The Keys To Safe Weight Loss

The keys to safe weight loss are all more or less direct common sense:

Consult with a physician to see if you have any unforeseen medical issues, increase your physical activity gradually, while trimming back on the sweets that you eat, and work on controlling portion size in your meals.

We'll break these down so that you have a step by step program to improve your health.

First, consult with a doctor. Your doctor will check a lot of traits about your body – the percentage of fat, your blood pressure, your cholesterol and stressor levels, and point out any cases where your body isn't up to the physical rigors of certain sorts of exercise just yet. If you injure yourself, your weight loss isn't a safe program.

Second, increase your activity levels…and do it gradually. Park farther away from the door at the grocery store. Walk to more places. When you carry groceries in bags, take a moment or two to lift the bags over your head to get your shoulders some exercise. Try running a block at a light jog – you should be able to breathe freely with your mouth without getting short of breath.

As you get slightly fitter, increase the amount of work you do, physically. The trick is to convince your body that this exercise is normal, that it's going to continue indefinitely, and that it had better get used to it. You don't need to run a marathon, or anything, but you do need to regularly boost your heart rate, and at least twice a week, start doing something that leaves you sweaty and gasping for breath.

As you acclimate to more exercise, it's time to start moderating your calories. The first thing in calorie moderation is to cut back on the sweets. Substitute fresh fruit for baked goods. Swap to drinking water from sodas (even diet sodas can trick your body into converting other carbohydrates into fats), and then slowly reduce the portion sizes of your meals, while dialing up the flavors.

Safe weight loss takes time and dedication – and in spite of what the advertisements say on the television, you won't convert yourself into a trim athlete in most cases. You'll lose pants sizes and dress sizes, but your basic body type is set by your genetics, and only somewhat treatable with diet and exercise. Don't let that discourage you – there are plenty of things that losing weight can do for you, health wise, if you can do it safely.