bread) in my diet and I manage to shed 4.4lbs. My weight at the start of my 30 days challenge is 152.9 lbs.

One week had passed and I am weighing at 150.7 lbs. Although I am losing weight, I found that my muscle definitions are still not clear cut. Maybe I will push harder in my weight lifting or take more protein.

Cheers
Vincent
Personal Development Blogger

**P.S**What are you going to change to your current lifestyle to make it a better one and what is the biggest challenge you faced in losing weight? I would love to hear your comments. See you in the comment section.

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10 Tips To Help You Lose Weight Healthily

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