How to lose weight the healthy way

The healthiest way to lose weight is neither crash diets nor bursts of exercise. The body likes slow changes in terms of food and exercise.
For example, someone who hasn't exercised for years shouldn't rush into running miles a day or pounding the treadmill. Not only will the struggle to do so leave you feeling disheartened and demotivated, you're also far more likely to injure yourself and set your fitness levels back further.

The same goes for people who suddenly start starving themselves. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food 'allowed' can lead you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.

So, if you need to lose weight, what should you do?

Energy needs and weight loss

Your body uses food for energy. It stores any excess energy as fat. This means if you eat more food than your body needs for daily activities and cell maintenance, you'll gain weight.

To lose weight, you need to get your body to use up these stores of fat. The most effective way to do this is to:

· reduce the amount of calories you eat

· increase your levels of activity.

This is why experts talk about weight loss in terms of diet and exercise.

Introduce changes gradually

Small changes can make a big difference. One extra biscuit a week can lead you to gain 5lb a year – cut that biscuit out of your diet and you'll lose the same amount.

You're also more likely to stick to, say, swapping full-fat milk for semi-skimmed or making time for breakfast each morning than a diet that sets rules for all foods.

You should think of weight loss in terms of permanently changing your eating habits. While weight-loss goals are usually set in term of weeks, the end game is to sustain these changes over months and years, ie lifestyle change for life.

Increase your activity levels

Someone who increases the amount they exercise, but maintains the same diet and calorie intake, will almost certainly lose weight.

No matter if you hate gyms – even light exercise, such as a short 20 minute walk, will be beneficial if done most days of the week.

Every single time you exercise more than usual, you burn calories and fat.

There are lots of ways to increase the amount of activity you do. Team sports, racket sports, aerobics classes, running, walking, swimming and cycling will all improve your fitness levels.

Find something you enjoy that's easy for you to do in terms of location and cost. You're then more likely to build it into your routine and continue to exercise, despite inevitably missing the odd session through holidays, family commitments, etc.

· Get out and about at the weekend. Leave your car on the drive and walk to the shops. Try to incorporate longer walks into outings to the park, coast or countryside and take a picnic, so you're in control of what you are going to eat that day.

· Every extra step you take helps. Always use the stairs instead of the lift, or get off the bus a stop before the usual one and walk the rest of the way.

· Use commercial breaks between TV-programmes to stand up and do exercise, or consider using an exercise bicycle in the living room while watching your favourite programme.

Reduce your calorie intake What is overweight?

Doctors use BMI to assess weight.

A BMI of 18.5 to 25 is healthy.

If you have a BMI of more than 25, you're overweight.

Over 30 is obese.

Over 40 is morbidly obese.

To calculate your BMI, you'll need to know your weight in kilos and your height in metres, then follow the example below.

1. Multiply your height by itself, eg 1.7x1.7= 2.89.

2. Divide your weight (eg 80kg) by this figure.

3. 80 ÷ 2.89= 27.7.

27.7 is the BMI.

If you're overweight, you can't continue with your current eating habits if you really want to lose weight.

It's not possible to reduce body fat while eating lots of food, cakes and sweets. This doesn't mean you can never have any treats, but you need to learn how to limit these foods to small quantities – say, for special occasions.

In terms of weight-loss, you can get your body to use up existing stores of fat by eating less and making healthier choices.

This doesn't mean crash diet (anything less than 1500 calories), which usually ends up with you either getting weaker or giving up in desperation. Quick-fix diets can lead to a yo-yoing effect of drastic weight loss followed by weight gain, resulting in a vicious cycle.

There are no shortcuts to losing weight in a healthy and reasonable way.

Eating 300 to 500 calories less per day should lead to a loss of between one and two pounds per week. This is a realistic target. It may seem slow, but it would add up to a weight loss of more than three stone in a year.

Fat contains the most amount of calories out of all the food types (protein, carbohydrates), so a good way to achieve this is to cut down on fatty foods and eat more wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables.

Below are ways to reduce calorie intake without having to alter your diet significantly.

· Replace fizzy drinks and fruit cordials with water.

· Swap whole milk for semi-skimmed, or semi-skimmed for skimmed.

· Eat less lunch than usual. For example, make your own sandwich and limit the use of margarine or butter and full-fat mayonnaise (store-bought sandwiches often contain both).

· Stop taking sugar in tea and coffee.

· Have smaller portions of the food you enjoy.

· Avoid having a second helping at dinner.

· Cut out unhealthy treats – such as confectionary, sugary biscuits and crisps between meals.

· Cut down on alcohol intake.

All these things will influence your health in a positive way.

Finally, don't be tempted to skip breakfast – or any meal to lose weight. While skipping a meal will reduce your calorie intake for that hour, it will leave you much hungrier later on.

Not only are you likely to overeat to compensate, but you'll often make bad choices to fill the gap: a cereal bar is not as healthy as a bowl of cereal or as filling, leading you to 'need' something extra for lunch.

Irregular eating habits also disrupt your body's metabolism, which makes it harder to lose weight in the first place.

Write down your plan Food diary

If you're not sure what's wrong with your diet, try keeping a daily diary of everything you eat and drink.

You can use a notebook or an online diary.

At the end of the week, review your entries for problem areas.

Look out for processed foods, alcohol, fast food, roasts, creamy sauces and fried foods.

If your diet seems largely healthy, look at portion sizes.

If you're not sure what's meant by 'healthy diet', read our series on nutrition.

Once you've decided on what changes you're going to make, write them down. For example:

Week 1

· Exercise: one 20 minute walk every lunch hour.

· Alcohol: none in the week, two small glasses of wine on Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

· Food: no chocolate or biscuits in the week, choose healthy snacks such as fruit, trim all fat from meat, eat no fried or fast food.

· For each week list your targets concerning alcohol, exercise and your food plan.

· Each day should then be listed in a simple chart and items you have had should be written down. It is also important to make a note of your mood and any comments you would like to get off your chest for each day.

Be patient and persevere

It might take a week or two before you notice any changes, but they will steadily appear. After the first month you'll be able to see the results and measure them in terms of looser fitting clothes.

Keeping your motivation up is one of the most difficult aspects of dieting. There will be days when healthy eating goes out the window, and there will be weeks where you may not lose any weight – or put a little back on.

This is normal for everyone – dieters or not – so don't let it undo your plans for a slimmer you. You're not doing anything 'wrong', but you may need to look at your plan. Do you need to increase your activity levels? Make a few more changes to your diet? Put more effort into sticking to your current plan?

The other side of this is to make sure you celebrate your goals. While there's joy enough in stepping on the scales and seeing them dip lower, be sure to mark long-term progress with a reward – such as new clothes or time off from domestic chores.

Celebrating is also a way to involve your nearest and dearest – it's up to you whether you want their encouragement in the form of gentle reminders not to eat certain foods. But support from other people can get you through the bumpy patches.

Health benefits of weight loss

Studies show that overweight women who lose between 10lb and 20lb halve their risk of developing diabetes. For men, the risk of heart problems reduces considerably.

Generally, we gain weight as we age. A few pounds over the years are not a problem, but people who gain more than 20lb compared to their weight as an 18-year-old will rapidly increase their risk of health problems due to that extra weight. In particular, women increase their risk of heart attack and double their risk of dying from cancer.

It may seem like these are problems to worry about in the future, but time flies by and tomorrow becomes today. By keeping your weight in the healthy range, you're less likely to be troubled by illnesses in your later years.

Other people also read:

· Body weight: what determines your body weight and what is a healthy weight.

· Obesity: around one in four men and one in three women in the UK are overweight. Are you one of them?

· Type 2 diabetes: if you are overweight you will significantly increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Does Body-weight Training Make You Lose Weight?

If you enjoy working out at home or don’t like the regular gym with equipments more the fitness sense, body-weight exercises make a valuable addition to your workout regimen. These exercises don't provide the quickest way to burn calories, but when you combine them with aerobic exercises and a healthy diet, you can burn enough calories each day to lead to fat loss.

Body-weight Training

Body-weight exercises use just the weight of your body as resistance. Instead of needing free weights or accessories such as stability balls and resistance bands, you can perform these exercises whenever you wish. Common examples of this type of exercise include pushups, situps, crunches, planks, squats and lunges. Each exercise is effective at building muscle but doesn't burn calories at a high rate.

Losing Weight

Losing weight or, more specifically, losing fat, occurs when you burn more calories than you consume. One pound of fat equals about 3,500 calories, which means you must create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat. Picking exercises that burn calories at a rapid rate, such as aerobic exercises, can help you meet your fat-loss goals.

Exercise Calories Burned

Body-weight exercises burn calories at a lower rate than aerobic exercises. According to HealthStatus, a 150-pound person will burn 114 calories in 20 minutes of moderate-intensity pushups and 192 calories in 20 minutes of vigorous pushups. The same person will burn 102 calories in 20 minutes of moderate-intensity crunches and 183 calories in 20 minutes of vigorous crunches. Comparatively, a 150-pound person will burn 261 calories during a 20-minute run at 7 mph.

Considerations

Technically, body-weight exercises such as pushups and crunches can help you lose fat. If you burn an additional 350 calories per day through this type of exercise, for example, and don't replace those calories with food, you'll eventually lose weight. On their own, however, body-weight exercises will result in fat loss at a very slow rate. Complement these exercises by adding such aerobic exercises as running, cycling and swimming to your workout regimen; each exercise burns calories at a rapid rate to help you lose fat.

Circuit Training

Circuit training, which includes aerobic and strength-training exercises, is an effective way to burn calories at a rapid rate to help you lose fat. This type of workout boosts your metabolism to help you burn calories at an elevated rate even during rest. Alternate one-minute bursts of pushups, crunches, squats or lunges with one-minute bursts of jumping jacks or running on the spot and continue this pattern for 30 minutes.

Boot-Camp Workout

Fitness boot camps never go out of style for good reason: The military-inspired workouts burn serious calories. "Built on three fundamentals of training—cardio, strength, and agility—boot-camp workouts require little more than your body weight to get results," says Christopher Mohr, Ph.D., R.D., of Mohr Results Adventure Boot Camp for Women in Louisville, Kentucky. "They're more intense than any fitness class and more fun than traditional gym workouts."

Try these expert tips and our "SQUAD FIT Boot-Camp Workout" to kick your body transformation into high gear.

Stick to Basics
Put aside your stability ball: Boot camps are all about bare essentials, starting with the moves. By stringing together exercises like jumping jacks, pushups, and squats into circuits that go from one move to the next with little or no rest in between, these workouts turn your body into an uber-efficient resistance machine. "The moves target muscles throughout your entire body," Mohr says. "They're much more effective than equipment-based exercises that isolate one single muscle group at a time."

Follow the Clock
"Set a time limit for each exercise— think 20 to 60 seconds," says trainer Laurel Blackburn, owner of Boot Camp Fitness and Training in Tallahassee, Florida. It keeps you from pushing too hard and from slacking. "If I told you 'Do squats until I say stop,' you wouldn't give 100 percent. But if I said 'Do squats for 30 seconds,' you'd work harder because you'd see the end in sight."

Take it Outside
Without fancy equipment or complicated moves, you can do a boot-camp workout anywhere—a park, a playground, even a parking lot. And taking your sweat session outside has some serious perks: When researchers compared the mental benefits of an outdoor workout with an indoor one, 71 percent of the fresh-air exercisers felt less tense afterward, while 72 percent of the cooped-up crew felt even more stressed.

Buddy Up
One key to success is camaraderie. "A group makes you accountable to show up, and the support helps you push through an intense workout," Mohr says. When it comes to fitness, the power of your peeps is well documented: One review of 87 studies on nearly 50,000 subjects found a clear link between social support and exercise. Enlist a small group of friends who have similar fitness goals and pick a time and place. If you're a no-show, next time they'll make you drop and do 20.

13 Legit Reasons to Start Bodyweight Training Today

Getting fit doesn't have to be rocket-science, and simple bodyweight exercises can be a great choice for achieving gains in strength, building muscle, boosting cardiovascular fitness, and burning fat. Not convinced? We’ve got 13 great reasons why bodyweight exercises should be a key component of everyone's workout regime (along with tips for boosting your own routine today!). Why Bodyweight Exercises Kick Butt

1. Super-efficient workouts. Unless the goal is to look like Arnold circa 1977, the days of two-hour workouts are numbered. Research suggests high-output, bodyweight-based exercises such as plyometrics yield awesome fitness gains in very short workout durations . Since there’s no equipment involved, bodyweight workouts make it easy to transition quickly from one exercise to the next. Shorter rest times mean it’s easy to quickly boost heart rateand burn some serious calories.

2. Combined cardio and strength training. Pressed for time but need to hit cardio and strength in one quick workout? Performing quick bodyweight cardio sessions (such as one minute of burpees or a set of jumping jacks) in between strength exercises will keep the heart pumping while still encouraging muscle and strength development .

3. Fast fat-burning. Looking to shed a few unwanted pounds? Just a few minutes of abodyweight circuit training can have a major impact on the body's metabolism . Don't believe it? Try adding a few quick sets of these amped-up burpees into any workout routine and see what happens!

4. Something for everyone. Bodyweight exercises are a great choice because they’re easily modified to challenge any fitness level. Adding extra repetitions, performing the exercises faster or super-slow, and perfecting form are a few ways to make even the simplest exercise more challenging. And progress is easy to measure, since bodyweight exercises offer endless ways to do a little more in each workout.

5. Improved core strength. The "core" is more than just abs. In fact, at least twenty-nine muscles make up the human core, and many simple bodyweight movements can be used to engage all of them. Such exercises improve core strength for better posture and improved athletic performance .

6. Increased flexibility. Not everyone who does regular resistance training has to end up with tight muscles, inflexible joints, and a bad case of imaginary lat syndrome. Bodyweight training for strength and flexibility can go hand-in-hand. Completing bodyweight exercises through a full range of motion is a great way to ensure joints are moving freely, can lead toimproved posture, and might even reduce the chance of exercise-related injury . And yoga, the bodyweight-based workout of choice for many, is another great way to to improve flexibility while also significantly improving strength .

7. Convenience. Ask someone why they don't exercise, and chances are "no time" or "inconvenience" might come up as culprits. Bodyweight exercises eliminate many of these common obstacles by allowing anyone to squeeze in workouts wherever they are. Exercising without equipment can be used as a stress reliever for those working from home or can provide a great hotel room workout for people on the road. "No time" really becomes no excuse.

8. Better balance. Since bodyweight exercises use no weights, increasing resistance is accomplished in other ways. For example, a regular bodyweight squat can be ramped up by swapping it for a single-leg squat (known as a pistol squat). Super-functional exercises like the pistol squat (and less intense ones, too!) can improve balance through increased body awareness and control. These advantages are another reason why bodyweight exercises can improve athletic performance.

9. Bye bye, boredom. It can be easy to get stuck in a workout rut of bench presses, lat pull-downs, and biceps curls (just ask this guy!). That's why bodyweight training can be so refreshing: There are countless exercise variations that can spice up any workout routine. Working with a variety of exercises not only relieves potential workout boredom, it can also help break through exercise plateaus to spark further fitness progress.

10. Fitness that's fun! Heading indoors for exercise is not everyone's cup of tea. That's another beauty of bodyweight exercises: They can be performed inside or outdoors, alone or with a group of friends, which is particularly enjoyable if some seemingly silly exercises are incorporated into the routine! A little laughter makes the process more enjoyable.

11. Fitness on the cheap. Simply put, gym memberships can be pricey, but bodyweight training is free. Experts cite the low cost of bodyweight training as a key part of itsresurgence in popularity. Plus, amazing outdoor training locations have begun popping up that offer the perfect space for a free bodyweight workout (or you can just fight the kids for space at the local playground).

12. Injury prevention. Since injury is one of the main reasons why people fall off the exercise bandwagon, preventing those aches and pains should be a big priority. Bodyweight exercises are generally quite safe for any exerciser regardless of experience, age, or fitness level. Many simple bodyweight movements can actually be an effective option for rehabilitation, even for those with significant impairments .

13. Results. Let's talk results. Bodyweight exercises get results partly because they often involve compound movements (meaning numerous joints and muscles are engaged in each move). Compound exercises such as push-ups, lunges, and chin-ups have been shown to be extremely effective for strength gains and performance improvements. The results from bodyweight training are amplified even more because of the core strength they develop (see #5 above). And research shows improved core strength gained through bodyweight training translates into improved strength gains throughout the entire body . Body Moving—The Takeaway

Sorry, there’s no "best way" for everyone to exercise. But bodyweight movements do offer a lot of benefits that other forms of resistance training can't match. The tremendous popularity of boot camp-style fitness classes and a boom of mobile exercise apps suggests people like what they see (and feel) after some workouts without weights (you know, besides our bodies).

New to resistance training? Grab an experienced friend or trainer for some tips to ensure that a new bodyweight routine is appropriate—and remember to warm up properly before each session.

Calisthenics Are The Heart of the Boot Camp Workout

Calisthenics are also known as body weight exercises because they are exercises that use your body’s weight for resistance. You work muscles through a variety of push movements, pull movements, stretching, jumping, and core exercises.

Since they don’t require a lot of gym equipment, you can do them almost anywhere. You can do them outdoors, indoors, and just about anywhere you can put a mat down. That’s what makes calisthenics the heart of the boot camp workout.

Calisthenics x3, body weigh exercises, bodyweight exercise, body weight workout, 10 minute workout, 20 minute workout

Topics:

- Weight loss
- Flexibility to do anywhere
- Variety
- Proven – been around since ancient Greece and still popular now
Calisthenics are the heart of boot camp workouts. The advantages of being able to get a full body workout without needing a lot of equipment are huge.
You can't always make it to the gym. It's great to throw together a 10 or 20 minute highly effective workout that you can do anywhere.