Weight Loss, Do you know the Healthy Essentials?

Weight loss should include not only a healthy diet, but also aerobic exercise (such as walking, swimming, cycling) and weight training. Diet controls how many calories enter your body, and physical activity determines how many calories you burn.

Here are essential things to know about healthy weight loss.

3,500 calories is the equivalent of one pound of fat. To lose a pound in a week, you need to create a caloric deficit of 500 calories each day of the week. (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). A healthy caloric deficit for weight loss is about 300 calories a day from food, combined with 200 calories burned a day from physical activity.

1. Lose no more than one to two pounds (or one percent of your total body weight) per week. Any more weight loss than that is considered unhealthy. Losing weight quickly will lower your metabolic rate and you usually recover. Small eating habits add up a lot over time. For example, if you ate a 500-calorie bagel every day on your way to work, that would equal 3,500 calories per week, which is one pound of fat.

2. Eat like a king at breakfast, like a queen at lunch, and like a pauper at dinner. Breakfast, the most important meal, should be the most important meal of the day because it speeds up metabolism and gives the body energy to burn fat throughout the day. Dinner should be your smallest meal and you should eat no less than two hours before bed. Eating close to bedtime puts your body into a fat storage mode.

3. Avoid long periods without eating. Eating five small meals throughout the day is better than eating three larger meals. Large meals on an empty stomach cause large spikes in blood sugar and insulin, putting your body into fat-storage mode.

4. Eat fresh, clean, unprocessed nutritious foods. Eat slowly because it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that it’s full.

5. Take care of what you drink because soft drinks, some sweet juices or coffee with milk have a lot of calories. For example, a 20-ounce Mountain Dew® has 300 calories; a can of Coca-Cola® contains a quarter cup of white sugar.

6. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day. Add a small amount of fruit juice if you want more flavor.

Healthy eating can be delicious, enjoyable, and promote weight loss. Your diet is healthier if it consists of fresh fruits, vegetables, salads, whole grain breads and cereals, beans, fish, lean chicken, and nuts.

If you don’t know what foods are healthy and nutritious, visit the American Dietetic Association’s Eat Right website or the menu of nutrition resources on my website.