Set Realistic Goals and Reward Yourself

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Set Realistic Goals and Reward Yourself
If you are trying to lose weight, it is important to set realistic goals. When you reach a goal, reward yourself. If you set realistic goals, you will be more likely to stick with them and be successful. This in turn increases your motivation to lose more weight or improve your health. Instead of trying to lose 60 pounds in three months, shoot for one pound per week or four pounds per month. It can also help to have broader goals like running a 10k or bike seven miles without stopping.

Give yourself an incentive to reach your goals by rewarding yourself. Dieting can be exhausting, but resist the temptation to reward your new healthy habits with a calorie-laden meal or dessert. This will just put you on track for another treadmill workout. Instead, put away money for every pound you burn so that when you reach your weight goal you can buy yourself something. You could also go get a manicure or pedicure, massage, see a movie or go to the beach and enjoy a good book in the sunshine. A reward will serve as a reminder for all the hard work you put into reaching your goal. It is an opportunity to throw out the calorie chart for a day, relax and enjoy your success.

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Counting Calories

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Counting Calories
Calorie counting can be frustrating for women, but it doesn’t have to be. The amount of calories you need depends on your weight, age, height and activity level, but calorie estimates can still be helpful. To lose weight, you first need to determine how many calories you need to maintain your current weight. This is also called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Once you know your BMR you can cut calories and factor in the amount of exercise you need in order to lose weight. The formula for BMR for women is:

655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) – (4.7 x age in years).

If you do little to no exercise, multiply your BMR by .2. If you are lightly active, multiply your BMR by .3. If you exercise most of the days in a week, multiply your BMR by .4. If you exercise everyday at a high intensity, multiply your BMR by .5. This is your BMR and the amount of calories you need per day to maintain your weight.

One pound of fat is equal to 3,500 calories. In order to lose one pound of weight per week, you need to cut 500 calories from your daily diet or integrate exercise into your weight loss plans to burn fat and calories. No matter what your weight goals, do not consume less than 1,200 calories a day. When you eat less than 1,200 calories per day, your body will most likely go into starvation mode and store your calories instead of burn them. Use a calorie chart to keep track of what you eat and join a fitness gym to kick your body and metabolism into shape.

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Getting Started

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Getting Started
Congratulations on your decision to lose weight and become a healthier person! Although it can seem tedious at times, if you stick with a solid weight loss program you will be successful no matter what.

To figure out how much weight you need to lose, first calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) by using this formula: (weight/height in inches) x (height in inches) x 703. If your BMI falls between 18.5 and 25, then you are considered to be at a normal weight for a woman. If your BMI is between 25 and 30, you are considered overweight. Once you have figured out your BMI, you will be able to determine how much weight you need to lose to fall within the “normal” weight range. It is okay to diet if you are within the “normal” weight range and still want to lose a few pounds or maintain your weight.

Remember that weight loss is a life decision, not just a diet decision. Incorporate both exercise and healthy eating into your daily life. Change your attitude towards your body. If you see your weight as something impossible to transform, you will not succeed. Think of yourself as able and ready to change and you will be on your way to your weight loss goals. So love your body, have confidence in yourself and get to that treadmill workout!

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Don’t Think of it as a Diet

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Don’t Think of it as a Diet
You’ve been on a diet since you were 14. You’ve tried the grapefruit diet, the low-carb diet, the no-carb diet, the starve-myself-until-dinner-and-then-binge diet and perhaps even the popcorn diet. Throw all the fad diets out the window and re-think the way you lose weight. Diets have been proven to cause compulsive eating and give you a sense that food is forbidden or dangerous. If you deprive yourself of something as natural as eating, you will only want to rebel and eat more.

When you yo-yo diet you put your metabolism through a loop, making it impossible to keep weight off. Change the way you look at your nutrition and rely on your natural hunger to do its job. Eat (healthy) food when you are hungry and stop eating when you are full. Trade the ice cream, fries and candy for fruits and vegetables, and all you will have to reach for in the refrigerator are healthy things. If you change the concept of the way you exercise, lose weight and feel about yourself to focusing on what you can do and can eat, you will no doubt be more successful at your weight loss goals.

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Weight Loss through Weight Watchers

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Weight Loss through Weight Watchers
In the past three decades, some of the wackiest diets have been marketed to the American public. If studies have proven one thing, it’s the fact that fad diets do not work. The only program that has remained consistently tried and true is the Weight Watchers Program

Even if you are not the type of person that enjoys going to meetings, the Weight Watchers variety of plan provide a number of flexible options that suit your lifestyle. Unlike the no carbohydrate diet and forms of utter insanity, these diets do not restrict you from eating the foods that are crucial to maintaining optimal health. They are also strong advocates of exercise for weight loss, which is a positive factor in itself. In fact, their website is constantly updated with information about the latest fitness programs.

When you join Weight watchers, you have the choice of two plans. The Flex plan allows you to eat the foods that you like. However, you will control how much of these foods you can eat. In contrast, if you require a more disciplined plan, the Core Plan focuses on healthy foods with occasional snacks in small quantities.

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Calculating Body Fat with Fat Loss Scales

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Calculating Body Fat with Fat Loss Scales
There are a few things you should consider when using the dreaded scale as a method of determining your weight loss.

* As you exercise, you will be adding more muscle, which can weigh significantly more than fat.
* As you continue to work out, your bone density will increase. While this might mean that you will see a few extra pounds on the scale, the added bone density has an important benefit: It may protect you from developing osteoarthritis.

When you want to measure your progress in a fitness and weight loss program, your best bet is to keep track of your body fat percentage. Body fat is lost through diet and aerobic exercise. Losing body fat will not only improve your appearance: It can protect you from health issues such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Here are the most common methods of measuring body fat.

Body Fat Scales: Some companies, such as the Tanita, manufacture a body fat scale for home use. These scales make use of a method known as bioelectrical impedance to measure your body fat percentage. This method involves a low-level electrical current is passed through your body. Then, the “impedance”, or opposition to this current is measured. The result is calculated in conjunction with your weight, height and age to determine your body fat percentage. While this may sound like the easiest way to calculate body fat, there are some caveats. For example, the amount of water in your body, your skin temperature and recent physical activity might influence the results. To ensure accuracy, do not eat or drink for four hours before taking the test, and avoid exercise or 12 hours prior to the test.

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Portion Control

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Portion Control

A calorie chart alone won’t do it! To lose weight you must consider portion control. This can be hard to do in the land of super-sized portions, but here are a few pointers to get you going in the right direction.

* Portions at restaurants are often out of control. It’s cheaper and better calorie-wise to eat at home. Only eat at restaurants on special occasions. If you usually go out to eat with friends, suggest a walk with your friends instead of a meal. This way you will avoid that extra treadmill workout you would have to do to compensate for all the calories you ate.
* The easiest way to monitor your portions is to simply eat half of your meal. Eat half of your sandwich and replace your bag of chips with crunchy carrots. If you are at a restaurant, eat half of your meal. You can even ask the waiter or chef to give you a take-out container with your meal so you can immediately put half of your meal in box when it arrives.
* Buy pre-packaged, low-cal dinners. This can make portion control easy, as microwavable or pre-made dinners are usually much smaller than your average full-sized dinner. You can find these at almost every supermarket.
* Check nutrition labels for servings sizes. Most people reach into a bag of chips absent mindedly, but those handfuls add up. A serving size of meat is only three ounces. This is the size of the palm of your hand! A serving size of cheese is about the size of two domino squares. Only one half of a small bagel is a serving size. Reference the food pyramid put out by the FDA to find out how many servings of each food group you should have.

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BMI: Body Mass Index

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: BMI: Body Mass Index
Today, many people are talking about BMI. What is it? BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a number that is calculated from a woman’s weight and height. Although it does not directly measure body fat, a BMI reading has been shown to correlate with body fat measuring methods such as underwater weighing. According to the Center for Disease Control, the following method is used to calculate BMI:

Formula: weight (lb) / [height (in)]2 x 703

Calculate BMI by dividing weight in pounds (lbs) by height in inches (in) squared and multiplying by a conversion factor of 703.

Example: Weight = 150 lbs, Height = 5’5” (65″)

Calculation: [150 ÷ (65)2] x 703 = 24.96

A BMI of below 18.5 is considered underweight. From 18.5 to 24.9, the BMI is considered normal. If your BMI is 25 to 25.9, you are considered overweight. Obesity begins at a BMI of 30. Although BMI can be a useful method for calculating body fat, there are some caveats. A highly muscular woman will obviously weigh more. However, this does not mean she has more body fat.

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Healthy Weight Loss

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips:
Healthy Weight Loss
Let’s do the math: If 3500 calories equals one pound of body fat, you either need to eat 3500 calories fewer, or burn an additional 3500 calories. How much time do you think that you can realistically do this?

If a diet plan claims that you can lose seven pounds a week, that means that you will be eating 3500 calories less per day. Were you really eating that much more than 3500 calories a day? Probably not. the same applies to exercise. Consider that running burns about 100 calories per mile, even if you ran a marathon, you still would not burn up one pound of body fat. Fast weight loss is usually water loss, as opposed to fat loss.Additionally, fast weight loss slows down your metabolic rate. As soon as you return to normal eating habits, since your body has grown accustomed to less calories, you gain back the weight twice as quickly as you lost it.

For lasting results, aim for a healthy weight loss rate of one to two pounds a week.

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Susie Orbach’s Fat is a Feminist Issue

October 22nd, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Women’s Weight Loss

Women’s Weight Loss Tips: Susie Orbach’s Fat is a Feminist Issue
Although Susie Orbach’s Fat is a Feminist Issue was published in 1981, it is still one of the best books that attack the issue of women’s weight loss. Some of the concepts discussed in Orbach’s book include:

* Unrealistic expectations regarding your life after weight loss: Many women believe that if they can only lose 10 pounds, they will get the guy, get rich, get a promotion, win the lottery (well, maybe not) etc. When life doesn’t automatically become amazing after weight loss, they regain the weight.
* Compulsive Overeating: One of the questions women should ask themselves is whether or not they are really healthy when they reach for something to eat. Orbach contends that women often overeat, and thus gain weight because fat is a protective mechanism.
* The Yoyo Diet Syndrome: You’ve been “good” on your diet for a few weeks, so you are rewarding yourself when you go away for a weekend. However, come Monday, you know that you are going back to the “diet jail,” so you eat everything in sight. Since your metabolic rate is probably lower due to food deprivation, you can end up gaining more weight than you have lost.
* Feeding the Clock instead of the Stomach: This is perhaps one of the biggest issues in regards to weight loss. Do you eat at noon, even if you are not hungry? Have you ever consumed hundreds of calories of salad in an attempt to avoid eating a cookie, only to eventually end up eating that cookie anyway? Orbach suggests that we eat only what we want, and only when we are hungry.

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