Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Why Calories Loss and More Frequent Meals Help You Lose Weight

By Rowena French

How you view your body is an essential aspect of permanent weight loss so if your body has been your enemy and the food you eat either a source of pain or comfort, you need to replace this thinking with a new approach and a new set of behaviors. This is not always easy especially if you have been overweight for a long time but changing the way you think rather than starting another diet is possible. Careful selection of food to create a calories loss is important but at the core of your changing behaviors needs to be an acceptance of your body as your friend, in need of healthy food and exercise.

For the likelihood of a longer life and happier disposition, you will do well to spend time and effort now, developing a healthier body. The best foods to eat come from each of the major food categories and are there is enough variety across these to make your new meals and snacks sufficiently different and interesting. The benefits of eating well from a calories loss menu are many but some of the shorter term benefits include better sleep, more energy and a boost to your metabolism where the calories you eat are processed more efficiently.

The role of exercise in the development of a healthy, strong body should not be underestimated. Exercise to develop muscle assists with the burning of calories and additionally boosts your metabolic rate. You may enjoy swimming as a regular form of exercise rather than pumping weights but because either will benefit your body through muscle development choose the most appealing exercise that will challenge you over the long term.

There is no need to follow a set diet as you modify your new lifestyle. What you need instead is an understanding of healthy foods and the inclusion of these can start with something as simple as a chicken sandwich and fresh orange juice for lunch. Supermarket shopping to stock up on a week of calories loss meals is important and needs to include foods containing whole grains, healthy fats and fresh fruit and vegetables, not frozen pizza, or cheese and macaroni.

The size of our food servings is a key to successful weight loss and often misunderstood by many. As a general rule we do not understand the significance of this and eat around double the amount of food we should at each meal time and then more in between. One way to gauge accurately the portion size we should eat is to look at the size of our closed fist as this is the size of our stomach.

It is worth imagining the size of your stomach as you look at your closed fist. Recall the size of your most recent meal and imagine how your stomach managed to hold this. Its capacity to stretch means that it can accommodate quite large amounts of food without you realizing this.

So to help you treat your stomach as it deserves, close your fist when you are about to eat your next meal and only eat as much as your fist sized stomach can easily hold. You will need to eat another smaller meal earlier than you normally do and enjoy 4-5 smaller servings each day rather than the 3 larger meals you have been used to. By doing this, your stomach will be filled as it should be and you will not feel hungry.

The size of our stomach and the frequency with which we should fill it across each day is an important component to any successful weight loss program. A menu refecting a calories loss is of additional benefit and will speed this process, so a combination of both is the best option when working towards your weight loss goals. Remember that smaller meals eaten more often across each day are a healthier option and accommodate both the size of your stomach and your capacity to lose unwanted weight. - 15266

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