Weight Loss
Why is Weight Loss Important?
If you are happy with your weight, you belong to the minority of people in the world, but should be applauded for your positive outlook on your life and your body. However, weight loss still may be needed. Many people who are overweight say that they are happy with their bodies, but the fact remains that weight loss in order to achieve a healthy weight is very important. There are a number of reasons you should consider weight loss, even if you don’t mind having a few extra pounds.
First a foremost, if you are overweight, you are at risk for a number of diseases. The main health risk you will probably experience is heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack. Many heart attacks are deadly. Heart disease develops when you heart has to work extra hard to pump the blood to the body, which causes it to become fatigued. This can occur simply because you are overweight, or can be a result of high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Along with heart disease, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels can also put you at risk for a stroke. Strokes occur when blood, and therefore oxygen, cannot reach the brain. This can happen due to high cholesterol. When you have high cholesterol, the fatty deposits build up on your artery walls. If a piece of this plaque breaks off and travels to the heart, it causes a heart attack, and traveling to the brain causes a stroke.
Being overweight is also bad for women who wish to become pregnant. When you’re overweight, the hormones in your body are changing, and if you don’t get the right nutrients you may find that your body does not produce the right chemicals for the hormones needed to ovulate or carry a child. Even if you become pregnant, being overweight puts you at risk for a miscarriage or health problems with the baby.
Beyond the health world, being overweight can also affect your daily life. You may find it difficult to purchase clothing in your size or you may find that the clothing that does come in larger sizes is more expensive. This is simply due to the manufacturer need more material to make the same article of clothing. Problems extend beyond shopping when doing things like visiting theme parks, where you may not be able to ride all of the rides, or using public transportation, where you may feel crowded in seats made for smaller people. Losing weight, even if you are currently happy with your own weight, is always a healthy and smart option, until you reach a normal weight.
All About the Atkins Diet
Over the past few decades, the Atkins diet has really hit the diet world with full force. This health phenomenon is based on The Atkins Diet, a book by Dr. Robert C. Atkins. His concept for weight loss is that we need to be concerned with the carbohydrates we eat, not the fat. Many people have found great success using the Atkins diet. However, it is not for everyone. Before you start the Atkins diet, or any kind of diet, talk to your doctor to make sure it is a good idea for you.
When you’re on the Atkins diet, there will be little calorie counting, but say good-bye to junk foods and processed foods. You will also be eating few carbohydrates and many foods high in protein. The theory behind the low-carb diet found with the Atkins diet is that by reducing your intake of these foods, you will enter a phase in your body called ketosis. During ketosis, your body will burn fat in the body for fuel instead of using the foods in your diet, which will in turn stop insulin production, which will in turn prevent more fat from being stored.
There are four main stages to the Atkins diet: induction, ongoing weight loss, pre-maintenance, and maintenance. During the first two weeks, you are in the induction stage. During this time, many people report losing 15 pounds or more, simply because carbohydrate intake is cut down to 20 grams every day. The only carbs you can have are low-carb vegetables, and even then they are very limited. The second stage, known as ongoing weight loss, will let you have 25 grams every day. You will then move on to pre-maintenance, in which you can try out other foods to see what carbohydrates you can add into your diet. After you’ve reached your weight loss goals, you may eat all good carbs, but the premise behind the diet plan is that you won’t want to eat these foods. Choosing healthy carbs will become a way of life.
As with any diet, you’ll have to exercise in order to lose weight. Healthy lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, are also important. Many people have called into question the safety of the Atkins diet due to its severe methods, and some say that the plan only makes you bounce back to your original weight as so as you hit the maintenance level. The key is to find something that works for you and your weight loss goals and that is healthy for your body.
Joining the Perfect Gym
If you want to lose weight, you need plenty of diet to make sure that you’re burning fat and building muscle. One of the best ways to do this is to join a gym. Gyms come in all shapes and sizes, and there may be a number of gyms in your area. Joining a gym can be expensive, so it is important that you careful consider all of the gyms near to your home in order to pick the very best one possible to meet you weight loss and exercise needs on a daily basis.
The first things you should consider when you are looking at gyms are the trainers. If you’ll be taking a class or working with a personal trainer, you’ll want to be sure that you’re working with someone who is experienced and will teach you the best habits possible. Unfortunately, there are no set qualifications for trainers in the United States, so you should check out gyms that do require training programs of their trainers.
You should also look at the equipment available for your use and the hours the gym is open. A gym that only has one treadmill may not be the best choice, since you may find yourself standing in line for equipment during peak hours. You also may find that your exercise schedule is disrupted if the gym is open odd or short hours. It is very important to find a place that will allow you to have a great workout at a time of day that is convenient for you.
Cleanliness should also be of concern. All gyms should provide a tour of their facilities at the very least, or a free trial to check out the gym’s space on your own. If a gym is dirty, you could be susceptible to illnesses as they spread among members at the gym. They should provide a cleaning crew to make sure that the locker rooms are clean, as well as provide antibacterial products to wipe down the machines after workouts. Organization is important too-you don’t want to be tripping over weights that are ling on the floor or feel cramped in a sweating high-volume area.
Lastly, you should check out prices. Some gym memberships are by the year while others charge your credit card or send you an invoice every month. Do what works for you. You may end up spending hundreds or thousands of collars on your gym membership, so it is important to find the gym that best suits your needs. Look at the ones closest to your home, but also consider those a bit farther away if they seem better to join.
Hot Stuff: Warming Up
When you have to fit an exercise routine into your already busy schedule, you might be tempted to simply skip the warm up routine, even though you’ve heard horror stories about people getting injured while working out. Three words: don’t do that. When you skip your warm up, you are not only putting your body as risk for personal injury, but you are also making the workout more difficult and less effective. For the best results, it is important to warm up every time you work out.
Warming up doesn’t have to eat up the time you allotted for exercise into your day. In fact, a decent workout only has to be 5 minutes long to do its job. It doesn’t have to be boring either-you can mix up a number of great moves to make your warm up as fun as the rest of your exercising. Remember that a good warm up gets all of your muscles moving, even if you don’t think that you’ll be intensely working out a set of muscles on any particular day. Warming up is also important regardless of if you’re doing cardiovascular exercises or lifting weights.
The moves you do for a warm up shouldn’t necessarily be difficult or make you break a sweat. The main goal of the warm up isn’t to become a part of your workout, but simply to slowly move muscles that you haven’t really thought about all day to wake them up. Good moves, therefore, include things like jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, lunging, and jumping rope.
A good warm-up can also including slowly stretching your muscles in a variety of ways, although this is usually more effective for a cool-down. Also consider exercises that work on balance and form in order to prepare you for the exercises you will be doing in the workout.
If you’re really short on time, why not try warming up before you even get to the gym. Slowly jog or power walk to the gym, park as far away as possible and lunge to the door, and take the stairs instead of the elevator. That way, when you get to the gym to workout your warm up routine is already half way done.
A good workout always builds in intensity. This is the best way to shed pounds and maintain a healthy weight. Weight loss workouts are only risky if you don’t warm up, because otherwise your body will respond to prevent injuries. Although you may be tempted to skip this step, that is never a good idea.
Weight Loss-When You Need It and When You Do Not
Weight loss is a tricky subject in America, where so many young girls (and boys) are turning to anorexia, bulimia, and other eat disorders. While weight loss can be a very good and necessary thing, it can also turn into something horrible that affects millions across the nation and can even cause death. Knowing when you need to lose weight and when you do not is important in the fight against both your personal poor health and the terrible disease that are sweeping across the United States.
You can know that losing weight is often a very personal option. However, if you are more than 20 pounds overweight, losing the pounds is important for your health. Look at the recommended weight for someone of your size as a start. However, because everyone’s bodies are different, because of fat and muscle ratio to body weight, you should really see your doctor if you feel like you need to lose weight. A doctor can confirm this or put your mind to rest by telling you that your weight is normal. This is the best way to make sure that you are being healthy.
There are also times, however, when you definitely do not need to lose weight. First, if you aren’t as thin as your favorite actor or model, that doesn’t mean you need to lose weight. Often, models and actresses are airbrushed in photos to look more toned and they have personal trainers that work with them for hours every day in order to help them stay in shape. If your body weight is normal, you do not need to lose weight, even if you are a pants size bigger than your ideal celebrity.
Your also don’t need to lose weight just because you gain it. People gain weight for a number of reasons, and this is especially common during puberty and for the few years after. If you gain weight check out the rest of your body-are you going through a growth spurt in height as well? Also, don’t worry about gaining weight when you are lifting at the gym. As you tone your muscles, you will look better, but because muscles are heavier than fat, you may actually gain weight.
Lastly, you don’t need to lose weight simply because someone else makes a rude comment about your looks. People are cruel, but everyone has a different body make up. If you are happy with your weight and it is within the normal range for someone of your age and height, than chances are that the rude comment is stemming from other issues, not because you actually do need to lose weight. Be happy with yourself and eat a healthy diet and you shouldn’t need to worry about losing weight.
