Obesity and overweight is related with several medical/health problems, if you are overweight or obese, it is important to lose weight and maintain normal body weight. Weight loss is easier said than done. It is not an easy task to reduce body weight, and it is more difficult to maintain lost body weight. Weight loss is not a simple calculation of calorie intake and calorie output or calorie expenditure, but it is more than that. Because, many a times during weight loss process you will come to know about it. Weight loss is not a simple formula of eating less (calories) and using more calories. You may make several mistakes, although unknowingly or unintentionally.
This article try to give you some insight about common mistakes made by many obese or overweight individuals while trying to reduce body weight to normal and thus help in weight loss.
1. Relying only on exercise for weight loss:
Exercise is essential for a healthy life and for weight loss too. Exercise keeps you fit and keep off from gaining weight. If you are trying to lose weight, exercise alone is of little value. Because, human physiology is such that it can adjust itself to maintain same body weight with similar food consumption but increased exercise, although it may take some time. For example, if you jog/run 5 kilometers a day and spend 500 calories for that initially, our human physiology is such adaptable that the same exercise (i.e. 5 kilometers running or jogging) can be dome by lesser calories than initial 500 calories required. This is how our body can preserve energy and make human body more efficient. Hence, exercise alone has little value in weight loss. It is therefore essential to change diet too, to effectively reduce weight. Modifying diet and consuming less calories along with exercise is essential for effective weight loss.
2. Going fat free for weight loss:
Fats supply us with maximum calories, 9 calories per gram (protein and carbohydrates supply 4 calories per gram). It seems logical to go fat free for weight loss. However, it is a mistake to try to go fat free for weight loss. If you are constantly searching for fat free or low fat food products, you should be clear that the “low fat” or “reduced fat” label do not necessarily mean low in fat, but it means lower than the original product and the lower fat is compensated by adding sugar/carbohydrates. Do not try to avoid fat, because it is an essential macro-nutrient (like proteins and carbohydrates). We need fat, especially unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids, which are present in fats of plant origin such as nuts (peanuts, cashew nuts, walnuts etc.), olive oil etc. and fish oil. Lack essential fatty acids and unsaturated fats may lead to several medical problems.
3. Too much restriction on eating:
Excessive eating will certainly lead to weight gain, eating too little is also problematic for weight loss and general health. Eating too little will lead to nutritional deficiencies and set your body in starvation mode, which will lead metabolism to slow down and preserve fats and calories. Do not remove any food from your diet unless you plan to give them up forever. We need to eat variety of foods to meat out nutritional needs, but must avoid excessive eating. That is why, eating an balanced diet is essential for optimal health as well as for weight loss regimen.
4. Replacing common drinks with diet drinks:
Although diet drinks do not contain any calories, switching diet drinks can create problem for weight loss. Several researches have shown that diet drink can increase risk of obesity, may be by increasing appetite by artificial sweeteners. Zero calorie diet drinks are not necessarily good for your health and weight loss. artificial sweeteners (even herbal sweeteners) are not good for health, especially if one consumes regularly and in high quantity. It is therefore best to avoid diet drinks and instead start having natural drinks.
If you are obese and planning to reduce your body weight, keep the above four aspects in mind, which can be of immense help for you.
NB: This post was originally posted on 25th April, 2013. Republishing this post today after editing the post.
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